Navigating this tall order is writer Kate Wetherhead, making her bookwriting debut with a hit movie and Elton John’s name looming large. How, in the age of the Great Resignation, can the script make it credible that an educated and ambitious Gen Z woman would submit to this hazing? With characters that are simultaneously more woke and au courant, this new Devil is poised to resonate with today’s audiences, groups sure to comprise many who have endured their own workplace devils and those (i.e., younger folks) who would let hell freeze first. Even Miranda herself in this version is a more dimensional take on Streep’s Cruella-like diva, who would be slapped with 101 lawsuits before barking out her last orders today. Andy, though whiplashed by the brutal reality of such thankless work, is cut from the same determined cloth as her boss, making her both the perfect victim and ultimate survivor of Miranda’s terrors. For the indoctrinated, gigs in glamor-not unlike those in the theatre-are privileges unto themselves, no matter the hours or pay. It’s a job meant to open doors for Andy, but instead Andy is the one physically opening doors while getting humiliated to boot. The story still centers on top college grad Andy (Taylor Iman Jones), who banks her writing chops and ambitions to take an assistant job under egomaniac Miranda Priestly (Beth Leavel). In development since 2017, and twice delayed by COVID-19, the new musical Devil is directed by Anna Shapiro, with music by Elton John, lyrics and song arrangements by singer/songwriter Shaina Taub, book by actress and writer Kate Wetherhead ( Submissions Only), and choreography by James Alsop ( Girls5Eva).īeth Leavel and Taylor Iman Jones. Since the film’s release, after all, we’ve gone through four presidents, an economic downturn, and more recently cultural reckonings around our personal and social values via #MeToo and Black Lives Matter, not to mention a pandemic and a new war in Europe. This new adaptation takes the popular movie by its horns, retaining reference points for the film’s devotees while updating the story for these less innocent yet more sensitive times. This pandemic-plagued world premiere, with many cast members out due to COVID and understudies stepping up, wraps up this week, selling out with local audiences despite hostile reviews by pent-up critics, many from out of town, seemingly hell bent on baring their teeth. Nederlander’s Theatre, in its pre-Broadway tryout. Almost 20 years after Lauren Weisberger’s novel and 16 years since Meryl Streep sent chills down our spines in the film of The Devil Wears Prada, a new musical version has premiered at Chicago’s James M.
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