Elton John To Score The Devil Wears Prada For Broadway

Elton John is working on a musical adaptation of The Devil Wears Prada for Broadway.

John, who has enjoyed one of the most sustained, successful careers in British pop, is collaborating on the project with the playwright, composer and songwriter, Paul Rudnick.

The show will be based on the 2003 novel of the same name, written by Lauren Weisberger, as well as the 2006 film, which was directed by David Frankel, and starred Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep.

The Devil Wears Prada tells the story of Andrea Sachs (played in the movie by Anna Hathaway) – a recent college graduate who is given a job at a high-end fashion magazine, edited by the "cut-throat" Miranda Priestly (played by Meryl Streep). The Priestly character is understood to be based on the legendary editor of Vogue magazine, Anna Wintour.

"Re-imagining The Devil Wears Prada for the musical theater is super exciting,” Elton John revealed. "I'm a huge fan of both the book and the feature film, and a huge aficionado of the fashion world. I can't wait to sink my musical teeth into this hunk of popular culture."

The musical is being produced by the renowned Kevin McCollum, Fox Stage Productions and Rocket Entertainment – which is Elton John’s company.
When The Devil Wears Prada might make it to the stage is another matter entirely. Broadway productions are notoriously difficult. As Bono and Edge U2 discovered with Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark, high-end theatre can be an unforgiving mistress. The latter, which had a hugely ambitious design and special effects brief, turned into the most expensive Broadway production ever, with an investment in the region of $75 million dollars, and weekly costs of an estimated $1.3 million. It ran behind schedule – and while it was ultimately deemed an artistic success, and ran for almost four years, it hasn’t yet shown the tour-ability that turns a show into a real money-spinner.

However, the experience has been a much happier one for Once-creators John Carney and songwriter Glen Hansard, who have seen the film turned into a hugely successful, relatively low-cost musical.

Elton John himself is no stranger to the Broadway stage. One of the most garlanded UK stars in history, with the biggest selling single of all time to his credit in ‘Candle In The Wind', he has worked on a number of high-profile Broadway shows. He received a Tony nomination in 1998 for Best Score for The Lion King – a gong which he scooped just two years later for Aida, written with lyricist Tim Rice. He was again nominated for Best Score in 2009, for Billy Elliot the Musical.

Rudnick is another Broadway veteran. He emerged as a serious talent in 1993 with the play, Jeffrey – a "conedy about AIDS" – which was turned into a film in 1995. He has written three novels and has also been responsible for a number of shows, including The Naked Eye (thought to be based on photographer Robert Mapplethorpe), I Hate Hamlet, The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told and Valhalla. Rudnick contributes regularly to magazines like The New Yorker and – back to Anna Wintour! – Vanity Fair. Needless to say, it will be interesting to see how that knowledge translates into the shape of the musical. Watch this space!