The Devil Wears Prada at a glance

Show
The Devil Wears Prada — A New Musical
Venue
Dominion Theatre, West End
Address
268-269 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 7RQ
Nearest station
Tottenham Court Road (1 min walk, Central, Northern, Elizabeth lines); Goodge Street (5 min); Holborn (10 min); Leicester Square (10 min)
Genre
Musical (West End premiere production)
Running time
Approximately 2 hours 30 minutes, including one interval
Age guidance
8+ (under-5s not admitted; under-16s must be accompanied)
Dates
24 October 2024 – 6 February 2027 (currently extended)
Vanessa Williams as Miranda
Until 17 October 2026
Price range
From £27.50 (typically £27.50–£275 across the calendar)
Music
Sir Elton John
Lyrics
Shaina Taub & Mark Sonnenblick
Book
Kate Wetherhead
Director & choreographer
Jerry Mitchell (three-time Tony Award winner)
Based on
Lauren Weisberger's 2003 novel and the 2006 Twentieth Century Fox film
Producers
Kevin McCollum; Nederlander Theatres
Recognition
Fastest-selling show in Dominion Theatre history; first 100 performances at 100% capacity; WhatsOnStage Award-nominated

Expert Review: The Devil Wears Prada at the Dominion

4.0
★★★★

LTH Expert Rating

Reviewed by the London Theatre Hub editorial team. Last updated: 12 May 2026.

The Verdict

The Devil Wears Prada arrived in the West End in October 2024 carrying significant commercial expectations and significant critical risk. The 2022 Chicago developmental tryout had not gone well; the source material — Lauren Weisberger's 2003 novel and especially David Frankel's 2006 film — set an extraordinarily high bar for cast performance, with Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci all delivering definitive interpretations that any musical theatre cast would inevitably be compared to. The London production, recast and substantially rethought from the Chicago run with Tony Award winner Jerry Mitchell now directing and choreographing, has solved most of those problems. It is the fastest-selling show in Dominion Theatre history. The first 100 performances ran at 100% capacity. Over 220,000 audience members attended in the first year. The show is, by any commercial measure, an unqualified hit.

The critical picture is more divided. The cast is virtually beyond reproach — Vanessa Williams's Miranda Priestly is the production's central asset, channelling the essential cold-blooded competence of Streep's interpretation while finding a slightly different note: more sharp-edged shark to Streep's slow-burn serpent, with quicker comic timing and superb vocal command. Matt Henry's Nigel is similarly fully formed; his Act Two ballad Seen consistently lands as the show's emotional peak. Stevie Doc, in the WhatsOnStage-nominated role of Andy, brings a more vulnerable presence than Anne Hathaway's film version. The reservations cluster around the score: Elton John's music is enjoyable as a series of stand-alone numbers — Dress Your Way Up, House of Miranda and In or Out are genuine showstoppers — but the critics have generally felt that the score doesn't operate inside the story the way the best musical theatre scores do, occasionally feeling like songs imposed on a narrative that would have read more cleanly as a straight play. Jerry Mitchell's direction-choreography is reliably brisk and Tim Hatley and Gregg Barnes's design work brings the Vogue-magazine glamour the property demands. It is a high-quality commercial musical that knows exactly what its audience wants — Vanessa Williams in a high-fashion role, big production numbers, recognisable beats from the film — and delivers them with confidence.

What Makes It Special

  • Vanessa Williams as Miranda Priestly. The multi-Emmy-and-Grammy-nominated American star (Ugly Betty, Desperate Housewives, City of Angels) delivers a Miranda who is reverent to the iconic Streep performance while being decisively her own — crisper, faster, more comic, with an opening patter song (House of Miranda) that establishes the character's command in three minutes. She continues in the role until 17 October 2026; the extension into autumn 2026 was the cornerstone of the production's three booking extensions to date.
  • Matt Henry as Nigel. The Olivier Award winner (Kinky Boots) and Grammy nominee gives the role its emotional centre. His ballad Seen — Nigel reflecting on a lifetime of being overlooked in the fashion industry — has been universally singled out by critics as the score's standout moment.
  • Elton John's score (the best songs). The Rocket Man's first West End musical-theatre work since Tammy Faye, and his eighth musical-theatre score overall. The highlights — Dress Your Way Up, House of Miranda, How to Survive at Runway, the second-act Greek-chorus opener In or Out, and Nigel's Seen — are bona fide musical-theatre showstoppers. The lyrics are by Shaina Taub (Tony nominee for Suffs) and Mark Sonnenblick.
  • Jerry Mitchell's direction and choreography. The three-time Tony winner (Kinky Boots, Legally Blonde, Pretty Woman: The Musical) delivers brisk, confident commercial musical theatre. The fashion-show sequences are the production's setpieces, with Gregg Barnes's couture costume parade as the chief visual pleasure.
  • The look. Tim Hatley's scenic design (Life of Pi, Back to the Future) navigates the production's many short scene changes with a sliding, modular elegance. Gregg Barnes's costumes deliver a serious couture parade — particularly the second-act ball sequence, which is the production's design highlight.
  • Commercial confidence. The first 100 performances at 100% capacity; over 220,000 audience members in year one; the fastest-selling production in Dominion Theatre history. This is a show that knows its audience and consistently delivers what they came for.

You'll love Devil Wears Prada if you...

  • Are a fan of the 2006 film or Weisberger's novel and want to see it freshly staged
  • Want to see Vanessa Williams in a part that suits her completely
  • Like classic Broadway-style commercial musical theatre with big production numbers
  • Are interested in fashion, couture and the visual style of Runway / Vogue
  • Enjoy a well-written workplace comedy with sharp, witty dialogue
  • Want to see new Elton John songs in a theatre context

It might not be for you if you...

  • Want a score that does the dramatic heavy lifting (the criticism cluster is here)
  • Have a child under 8 — the workplace themes won't land for younger audiences
  • Are looking for the film's exact tone — the musical is broader, more theatrical
  • Prefer intimate venues — the Dominion is a 2,069-seat barn
  • Want experimental or auteur-led work — this is mainstream commercial musical theatre
  • Are sensitive to fashion-industry themes around body, looks and bullying

Best for

  • Fans of the 2006 film
  • Vanessa Williams fans
  • Fashion and design lovers
  • Group nights out
  • Elton John fans
  • Lovers of glossy commercial musicals

Not the strongest fit for under-8s, audiences who want auteur-led or contemplative work, or anyone seeking a smaller intimate venue.

Critical Reception

The Devil Wears Prada opened to a divided critical reception — overwhelmingly positive on cast, production values and commercial appeal, with widespread reservations about Elton John's score. The Evening Standard delivered the most enthusiastic notice with five stars; the Guardian, Daily Express, Daily Mail and Radio Times sat in solid four-star territory; the Times, Telegraph and Time Out gave three stars, with the score the chief complaint. The audience and commercial reception has been entirely separate from this — the first 100 performances at 100% capacity, three booking extensions, fastest-selling show in Dominion history, WhatsOnStage Award nominations. Verified star ratings from major UK publications:

  • Evening Standard ★★★★★
  • Daily Express ★★★★
  • Daily Mail ★★★★
  • The Guardian ★★★★
  • Radio Times ★★★★
  • WhatsOnStage ★★★★
  • The i Paper ★★★★
  • The Telegraph ★★★
  • The Times ★★★
  • Time Out ★★★
  • The Stage ★★★

Source: published reviews of the Dominion Theatre production, December 2024 – January 2025. Average rating across major UK publications: 3.6★. WhatsOnStage Award-nominated.

Everything You Need to Know

What happens in The Devil Wears Prada Musical?

Kate Wetherhead's book hews closely to the structure of David Frankel's 2006 film, which in turn adapted Lauren Weisberger's 2003 roman-à-clef novel. The action is moved to a slightly compressed timeframe with the songs picking up the emotional beats that film could deliver in close-up.

The interview

Andy Sachs (Stevie Doc), a recent Northwestern graduate with serious-journalism ambitions, arrives in New York looking for a writing job. She lands an interview at Elias-Clarke Publishing for what she has been told is a second-assistant position at Runway, the company's prestigious fashion magazine, without realising what Runway is or who its editor is. Miranda Priestly (Vanessa Williams) materialises, instantly hostile, and offers her the job almost in passing. Andy takes it.

Day one at Runway

The Act One opening number House of Miranda establishes the office hierarchy and the Priestly mythology in a single ensemble sequence. Andy meets first-assistant Emily Charlton (Taila Halford), whose entire identity is built around the high-stakes performance of working for Miranda; Nigel Owens (Matt Henry), Runway's Creative Fashion Director and the only person in the office Miranda treats as an equal; and the workplace generally — the impossible pace, the casual cruelty, the assumption that everyone has read every word of every issue of Runway for the last twenty years.

The transformation

Andy is initially out of her depth — frumpy in the building, openly disdainful of the fashion industry, watched contemptuously by her colleagues. Nigel takes pity. The Act One closer Dress Your Way Up is the production's central showpiece: Nigel transforms Andy from frumpy intern to high-fashion second-assistant in a dressing-room sequence that demonstrates Gregg Barnes's costume work at its most thrilling. Andy emerges polished, professional and — to her own surprise — competent. She begins to outperform Emily, anticipating Miranda's needs before they are voiced.

The personal cost

Act Two opens with the Greek-chorus number In or Out, sung by the ensemble about Andy's progress and the moral cost of it. Her boyfriend Nate (Keelan McAuley) feels neglected; her friends find her unrecognisable; her best friend Lily becomes openly critical. Andy meets the journalist Christian Thompson (James Darch), who is everything she once thought she wanted — and who turns out to be helpful in problematic ways. The Paris fashion week sequence brings Andy and Miranda physically close for the first time, away from the office context. Miranda confides about her impending divorce, and Andy — startled by the unexpected vulnerability — overhears workplace gossip about a corporate manoeuvre that will see Miranda replaced.

The choice

Andy realises Miranda has out-manoeuvred the boardroom plot to replace her. The collateral damage is Nigel, who has been promised the editorial role at French Runway as part of the plot; Miranda's counter-move has sacrificed his promotion. The scene plays as ethical sucker-punch — Andy is now seeing exactly what working for Miranda costs other people. Nigel's ballad Seen — the score's most universally praised number — articulates a lifetime of being overlooked in the industry.

The decision

At a fashion-week event, Miranda makes a comment that confirms for Andy what she has slowly understood throughout the act: she has become the kind of person Miranda wants her to be. Andy walks away from Runway in the middle of Paris fashion week — a gesture that in any other industry would be career-ending but which, the show suggests, has actually equipped her for the serious-journalism career she originally wanted. The final scene shows her interviewing for a job at a respected New York paper. Miranda's reference, sent quietly without comment, is unimpeachable.