The 'Devil Wears Prada' musical is chaos

Chicago — In "The Devil Wears Prada," fictional magazine editor Miranda Priestley viciously states, "You have no style or fashion sense." I'm here.

She dresses up her ambitious future new assistant, Andy, but that same harsh criticism is a bargain new set of movies and Lauren Weisberger novels opening Sunday night in Chicago. Must be directed towards musical adaptation.

Call the fashion police. A surprisingly fun and slow show with a score by Elton John and Shaina Taub is a dud about a dud, the worst screen-to-stage move in recent memory.

Given the daunting nature of the film that has ironically been on Broadway for the last few seasons, this is an achievement that deserves a place in the Guinness Book of Records.

All the songs are bad and nothing worth fixing.

No convincing artistic effort has been made to reinterpret this film or book into something new, logical and compelling on stage. Nearly every plot her point was the same as the 2006 film, smooth, sexy and satisfying, Meryl Streep earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress.

But "Prada" should have been completely remade. When a cinematic story is overlaid with lifeless music, it becomes boring and slow. moody and boring. Sterile without laughing. "Devil" is lightly dressed.

It's still Andy (Taylor Iman Jones, talented and textured) without ). An aspiring journalist in New York who doesn't want to be a second assistant at Miranda Priestley's (Beth Leavell) runway magazine. -down.

At first, it was her Kmart chaos, but Andy kept annoying Brooklyn friends and boyfriends away while learning how to navigate the runway's treacherous waters, along with her first assistant, Emily ( Meghan Saco Hailey) wrath.

Composers John and Taub, author Kate Weatherhead, and director Anna D. Shapiro have borrowed and squandered copious amounts of beloved source material.

Early girl sensibilities in the plot will be detailed in 2022. Carefully and stupidly updated. Andy is now a progressive Gen Z hard worker, and Miranda, unknowingly Nancy Reagan.

Andy goes to a job interview on a Vox-like website called City Dweller. When he said he was going to, Miranda called the publication a "liberal echo chamber." The Horrible Editor later mockingly sings, "Who has time for a handbag when democracy is at stake?"

What a heel. Especially now that no one in the fashion world says it, and it's a completely wrong way to define a mysterious character. is. Of course, the musical relies on over-sharing. That's the ballad. To make up for it early on, Leavell sings a few gnarly patters as if he were the very model of a modern major editor. Then her Big Her number in act two at a luncheon in Paris is the vocally impressive "Cruella de Vil" song, but forgettable and strangely placed. Therefore, Miranda turned into a supporting role.

Rivere, who does the funny vocals on "The Prom" and "Drowsy Chaperone", is miscast here. Working with the writers, she makes Miranda seen as an average middle manager rather than a grand cultural icon.

Andy and Miranda curiously don't even sing a duet. Instead, the climax is a dull, soft-spoken scene.

There are many such odd choices. For example, Andy's mean roommates (Christiana Cole and Tiffany Mann) and her chef lover (Michael Tacconi) are given too much stage time. 

He's another crybaby song by Nigel, the editorial director of Paris Runway, about being gay growing up in Kalamazoo. "I used to hide in my closet, but now I'm sorting it out," he sings. you prada kidding me

Either way, actor Javier Muñoz, who plays Nigel, is the best part of the show.His material is grumpy, old-fashioned "queer eye for straight guys" style jokes, but he have great energy.

Some call John "Prada" deaf. Gave us 'Tiny Dancer' and 'Goodbye Yellow Brick Road' and great Broadway he wrote musicals 'The Lion King' and 'Billy Elliot' (and bad musicals 'Aida' and 'Lestat').

But "The Devil" was the worst stage music of John's career, surpassing the misguided vampire debacle "Lestat." None of these songs appear on the setlist for his inevitable final, final, final farewell tour.

Too bad. "Prada" was never a deep movie. Streep was sensational and elevated what she got. Stage What her show needed was to build an intoxicating world of New York fashion. Live in that exclusive club and have a chic good time.

Instead I got an ugly hole.

Most unfortunately, Arianne Phillips' clothes, even her dress-up number called Andy's "Who's She," are disappointing. They don't get as great as Bob Mackie's spectacular looks in "The Cher Show" or Amneris' outfit in "My Strong Suit" from John's "Aida."

What should have been a haute couture musical has become hopelessly ready-to-wear.