Based on the novel by Lauren Weisberger and the movie made from it, The Devil Wears Prada is set in the world of high fashion. It is the story of Andrea (known as Andy), a would-be journalist just out of university who gets a job as junior assistant to Miranda Priestly, the formidable editor of fashion magazine Runway. From being scornful of that scene, she becomes a competitive part of it until its excesses make her walk away.
There is a strong score from Elton John, music with a beat that fuels choreography by director Jerry Mitchell that can combine catwalk prancing with highly camp abandon. He is particularly successful in using dance to create the urgency of the action, and I doubt if you have ever seen a red carpet used to such striking effect. There is also a lovely contrast between the gay extravagance given the male dancers in the fashions scene and the butch given male nurses for a number when Miranda’s PA is in hospital.
I hardly need tell you that costume designer Gregg Barnes provides an almost constant parade of stylish and colourful costumes, from elegant dresses, to leather outfits and glittering ballgowns—and great hats too. The sets by Tim Hatley use photo projections, drawing in neon and trucked-in elements that keep things fast-moving and with (literally) dazzling lighting helps to generate the bustle, the energy and the tension of New York and especially of the Runway office where Vanessa Williams as Miranda Priestley rules the roost.
Miranda doesn’t have to shout and scream; she gives her orders calmly but firmly, but her distaste is withering. Her presence is felt even when she isn’t there, for she could pop up at any time and catch you out—as indeed she does on her first entrance.
Miranda’s personal assistants don’t seem to last long. The current PA, fashion freak Emily, is devoted to her: Amy di Bartolomeo shows the tension she builds up trying to please her boss (in contrast to the authority she has already shown us when making the mobile phone announcement in character). When Andy arrives to be her helper, she simply can’t understand someone who doesn’t take fashion as seriously as she does.
Andy wants to write and report, not to dress up. She may look out of place, but, as she tells Miranda at interview, she is smart. Georgie Buckland makes her girl-next-door dowdy to start with, though she comes to life with boyfriend Nate (Rhys Whitfield) then, befriended and re-styled by Runway’s art director Nigel (Matt Henry), she begins to become part of this world.
It is Andy’s lack of style that brings her to the notice of star writer Christian (James Darch), who is to have a role in both her professional and her private life, but it is Nigel who perhaps understands her best, and for me, his is the performance that I will most remember—not just for his sung paean to fashion, but when he shares Nigel’s own history too.
Reviewer: Howard Loxton