The Devil Wears Prada - TR Plymouth / Dominion

Great value ticket on the Noticeboard for the matinee this Saturday.

Row A is absolutely fine. It's very similar to the Friday Forty tickets for Harry Potter. You miss the lower part of some legs, but you're right up in the action and the cast play quite a bit to the front row. Feels like a steal given it's one of cheapest seats in the house.

The musical itself is very much a game of two halves. The first felt rushed and the songs incredibly bland - the house of Miranda song felt like a missed opportunity to have a really grand villainous entry song like Mean Girls and Heathers has. The second a lot better with the much better songs and far better pacing. Sets and costumes are great and it's a fun show. I just came away thinking it could have been so much more with a better score.

Now, I say this as someone who (unfortunately) saw this twice last year in Chicago, but seeing this last night - I had a blast. Kudos to the team for doing what's hardly ever done with a problematic show anymore, and that's to tear it down and build it back up addressing pretty much everything that didn't work before. A friend of mine texted me from New York afterwards, dying to know my thoughts and asked "Did they make it more like the movie, this time?" and I thought for a second before responding that they did and that's one of the strongest changes to this and I think while that could be considered a downside to some, for this particular title, it just makes sense. They did add a few new little things here and there, none of which bothered me at all, particularly Emily in the hospital with "Hot Nurse". That's a number that I started to roll my eyes at a bit but as it went on, I was completely on board. They also worked on Andy's relationship with her boyfriend - something that's been talked about for 20 years and I very much enjoyed how that plays out now.

As far as the cast goes, Vanessa looks and sounds fantastic. I haven't heard her sound this good in a long time and I think they probably custom fit the score to her vocal abilities so good on them, for that. She manages to get in all the famous Miranda lines and not have them be a carbon copy of Meryl, but make them her own which is very important. Georgie and Amy (as Andy and Emily) are perfect casting and understand how to be their own character while not deviating too far from the film but still putting their own spin on it. The casting in Chicago was such a big problem because they went the complete opposite of what people want and expect from these roles, so they found the perfect people here.

The music is also much better and I think there's 7 new songs in total, including redone/retooled opening numbers for each act (correct me if I'm wrong) but what's interesting here is I can actually hear Elton John in this music now. Like old school Elton John is present in a number of the songs and that's kind of exciting since I haven't ever noticed that before in any of his scores.

Mitchell's staging and choreography are also MUCH better now and I know some people have said they didn't like the costumes but (for the most part), they're just in another league compared to what it was before. If I were to take issue with anything really, it would be that after a 20 minute break, act two doesn't seem as fast paced and fun as act one but that's just the structure of the story so not really sure what, if anything, could be done about that. Don't get me wrong it's not bad at all just tonally, a bit different.

Again, I can't really review/comment on this production without comparing it to what it was before and myself and it seemed everyone around me had a fantastic time.

I agree it definitely is a fun night out and you will enjoy yourself as visually it is great and the performances are all really strong and funny. But If someone was to offer me a million pounds to sing a single line from one of the songs last night I could not, as they all blended into similar over produced dated tracks. Unsure if that's because the score is weak or that I'm not just a huge lover of Elton's style. But if I compare to when I saw new musicals recently like Two Strangers, Mean Girls, The Little Big Things, Operation Mincemeat I couldn't stop those songs from playing round in my head for the days to come - especially Two Strangers. 

It's also interesting that they've gone back more towards the original film, as I felt the musical was at its best when it deviated away in the 2nd half, which allowed it to breath and feel like an actual musical rather than a highlights reel of the film with some songs shoe-horned in. 

Also slightly strange that the gift shop is selling Florals in Spring merchandise, but I don't remember it being used in the musical last night...maybe it was thrown into a song and I missed it. 

I almost fell over laughing at the particular moment of choreo with Emily's leg in 'Hot Nurse'- it seemed everyone around me enjoyed it too with the wave of laughter that went through the auditorium.

As for florals in spring- if my eyes didn't betray me, at the very beginning of the runthrough scene the first dress/coat Miranda rejected had a big floral print- the reveal happened at pretty much the exact moment I expected a reference to happen, so I ticked that off my mental list. Someone correct me if I'm wrong!

'House of Miranda' is currently stuck in my head...

I saw this on Thursday night. I thought i was going to have a great view from my seat, given that the one in front of me was empty. That was until the lights were about to go down and Jerry Mitchell took the empty seat. He's a tall guy and that was my view blocked for the evening. Why don't the production team take seats at the back??

The production is a typical Jerry Mitchell show. Step step point, step step point, arm-ography arm-ography, pout pout pout. It felt very much like Kinky Boots at times. Tbe score is bland and they all sounded the same. There was very little variety. until Nigel gets his big ballad in the second act and the show comes to a grinding halt. Shouldn't we learn more about Nigel in the first act? Vanessa Williams needs to be more steely cold, more Meryl Streep, or do something completely different, because she's not really giving much at the moment. The songs for Andy and Emily all sounded the same too. Belting the ending to a song does not suddenly make it a good song.

There were 2 moments that stuck out and seemed odd to me. In Act 2, when Nigel reveals his big promotion, Andy asks 'What about James Holt?' huh? Did we learn something was going down with James Holt before that? it seemed to come out of the blue. Also, after Andy goes to bed with Christian or whatever his name is, we see her the next morning and they have got her in a completely different costume, ready for the next scene. Did they not think people would notice?

In the scene where Andy gets a makeover, it needs some quick changes to give it some oomph. She should try a few outfits on (quick change style) and then find the clothes that suit her best. I longed to see something like 'Pretty Pretty Girl' in Diana - The Musical.

It was a 6/10 show for me. But the Dominion was sold out and is sold out for the next month or so, and thats not an easy thing to achieve.

I love that scene in the film. What a shame they’ve thrown it away! 

It feels like it’s been in previews for ages because of Plymouth but performances only started at the Dominion on October 24th

Think press night is end of November?

They even have this big, set piece reveal of the room where Runway keeps all the clothes, outfits and accessories etc, It's big and glitzy, only for Andi to be given a pile of clothes on hangers and then 10 mins later comes out in her new look, none of which were on the hangers she took away with her, in the first place.

I'd say that there are a few instrumentals more in the lane of runway music in it. That's why those fashion moments actually work or when there are some interludes/intros/outros that focus more on the visuals and style, less on pop from Elton. If the whole show sounded like that, it'd be so much more digestible.

Agreed! Plus as I said, runway moments, interludes. Just for the songs maybe something more towards recently closed Cake! would work, it was pumping, modern, diva-esque.

I haven’t seen it but I was doubting they would include Suddenly I See due to copyright. Would’ve been nice but if they had it in.