The Devil Wears Prada - Review

Dominion Theatre, London

*****

Music by Elton John

Lyrics by Shaina Taub and Mark Sonnenblick

Book by Kate Wetherhead

Based on the novel by Lauren Weisberger and the motion picture screenplay by Aline Brosh McKenna

Directed and choregraphed by Jerry Mitchell

Vanessa Williams

In a whip-smart fusion of stunning style and content, The Devil Wears Prada arrives in the West End to deliver the capital's most impressive new musical theatre production this year. Elton John's score soars from rock through blues, to balladry and soul, transforming this modern classic’s take on the fashion industry’s soulless brutality. Matching Sir Elton’s music, Jerry Mitchell’s direction and choreography takes the story on a sparkling transition from screen to stage.

Vanessa Williams returns to the London stage to lead the show as Miranda Priestly, the editor of fashion glossy Runway and a woman who can make or break careers in haute couture. Williams is an inspired casting choice with the presence that she imbues in Miranda as razor-sharp as her Louboutin heels. 

In an astonishing West End debut Georgie Buckland is Andy (Andrea), the story’s protagonist whose arc we follow as she starts off as Miranda’s novice personal assistant, but who rapidly learns how to shin the world of publishing’s famously greasy pole. Buckland is handed the lion’s share of the evening’s big numbers, closing both acts of the show with Miranda Girl and What’s Right For Me respectively, songs in which she rises to fill the Dominion’s massive space.

The show’s two other featured roles are Runway’s creative lead Nigel played by Matt Henry and Miranda’s long serving assistant Emily played by Amy Di Bartolomeo. Both are equally magnificent bringing power, pathos and humour to their respective performances.

Tim Hatley’s scenery, Gregg Barnes’s costumes and Bruno Poet’s lighting make for stunning visuals from the outset, while Katharine Woolley’s musical direction offers a fine interpretation of the compelling score.

The Devil Wears Prada is famous for showcasing fashion’s cutthroat competition with a story that revolves around aspirations, dreams and treachery in both the boardroom and the bedroom. It is a credit not only to Elton John, but to lyricist Shaina Taub and Mark Sonnenblick and to bookwriter Kate Wetherhead, that they have crafted such a fine adaptation of Weisberger’s original.

This musical is a mutli-million dollar extravaganza built on the highest production values. For those who enjoy a good story, compelling new writing and brilliant song and dance, The Devil Wears Prada is unmissable. 

Booking until 18th October 2025

Photo credit: Matt Crockett

Sister Act - Review

Dominion Theatre, London

**** 

Music by Alan Menken

Lyrics by Glenn Slater

Book by Cheri Steinkellner and Bill Steinkellner

Additional book material by Douglas Carter Beane

Directed by Bill Buckhurst

Lizzie Bea, Beverley Knight and company

Sister Act is everything that is great about musical theatre. The star studded cast lead the audience through the tale of Deloris (Beverley Knight), an aspiring musician who after stumbling across a gangland murder is forced to go into witness protection in a convent, all under the watchful and disapproving eye of the Mother Superior (Ruth Jones). Deloris delights as she revamps the downtrodden convent’s choir into a band of all-singing all-dancing nuns with a disco edge. 

Knight gives an utterly standout performance, her breathtaking vocals leaving the audience wanting more after every song. Her take on of Deloris is wonderfully exaggerated yet still sympathetic as the audience follow her character's journey from disco diva to a true convent sister. 

The outrageous Deloris plays excellently opposite Ruth Jones’ far more muted and restrained Mother Superior. The casting decision for Ruth Jones in this role seems to have been made more for her ‘star’ status rather than musical theatre acumen, as Jones’ vocals don’t hold weight alongside her cast members. However, what Jones lacks in singing talent she makes up for in comedic contributions to the show. Despite the supposed ‘dull’ persona of the Mother Superior, Jones brings a light cheekiness to the role with her own signature Welsh twist. It is a delight as Jones opens the show with her classic greeting of ‘alright’ and wearing Welsh dragon socks, making the role feel truly her own. 

Other notable performances come from Clive Rowe in the role of Steady Eddie and Lizzie Bea as Sister Mary Robert who both very much hold their own as solo vocalists, as well as eliciting continuous laugh out loud moments. 

Morgan Large’s set is simple yet effective with mostly static set pieces and props, allowing the cast to really take the foreground without distraction. The stage seamlessly transitions back and forth from an austere church setting to colours and lights of the disco age with at least one mirror ball on stage at any given moment. Costuming, also by Large, is delightful with the perfect amount of sequins that you would want from a big hit West End musical (by the finale each cast member is decked from head to toe in sparkles).

The entire show is entirely charming and genuinely hilarious with the cast’s joyful performances providing such an infectiously bright atmosphere that it would be a shock if anyone left that theatre without beaming from ear to ear. Sister Act really will take you to heaven and make you want to raise your voice!

Runs until 31st August

Photo credit: Johan Persson

Reviewed by Dina Gitlin-Leigh

Dirty Dancing On Stage - Review

Dominion Theatre, London

****

Written by Eleanor Bergstein

Directed by Federico Bellone

Michael O'Reilly, Kira Malou and the company of Dirty Dancing

For the next 3 months the staged take of the 1987 classic movie plays at London’s Dominion Theatre.

The story is a latter day fable that in all honesty doesn’t translate perfectly to the stage. As much as the movie was about Patrick Swayze’s perfectly formed Johnny teaching Jennifer Grey’s Baby the moves through a 1963 summer in the Catskill Mountains, along with its shallow commentary on society's attitudes and politics of the time, it was also all about the close-ups. Up there on the big screen, Swayze melted hearts and moistened panties. On stage however, Michael O’Reilly’s impressive Johnny is dwarfed in the Dominion’s vastness - and stripped of the magic and glitz of the Hollywood movie treatment, the Kellerman’s Resort doesn’t convincingly translate to a rainy West End.

But the packed audience are there for the song and dance as well as the storyline’s corny cheese and this show does not disappoint. O’Reilly, (100% beefcake) and Kira Malou as Baby are sensational, with movement and poise that is as well-drilled as it is passionate. Their supporting company make a fine job of driving the movie's narrative, virtually scene by scene, seamlessly.

The music is a curious juke-box assembly of American rock and pop gems, delivered as a combo of original recording and some live performance work from the onstage 6-piece band. Its a neat idea that delivers a gorgeous sound. 

Fans of the movie will surely have the time of their life.

Runs until 29th April, then tours

Photo credit: Mark Senior

The Prince Of Egypt - A movie fan's perspective

Stephen Schwartz's musical The Prince of Egypt, a stage show based upon Dreamworks' acclaimed animation opened in London last week to mixed reviews.

The 1998 movie, the studios' first animated feature, had seen its Hans Zimmer score being Oscar nominated with Stephen Schwartz's song When You Believe, going on to win the Oscar for Best Original Song.

Replete with its star-studded vocal cast, The Prince of Egypt movie has formed part of the backdrop of many childrens' formative years, commanding their love and adoration for a strong Bible story, beautifully told.

So what went wrong that has led to such a much-loved movie, being so slated by the critics on its transformation into a West End show?

I invited teenager Emmeline Liddle, a self-confessed fan of the film, to offer her thoughts...

Emmeline Liddle

If I had to choose one word to describe this production it would probably be “unnecessary”.

Unnecessary dialogue, unnecessary songs and unnecessary scenes manage to turn (in my opinion) one of the best animated films of all time into a boring biblical ‘bromance’. So much time is dedicated to the brothers’ relationship that the whole play drags and uncomfortably, feels ever so slightly homoerotic. We don’t need ten extra numbers depicting Moses’ frustration with and yet love for Ramses. In just a few minutes of dialogue the film manages to establish a powerful emotional connection between the two. There would be nothing wrong with this if a love story was what Schwartz had in mind - it might even have made for an interesting and original twist.

What is necessary, however, is a better set. Polystyrene blocks that wobble unsteadily and clip art of the Nile, or a sunset stock image projected onto the background just doesn’t cut it for a West End production. Having slaves portray water to carry the infant’s basket was a nice idea but looked rather clumsy at times, as was sadly often the case throughout the play. Moses almost slipped off his polystyrene seat, a ‘limestone’ block would be nudged out of place by a stray foot - it all felt amateur and cheap.

The costumes were also off. Moses would occasionally enter wearing what looked like a tank top and pajama bottoms, and I’m not sure what they were thinking dressing the Pharaoh as a Napoleonic admiral. An interesting choice, but I’m pretty sure white suits and epaulettes weren’t invented for a few thousand years.

The performance also lacked comedy. There were a few laughs, but only at the jokes which had been directly lifted from the film. In the animation the priests Hotep and Huy were an effective comedy duo, but Schwartz chose to make Hotep (Adam Pearce) the solo villain of the piece. It was also a mistake to excise the song You’re Playing With The Big Boys Now which functioned in the film to combine humour with villainy, whilst still invoking fear and awe. Despite this, Pearce was certainly the best of the male actors, bringing real malice to the stage and a welcome contrast with the overwhelmingly schmaltzy and tiresome discourse.

Overall, however, the women of the production easily outshone the men. Miriam (Alexia Khadime) was both believable and likeable - she sounded as though she meant what she said, not doing a turn at the local pantomime. Christine Allado played Tzipporah with passion, but was let down by a confused script and direction. Isn’t it rather contradictory to sing a song about how she is not an object to be owned or controlled by anyone, whilst performing an overtly sexual dance for the Pharaoh and his sons? In fact, the whole production felt confused, seemingly unable to decide whether aimed at kids, with bright colours, upbeat numbers and cartoonish backgrounds, or adults, with an overly contemplative script.

That said, Schwartz does well to address some hitherto unanswered questions. For example, we have a scene between Moses and Queen Tuya which acknowledges that if your adoptive child returned, destroyed your kingdom and killed your grandson, you’d probably be quite upset! There was probably a song about this, too. I can’t remember. Which is rather the problem. There is so much focus on having the songs be reminiscent of ancient Egypt that the same cadences are used throughout and meld into one another. The only memorable songs were the original ones.

No Power On Earth was an overused, weak new song. When the plagues descend, rather than use the original chorus Let My People Go - which drives home the main point of the story right at the climax - we have the mawkish new number instead, accompanied by cheap CGI fireballs. It has nowhere near the impact, but Schwartz has seemed set on making this song the theme of the entire production.

This brings me to my main gripe with the production. A powerful biblical tale of Hebrew emancipation is overshadowed by a preoccupation with the emotions of and relationship between two brothers. I suppose this brings the story up to date - reflecting our contemporary obsession with personal ‘journeys’. What a waste. If a story about God, betrayal, hope and miracles that has endured for millenia isn’t enough to make an exciting production out of, then I don’t know what is.

Written by Emmeline Liddle

The Prince of Egypt - Review

Dominion Theatre, London

**

Music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz

Book by Philip LaZebnik

Directed by Scott Schwartz

Luke Brady

The Bible has not always had an easy relationship with musical theatre. Two notable exceptions being Lloyd Webber’s Jesus Christ, Superstar and that  perennial favourite Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat. Each of these casts a contemporary take on the scripture and features a through-sung score. A modern oratorio. At about the same time US composer Stephen Schwartz gave us Godspell, a whimsical take on the Gospels that proved just as successful and gave us memorable hits such as God Save The People and Day By Day. What Godspell lacked was staying power and major revivals have been few and far between. His musical Children Of Eden, also based on episodes from the Bible, failed to take off in 1991, despite development from the RSC.

A few years later, Schwartz scored a  hit with an animated version of the story of Moses from DreamWorks Animation, The Prince Of Egypt. It’s probably nowhere near the classic movie that the publicity would have you think, despite the noble line-up of actors providing the voices.  However Schwartz hit pay-dirt with the Academy-award winning anthem When You Believe, recorded for popular release by Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston.

Move forward another 20 years and Schwartz has shifted the story to the stage, adding further musical numbers to the score and a book by the author of the original screenplay Philip Lazebnik. All the familiar key points are in place. There are bulrushes, a baby in the basket and a burning bush. Lazebnik’s storytelling technique manages to cram many plot points into a relatively short running time. Yet for all this speed it still manages to drag, only ever really springing to life in the musical numbers. And boy, do we pray for some of the whimsy that made Godspell so appealing in its day. Instead we get a story that’s both too leaden for family audiences and too simplistic for adults.

Kevin Depinet’s set design works on certain levels, with the projections and variegated screens capturing the burning desert or the majestic temples of the Nile with some sense of scale. However bearing in mind that this is a story steeped in mysticism and miracles, there’s very little magic on show. Sean Cheesman’s relentless choreography offers us the Twelve Plagues of Egypt via interpretative dance, which would be fine if this was Sadler's Wells or the Union Theatre. I personally want a little spectacle from a West End production, especially as the hand of God was supposed to be behind it. Instead we get polystyrene building blocks and a couple of magic tricks that wouldn’t impress a ten-year old, let alone a Pharaoh. To add to the disconcerting simplicity of the special effects and set, Ann Hould-Ward's costumes managed to look both cheap and unsettlingly anachronistic.

Schwartz has padded out the original with ten additional numbers, none of which really have the impact of When You Believe. The song Dance To The Day is given to Christine Allado's Tzipporah the captured Midian to establish her pride and independence. This turns out to be one of the best numbers in the show, proving a highlight for Allado and a shoo-in for this year’s Eurovision entry. Thankfully a woefully underused Alexia Khadime as Miriam and Allado do justice to When You Believe but it’s a long wait for this edifying anthem.

It’s good to see Gary Wilmot back in the West End in trousers, rather than his regular star turn as Dame at the Palladium panto. Wilmot has a natural warmth on stage and his musical number as Jethro, offers a little light relief from the rather worthy, soul-searching anthems that populate the score. The focus of Lazebnik’s story is, understandably, Moses played by Luke Brady and more pointedly his relationship with Rameses, the boy who would be Pharaoh, played by Liam Tamne. There’s oddly little chemistry between the two, although this may be down to Lazebnik’s script, which struggles to fashion a credible tone and ends up as conflicted bromance. Brady and Tamne each get to strut their stuff vocally, both proving they have quality singing voices but there’s little here to help establish them as West End leading men.

Schwartz appears to have added to his collection of problematic Bible-based musicals with The Prince Of Egypt, but director Scott Schwartz’s cheap and often confused looking production doesn’t actually help matters. It cuts too many corners, dumbs down Moses’ relationship with God and beefs up the one with Rameses. Who knows, in years to come a fringe theatre may manage to hit the right tone. In the meantime, this production could do with a little more creative flair and re-write.

Booking until 31st October

Reviewed by Paul Vale

Photo credit: Matt Crockett

An American In Paris - Review

Dominion Theatre, London

****

Music and lyrics by George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin

Book by Craig Lucas

Directed and choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon

Leanne Cope and Robert Fairchild

Long before the era of the modern day jukebox musical, Hollywood was already hard at work re-hashing classic George and Ira Gershwin numbers from the 20s and weaving them into Vincente Minnelli's 1951 movie An American In Paris. Inspired by Gershwin's orchestral work of the same name, it was Gene Kelly's dance work alongside Minelli’s vision that was to propel the picture to multi-Oscar success.

It may well have taken 30 years for Gershwin's inspirational compositions to reach the silver screen, but it was to be a further 65 before Broadway wrestled back some of what were to prove the American Songbook's greatest numbers, to give An American In Paris the musical theatre treatment it deserves.

In a week that has seen the show's recently-opened London transfer announce that it is now booking beyond Christmas, and with two of the original Broadway leads (Leanne Cope and Robert Fairchild) headlining the London cast, it was no surprise to find the midweek show packed, playing to the capital's vast Dominion Theatre.

The show's story is the stuff of Hollywood legend as a ménage a trois / quatre / cinq evolves in post-War Paris. Two American creatives are in love with the same ballerina, who is herself betrothed to the young wealthy Frenchman who sheltered her during the war. Jazz and art are re-emerging as Paris sheds its Nazi past, with the story tackling issues of love, betrayal, jealousy and sexuality - all played out to some of the finest melodies of the last century.

Fairchild and Cope are respectively Jerry Mulligan and Lise Dassin (the characters played by Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron in the movie). Their triple-threat stage presence is enchanting, with Christopher Wheeldon's gorgeous choreography and direction lending a whirl of perfectly pirouetted whimsy to an utter confection of musical theatre delight.

David Seadon-Young and Haydn Oakley take up the honours of the American musician and French patrician respectively, each with their own respective claim to Lise's affections, with all three leading men kicking off the vocal honours delightfully with I Got Rhythm early on in the first act.

Completing the fifth angle of passionate pursuit is Zoe Rainey's Milo Davenport - a wealthy patron of the arts whose interest in Mulligan's artistic talents crosses into the realms of love. Rainey is a leading light of the British musical stage and the duetted arrangement of But Not For Me, that sees her paired with Seadon-Young in an ingenious interpretation of the classic heartbreaker, that is breathtaking in its re-invention.

The symphonic flourishes to the show allow John Rigby's fifteen piece orchestra to sparkle. Opening to Gershwin's Concerto in F sets the bar wonderfully in terms of both music and dance, while the title routine, a sizzling jazz ballet infused by the visual themes of Mondrian defines the second half.

There are a couple of niggles. None of the cast are from France and so it’s a minor disappointment to have to endure the usually magnificent Jane Asher's diction (and, indeed, the French idiom) reduced to tacky mock-Franglais accents, best suited to sitcom rather than classic theatre. Bob Crowley's costumes are as exquisite as the projections are imaginative but the continual movement of scene-changing mirrored panels proves a small distraction.

With the show's ethos simultaneously spanning both the Atlantic and the Channel and seeing it today, amidst the emerging opportunities of Brexit, to find An American In Paris, in London truly defines the global impact of fabulous musical theatre.

Booking until 27th January 2018

Photo credit: Johan Persson