Elton John has been tapped to write the music for the Broadway adaptation of The Devil Wears Prada.
The Grammy-winning singer/songwriter will work with playwright Paul Rudnick on the production. John has great experience within the genre, having worked on hits The Lion King and Billy Elliot in the past. Rudnick’s plays include Jeffrey and I Hate Hamlet and his screen work includes Addams Family Values.
“Re-imagining The Devil Wears Prada for the musical theatre is super exciting,” John said in a statement. “I’m a huge fan of both the book and the feature film and a huge aficionado of the fashion world. I can’t wait to sink my musical teeth into this hunk of popular culture.”
The stage version has been brewing since 2015 at Fox Stage Productions, a company created in 2013 to create musicals based on Fox films. Other titles that are still in development include Mrs Doubtfire and Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
The hit 2006 film was based on the novel of the same name by Lauren Weisberger and starred an Oscar-nominated Meryl Streep as a tyrannical fashion magazine editor who made life misery for assistants played by Anne Hathaway and Emily Blunt.
It was a surprise hit at the box office, making $326m worldwide and sparking rumors of a sequel based on the book’s follow-up Revenge Wears Prada.
The stage production has no set date yet but it’s one of many film-to-theatre musicals on the way. March sees the Broadway premiere of Amelie while Frozen is set to land later in the year. The last week has also seen rumors of a La La Land musical in the offing.
The past year has seen record-breaking attendance on Broadway thanks to hits such as Hamilton and The Lion King. The first week of the year brought in just under $50m and smashed a new record in the process.
