![]() And “Stay On Top” doesn’t offer much anyway.Ĭuriously, the character the musical represents most fully isn’t uncertain Andy or meanie Miranda, but cucumber-cool Nigel. But Miranda isn’t built for self-reflection. The musical gifts her a late confessional, “Stay On Top.” Because if you have a voice like Leavel’s, of course you should showcase it. Has Wetherhead’s book melted Miranda or does Leavel lack the necessary frost? Both, really. “Find a better exfoliant, for starters,” Nigel says. “What should I do?” Andy wails as Miranda approaches. And in a show with a stated aversion to starches, the jokes are deeply corny. Though Kate Wetherhead’s book makes a few updates - there’s a reference to collagen powder - it doesn’t take a point of view. ![]() The choreography, by James Alsop, defers to Broadway vernacular, with glimmers of ballroom. The songs unfold pleasantly enough, with flashes of glam and morsels of wit, but they tend to feel last-season. Shapiro, a serious-minded artist I would not have associated with glitter or caprice, can’t make up its mind. The film, with its sleeker wardrobe and more substantial visual pleasures, seemed grudgingly admiring of the fashion industry, as commerce, as art. And is a hot pink romper and thigh-high boots really anyone’s idea of office wear? (The costumes, which range from the flamboyant - the chorus - to the unpersuasive and oddly wrinkled - the principals - are by Arianne Phillips.) The musical is ambivalent, too. How dear.) So she makes what she perceives as the first of many Faustian bargains - to put her dreams on hold and stick it out for a year.īut Andy remains ambivalent about her work. (Yes, the musical assumes that an entry-level media gig guarantees financial security. She has the cable-knit tights to prove it. After six months of rejections, she somehow lands a coveted job at Runway - a fictional stand-in for Vogue - as the second assistant to its imperious editrix, Miranda Priestly ( Beth Leavel.)Īndy doesn’t care about fashion. The Big Apple quashes them quickly in “I Mean Business,” the show’s efficient opener. Nothing fits.Īdapted from the 2006 film, itself adapted from Lauren Weisberger’s 2003 roman à clef of her year at Condé Nast, it follows Andy Sachs (Taylor Iman Jones), a recent journalism graduate. Is this a sincere story of a young woman’s education - sentimental, professional, sartorial - or a Fashion Week party? An inquiry into toxic workplace culture or an excuse to put an Eiffel Tower (technically, two Eiffel Towers) onstage? This is a show that has tried on everything in its closet. ![]() Though the show takes place at a fashion magazine, its creative team doesn’t seem to have agreed on a style. With music by the rock god Elton John and lyrics by the Off-Broadway sweetheart Shaina Taub (“Suffs”), it had seemed poised to set a trend or two. CHICAGO - A movie-to-musical that wants to have its cake and eat it, too, and still fit into a sample size, “ The Devil Wears Prada,” opened at the James M. ![]()
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