Books–to-movies-to-mega-stage-musicals may be business as usual by now, but sometimes the stakes are high enough to celebrate—like when Sir Elton John (music) and Paul Rudnick (book and lyrics) team up to write a musical version of The Devil Wears Prada for Broadway.
Kevin McCollum, along with Fox Stage Productions and Rocket Entertainment, will be producing the show, based on Lauren Weisberger’s bestseller and its 2006 film spin-off starring Meryl Streep and Ann Hathaway (btw, it grossed $326 million in its worldwide release).
"Re-imagining The Devil Wears Prada for the musical theatre is super exciting,” said John, who picked up Tonys for two Disney shows, Aida and The Lion King. “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."
Rudnick’s literary cred not only emerges from his work as an award-winning playwright both On- and Off-Broadway (Jeffrey, The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told, etc.), but also as a novelist (Social Disease and I’ll Take It), screenwriter (Addams Family Values, Jeffrey, In & Out), and regular contributor to The New Yorker.
According to a statement released by Bob Cohen of Fox Stage Productions and Kevin McCollum: “To bring The Devil Wears Prada to the stage, we knew we needed to find artists as inimitable as the characters in the story. We needed artists whose work has run the gamut from music and publishing to drama and fashion. We could think of only two names: Elton John and Paul Rudnick…That’s all!”
No production dates have been set as yet.