Screen and stage star Vanessa Williams has spoken about starring in a West End show, in popular food podcast Dish from Waitrose. *
Interviewed by Nick Grimshaw and Angela Hartnett, the much-loved actor and singer talked about her starring role in huge new West End musical The Devil Wears Prada, which is now playing at the Dominion Theatre in London.
Vanessa Williams (Ugly Betty, Desperate Housewives, City of Angels) plays fashion editor Miranda Priestly in the show, which is based on the hit movie.
It was announced last night that Vanessa will be performing at this year’s Royal Variety Performance, along with the rest of the cast of The Devil Wears Prada.
In the Dish podcast, Vanessa also talks about meeting Stanley Tucci, how she likes to wind down, arugula, being in the kitchen at home, food in New York, what she loves to cook, her kids cooking, missing her kids when travelling, big family parties and birthdays, Christmas as a kid, Ugly Betty and being crowned Miss America!
Dish from Waitrose is now in its sixth season, with Katherine Ryan, Richard Armitage, Anna Maxwell Martin, Judi Love, Sandi Toksvig, Stephen Fry and Alex Horne.
Major new movie-to-stage musical The Devil Wears Prada is the latest show from Tony and Olivier Award winning director and choreographer Jerry Mitchell (Legally Blonde, Pretty Woman The Musical, Kinky Boots), and boasts music by Elton John (Disney’s The Lion King), lyrics by singer-songwriter Shaina Taub, and a book by Kate Wetherhead (Submissions Only).
Joining Vanessa Williams in the cast are Olivier Award winner Matt Henry (Kinky Boots, The Drifters Girl) as Nigel, Miranda’s trusted fashion expert; Georgie Buckland (Shrek the Musical, Bedknobs and Broomsticks) as newbie assistant Andy, played by Anne Hathaway in the movie; and Amy Di Bartolomeo (Six The Musical, We Will Rock You) as Miranda’s chief assistant Emily, played in the film by Emily Blunt.
The Devil Wears Prada is now playing at the Dominion Theatre, booking to 31 May 2025.
Book tickets to The Devil Wears Prada The Musical at the Dominion Theatre London
Vanessa on Starring in the West End
“I am starring as Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada, a new musical that Elton John did the music for. And, uh, we’re at the Dominion Theatre and we are in previews now, we open, our opening night is December 1st, so previews meaning that everything changes every day.”
“So, after I leave, I have to go to rehearsal to probably get new lyrics and new dialogue, because it’s tweaking and tweaking, because it’s new. So they want to make sure that they get it right, and, uh, they, you know, they look at the audience and see how they react and what’s not clear, so your mind, I mean, at sixty-one my mind is not as agile as these young twenty somethings that can like, you know, put in new lyrics and have it flawlessly. I’ve got a sticky notes and, uh, pads all over the place like what’s new? There it is.”
“Yeah, I literally got new lyrics the night before and said, okay, we’re going to put them in tomorrow in front of two thousand people. And it’s just two lines of stuff that I had memorised for three months before…So your muscle memory already has something that’s attached to what you’re doing…So it’s really, really tough. Yeah, it’s hard. And I’m like, why am I doing this again?…I love it.”
“Yeah, we’ve got an amazing crew that are literally in the wings…And as soon as we come off, it’s like, you’re, uh, you know…Yeah, take the shoes. And we’ve got all the tricks with poppers here and zips there, and magic, you know, velcro there, so…Left foot, right foot, arms up, jump in.”
“Even in the beginning, and Jerry Mitchell, who is our director and choreographer, who has done such a brilliant job taking, you know, a franchise from a movie that everybody knows every word of…And bringing it to stage, which is quite a feat because you want to kind of stay true to what people love. So, a lot of my lines are, you know, uh, you know, ‘By all means, move at a glacial pace.’”
“People know that I do the whole Cerulean monologue and, and at night, you know, doing the whole thing, I get applause because people know every word of the Cerulean monologue. So it’s kind of trying to say true to that, but also allow the audience to see it in three dimensions, so, and I’m not going to spoil it, but, uh, so Amy Di Bartolomeo, who is our Emily, she starts the show coming from the audience and walks up on stage and basically is trying to tell them politely to turn off their phones, but, ‘Have you gotten your picture of the sign yet?’…‘You’ve got a picture of me yet?’ So, she kind of introduces the, the high fashion, the attitude, the little, you know, snarkiness. So, people are like, oh, it’s a comedy. We can laugh…Oh, this is what we’re in for and it kind of sets the tone…So, there’s a lot of kind of interaction between the audience and being close to the aisles and seeing the glamour and also seeing what’s on stage.
Book tickets to The Devil Wears Prada The Musical at the Dominion Theatre London
Sign up to our Newsletter for a chance to win 2 tickets to an event of your choice.
Draw made on the last day of the month.
Choose from dozens of West End and London theatre shows.
* Article originally published via LTD
Comments