The Devil Wears Prada Reviews: What the Critics Say

The Devil Wears Prada: The Musical opened at the Dominion Theatre in December 2024 and the press came in cool. It has since sold more than 1.2 million tickets and been extended four times.

That gap is the story, and this page is what the critics actually said.

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The Critics' Verdict

The Standard was the outlier and gave it five stars, calling it absolutely fabulous. The Express followed at four.

From there it drops. The Times, the Sunday Times and the i Paper all gave three. The Guardian, the Independent, the Telegraph, the FT, The Stage and WhatsOnStage all gave two. Time Out and the Daily Mail ran unstarred reviews and neither was warm.

Four national dailies at two stars is a hard opening for any musical. This one went on to sell faster than anything the Dominion has ever staged.

What the Reviews Praised

Vanessa Williams, without exception, including in the reviews that disliked everything around her. Time Out called her "terrific in the role, channelling the fundamentals of what made Streep great while offering a more economical, no nonsense take". The Guardian, at two stars, still called her "a powerhouse singer". The Standard said she "sings with withering power". The i Paper picked out "a disarming flair for appearing silently and suddenly, like a supervillain surveying her lair", and the Express got there in fewest words: she "handles dialogue like a spitting cobra".

The scale of it. The Standard said Jerry Mitchell's production "conquers the cavernous Dominion" and called the ball scene's designs "ravishing, demonic creations". The i Paper, at three stars, still told readers to come for the frocks.

Individual numbers. Seen, which is Nigel's song, and which the Standard said "makes a stronger case for fashion as an inspiring force than Miranda's famous 'cerulean sweater' speech". Bon Voyage, Emily's big number, staged as a homage to Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend with a chorus line of male nurses. And WhatsOnStage, in a two-star review, called Paris, City of Dreams "truly fabulous".

Where Reviews Were Mixed

The score is the thing, and the complaint is unusually consistent. The FT wrote that the music "doesn't follow you out of the theatre". The Independent called the numbers "surprisingly unmemorable, generically jazzy". The Daily Mail said the score "could have been written by AI". Time Out was the most precise about why, pointing out that Elton John is "famously not a lyricist", was working "largely outside of his piano-based comfort zone", and that "you'd never guess his involvement if you didn't know already".

The second complaint is that the show follows the film too closely to do anything of its own. The Guardian said the book summarises the screenplay "almost line by line" and that the result "resembles an android-like simulacrum". The Independent said the writers "cling to the 2006 film's script like a millennial clings to stretch denim jeans". The Telegraph framed it as the people who gave us Billy Elliot and The Lion King having "couriered over some generic material". If that faithfulness is exactly what you want, it stops being a weakness, which is roughly what has happened at the Box Office.

The costumes split them, which for a show about a fashion magazine is genuinely surprising. The i Paper said they were "of course, fabulous". Against that, the Guardian found them "variable" and thought some "look like they could be from the Christmas Autograph collection at M&S", WhatsOnStage called them "deeply disappointing", and the Independent found them "more suited to a Home Counties bridesmaid line-up than a fashion magazine".

The dancing split them too. The i Paper called it "bewilderingly and irredeemably naff, like a local Zumba class attempting a line dance" and said the Dominion's stage was crying out for better. The Standard thought the same production filled the same stage without trouble.

One thing to hold in mind. These are all reviews from December 2024, and the company has changed since. What the critics say about the writing, the songs and the dancing still holds. What they say about a particular performance may be about somebody who has moved on, and since 19 September 2026 that includes Vanessa Williams.

Is The Devil Wears Prada Right for You?

Book it if you love the film. That is the clearest read available from the reviews and from two years of sales: the show delivers the film on a big stage, and that is what most people are buying it for.

Book it for a group or a family night out. It is funny, loud and sociable, and the group and family rates are good.

Think twice if you go to musicals for the score. This is where almost every critic landed, and if it is the songs you want from a night out, they will not be what you remember.

Think twice if you want the stage version to reinvent the story. It does not set out to.

Not sure which way you fall? Call us on 020 7193 9050 and we will talk it through.

Book The Devil Wears Prada Tickets

Tickets from £25, with most seats between £65 and £100. All-in pricing, so the price you see is what you pay.

Everything else about the show, the schedule, the seats and the cast is on our The Devil Wears Prada tickets page.

Find tickets • Call us on 020 7193 9050

Sources

The Standard, Daily Express, The Times, The Sunday Times, The i Paper, The Guardian, The Independent, The Stage, The Telegraph, Financial Times, WhatsOnStage, London Theatre, Time Out, Daily Mail.