‘It’s a gift’: David Furnish and Vanessa Williams on the The Devil Wears Prada musical cast recording (EXCLUSIVE)

The Devil Wears Prada musical has been a box office hit in London since its debut in October last year, with its run at the Dominion Theatre now extended into 2026. And now, the show has made its music available to a wider audience with the release of the original London cast recording.

Released today (19 September), the album features 18 tracks from the stage show, including a bonus for fans: two previously unheard original demos by Elton John himself, offering a glimpse into the creative process.

We sat down with producer David Furnish and headline star Vanessa Williams (who was honoured with the Icon Award at the 2024 Virgin Atlantic Attitude Awards, powered by Jaguar) to discuss how it’s been bringing this beloved story to the stage – and the possibility of a sequel.

Vanessa, you’re playing the iconic Miranda Priestly. How has it been performing her and giving her a singing voice?

It’s been wonderful bringing her to life on stage. The audiences are eating it up, and I’ve been able to put my own spin on it. People are loving it, and I love creating her. The songs are amazing. It’s a fashion experience and a New York experience as well. To bring that to life on stage, and especially with a song about Paris, it’s a feast for the eyes.

The music is so reflective of this dreamlike quality that the audience has come back for again and again. I’ve been astounded by not only the repeat customers but the breadth of fans. I’m like, ‘Taiwan, how did you know me?’ or ‘Brazil, how do you know me?’ The love of the movie and seeing it as a musical has been extraordinary.

David, Elton John’s demos in the cast recording have been described as ‘architectural’ to the soundtrack. As a producer, what’s the process for building a full production from those sketches?

Usually when people write songs for a show, they just do a piano and vocal demo, and then that’s used for the workshopping. Because Elton was touring while he was writing a lot of the show, he spent extra time in the studio at the time of creation and delivered fully orchestrated tracks. He has his full band at his disposal and an amazing keyboard player who does fantastic orchestrations. He delivers a much more fully realised vision of what the song can be.

It’s amazing when you work with these songs, because as you workshop them and try things, a lot of what you unpick, which Elton has done, you end up putting it back together again the way he originally conceived it in the studio. He looks at a lyric and he sees a movie in his head, and then he writes the soundtrack to that movie. He writes very instantaneously off a lyric, usually in a matter of minutes. He thinks theatrically and cinematically about music as he writes it. The brilliant lyrics and Elton’s melodies fit so seamlessly with a very well-known film and story. The music actually fits beautifully into the world and the dramatic and comic arc of the show.

To get what we get from Elton, so fully realised, is a gift. And then we work with wonderful collaborators like Giles Martin and Tom Deering, who are real music visionaries themselves. They build it out and make it sound wonderful in the theatre and work very closely with the cast to get everybody to a place where they’re at their absolute best.

The film and musical deal with themes of ambition, power and finding your place in the world. Why do you think those themes still resonate so much today?

Vanessa: The hunger for power never goes away. You can see it in our politics and in everyday life. That conflict and that hunger for power never goes away because it’s the human condition. You want more. You want more happiness. You want more in life. And I think the creativity to be able to build and make your dreams come true is undying. That’s what this is all about.

David: I agree with everything Vanessa said. I’m happy that in our show, we were able to address how people can sometimes be attracted to things for the wrong reasons or be ambitious for the wrong reasons. I think the film ends a little bit ambiguously. A lot of people who saw the film said, ‘I wouldn’t have left; I would have stayed.’ In the case of our show, Andy’s journey in getting back to who she was, why she went into the business in the first place, and what was important to her – getting back together with Nate and getting back to herself – is something I’m so happy to have in the show.

I think it’s a really important thing to present in today’s society, because a lot of the things that people aspire to aren’t real. They’re images, they’re projected. If you look at the role social media plays in our world now, people are curating their lives, and you’re getting a very idealised or dishonest depiction of what life is really like. Anything you do in life, you should always be true to yourself and follow your heart and what you love. I’m really happy in the show that we had the chance to make that clearer than I think it was in the film.

With a The Devil Wears Prada sequel in the works, could there be a The Devil Wears Prada musical sequel?

David: Who knows? Let’s wait and see what the film is and what it says. When we were approached about working on a musical, we immediately said that The Devil Wears Prada would make a great musical. It’s a really interesting world with interesting characters, and we could see music fitting in with that. If part two has the same thing, who knows? Has anyone done sequels to stage musicals? It’s a new concept. My producer’s ears are tweaking…

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The original cast recording from The Devil Wears Prada: A New Musical is available to order and stream now.