That’s All! The Stars Came Out for the ‘Devil Wears Prada’ Musical Charity Gala in London
Is that the… Vivienne Westwood dress? Yes, it was—worn by Lily Collins on the red carpet for the charity gala premiere of The Devil Wears Prada: The Musical, held on Sunday night in London in support of the Elton John AIDS Foundation. The Emily in Paris actor was just one of a glittering roll-call of stars stepping through the doors of the West End’s Dominion Theatre: Elsewhere in the Art Deco foyer, as flutes of Champagne were passed around, you could spot Sir Elton John (who composed the show’s music) and David Furnish walking arm-in-arm with Donatella Versace, actors Elizabeth Hurley and Luke Evans in their best red carpet finery, and fashion designers Zandra Rhodes and Betsey Johnson in characteristically maximalist looks of their own making. (Vogue’s editor-in-chief Anna Wintour also made an appearance, wearing—what else?—Prada.)
As the warning bell rang out to signal the beginning of the show, the kaleidoscopically outfitted crowd made their way to their seats, ready for two acts of singing, dancing, and eye-popping fashion—not least thanks to Vanessa Williams’s wardrobe as the legendary Runway editor Miranda Priestly, which featured plenty of power shoulders, sunglasses, and Hermès handbags.
Rapturous applause followed solo numbers from the show’s stars Georgie Buckland (as the delightfully geeky protagonist Andy Sachs) and Matt Henry (as Miranda’s long-suffering gay deputy, Nigel). The loudest cheers, however, were reserved for Amy Di Bartolomeo’s scene-stealing turn as the icy first assistant Emily, whose zingers—delivered in a clipped, Home Counties accent—brought the house down. (Many of the film’s most memorable gags have happily made their way from screen to stage: Emily is still eating a cube of cheese whenever she feels like she’s about to faint, and is only one stomach flu away from her goal weight.) A joke about Versace herself—on her first day at Runway, Andy quizzically announces that she has a “Donna Taylor” on the line—saw the fashion designer visibly break into laughter and clap from her seat with John and Furnish in the theater’s royal box.
As the show came to a close with a standing ovation, John took the stage to offer his praise to his collaborators on the project, as well as to remark on his ongoing health struggles, ahead of the release of Elton John: Never Too Late, an intimate new documentary heading to Disney+ on December 13. “As some of you may know, I have had issues and now I have lost my sight,” he said. “It’s hard for me to see [the production], but I love to hear it and it sounded good tonight!” The music legend left the stage to another round of enthusiastic applause.
Then, it was on to the British Museum, which had been transformed into a colorful fashion wonderland for the evening, with Mini Coopers topped with signs bearing some of the movie’s most iconic quotes, and pink-and-red lights illuminating the museum’s Egyptian Galleries. Guests sipped espresso martinis and shimmied to a band performing camp classics from the Pointer Sisters to Tina Turner before heading off into the typically drizzly London night. As Miranda Priestly herself would say? That’s all.
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