Theatre Royal teams up with Sir Elton John

Megastar will work on musical in Devon

Plymouth’s Theatre Royal is working on a major co-production with music by megastar Elton John, an adaptation of the 2006 film The Devil Wears Prada, which will open in Devon next summer before transferring to London’s West End.

The coup is part of the theatre’s plan to return to producing more of its own work. Theatre Royal chief executive James MacKenzie-Blackman could hardly contain his excitement when he revealed it this week to Plymouth councillors.

A multi-million-pound investment, the show will be built in Plymouth and run at the Theatre Royal for four weeks. A hundred cast members and backstage personnel will spend 10 weeks in the city and Sir Elton is due to be here too.

“This will be the start of us doing a lot more of our own work,” Mr MacKenzie-Blackman told the council’s growth and infrastructure overview and scrutiny committee from London after sealing the deal. “Building huge musicals in advance of them transferring to the West End allows us to create those jobs we really need and tackle the skills challenges we currently have in the creative sector.”

He said it is important that carpenters, welders and electricians are given opportunities to work in the creative industry in Plymouth if they don’t want to work at the Dockyard or Princess Yachts.

The theatre boss told councillors that 100 people working on the production over 10 weeks equals 10,000 bed nights in the city, contributing to the hospitality sector and spend.

He said the venue was the most well-attended theatre in the UK with 15,000 people a week seeing performances, but it has a budget deficit and can no longer rely on filling the main Lyric theatre for 52 weeks of the year with other company’s products.

As well as working with producers to create its own shows, Mr Mackenzie-Blackman said the theatre was reviewing its work with children, young people and families.

He said he is committed to supporting Plymouth City Council in delivering its own targets helping children and raising ambitions.

“Creativity been eroded from the curriculum over the last 10 years,” he said. “It is very difficult to get children out of school now and into the theatre, but we want children, regardless of their background, to have access to creativity and culture as we know as we know it brings happiness and a sense of wellbeing.

“We are proud to be based in Plymouth and we will continue to be as ambitious as we can not only for our own organisation but how creativity feeds into the lives of all the residents of Plymouth.”

Cabinet member for culture Cllr Jemima Laing (Lab, Stoke) said it is fantastic that Plymouth is the talking point for people at the top of the creative industries and its work is building a reputation for Plymouth.

Cllr Charlotte Carlyle (Con, Compton) said she is impressed by the productions at the theatre over the last 18 months and the plans to allow more children to access the theatre. She hoped creative opportunities would be brought out to communities living beyond the city centre too.

Hannah Harris, chief executive officer at Plymouth Culture, said 132 venues across the city bring arts to the community, from pubs and village halls to schools, and the council would be sharing more information with the public about it.

The Theatre Royal has had a number of hits when it previously co-produced shows, the most notable being Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story, which opened in 1989 and has gone on to be performed more than 23,000 times around the world. It returned to Plymouth in 2019 to start its thirtieth anniversary tour.

Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway starred in the The Devil Wears Prada movie. The cast for the forthcoming Theatre Royal production hasn’t been announced, but it will open in Plymouth next July before transferring to London’s Dominion Theatre. It was originally  due to premier in Chicago in 2019, but wasn’t thought to be ready. It then had a limited run there for about a month in 2022, but Sir Elton later said the show wasn’t ready and it would take about a year to come together. Chicago’s loss is to be Plymouth’s gain.