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!
You can listen to the podcast here.
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
What Vanessa Said
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.”
Vanessa on Meeting Stanley Tucci
“We did actually, we just saw Stanley, uh, last week…Or was it like two weeks ago? Elton had a premiere of a new documentary that’s airing on Disney in December. So, we were there, and Stanley was waiting to do another, um, the red carpet on another event…And his wife said, go say hi. His father was our art teacher in a high school, Mr. Tucci…So his father’s ninety-four and he said, ‘My dad says hi,’ I said, ‘Oh my god, I love your dad. Please tell him I said hi.’ And, uh, yeah. So then of course he met, um, Matt Henry’s playing Nigel…So, they got a photo together, and me and Georgie.”
Vanessa on How She Likes to Wind Down
“I usually have drinks with people that are coming in to see the show. So, I’ve had a lot of, uh, you know, US friends come in, uh, fly in on their way to Paris or whatever, just come in and see the show, which has been great…So a late dinner. And I’ve been watching, um, Married at First Sight UK, but like, zooming through…I’m obsessed with it. Yeah…I watch American, but the UK is much better…Really juicy…And also, you’ve got, you’ve got that, one couple falls out, then you’ve got a new couple introduced, so I’m just getting to, oh, it’s a new couple…So now I’m like, yeah, I love it. I love it.”
Vanessa on Arugula
“Well just like names, like we call it arugula, you call it rocket…So it’s just like getting, ‘Where is the arugula?’ I kept trying to order it…I think it’s like peppery. I put it, that’s the bed for everything. I’ll do that with protein on it…Yeah. That’s my go to green.”
Vanessa on Being in the Kitchen at Home
“Yeah. Especially with my, I have four kids…And I have one grandson…I mean, they’re all adults now, but yeah. The hub is the kitchen.”
Vanessa on Food in New York
“I grew up in, close to New York City, like an hour outside…So tons of Italian influence. My mom loves Chinese foods so there’s a lot of Chinese that’s readily available. And then our sandwiches, we- subs are, that depends on where you are. Like some call them subs, some call them heroes, where I come, we call them wedges…Yeah. So, when you get a wedge, like, you know, growing up, you’d get French bread and then usually you can get an Italian wedge, uh, or turkey, then they layer the turkey, is like that high…And then also our breakfast sandwiches, you know, are, are the, you know, the egg sandwiches that, um, it’s only like New York, you know, you get an egg sandwich. And they, they do salt, pepper, ketchup. That’s yeah, with cheese.”
“We have so many cultures…I mean, I’ve grown up with every, everything’s available…Similar to London though…You can get Bangladesh, I mean, if you try hard enough, you can really kind of find anything.”
Vanessa on What She Loves to Cook
“My quick pasta dish, which I don’t know how I, I saw it on a, you know, I, I used to pull recipes out from newspapers and…Uh, but this is, uh, it’s a Bocconcini, which is a thicker noodle than a spaghetti. And then it’s turkey, uh, ground turkey, but then it is, you know, salt, pepper, butter, a little olive oil, chopped onions and garlic. And then you put paprika and green olives…And a little bit of sour cream. It’s a really different taste and it’s, it is not your regular, you know, tomato sauce that we’ve…So that’s like my big pasta dish, which they, they ask for.”
Vanessa on Her Kids Cooking
“But my kids are, I’ve got two that are great cooks and two that are learning as they want to learn…They’re like, ‘What’s that recipe mom?’…And they, they, they love to cook. Yeah…And some are bakers and some are…”
Vanessa on Missing Her Kids When Travelling
“I do. Thank God for FaceTime. I mean…That and my ring camera, I can check on my dogs. I’ve got two Great Danes at our home that I couldn’t bring here…Yeah. They’re used to the yard, and yeah so wouldn’t know what to do.”
Vanessa on Big Family Parties and Birthdays
“My mom turns eighty-five on December 8th…So, everyone’s just going to stay for the week and then have a party at first. She said, well, I’ll, you know, about forty-five people. We’re up to a hundred and forty-two people…Flying in for my mother’s birthday.”
“I do, I do, uh, I mean, we do, for my mom, we’ve done every five years…So that’s eighty-five. But, um, yeah, my house is usually the, the centre.”
Vanessa on Christmas as a Kid
“Well, it’s just me and my brother…So yeah, we would always very traditional family and we’d go to church on Christmas Eve and come back and have, you know, a dinner, whether we might have Christmas breakfast or dinner…But always, always a great meal.”
Vanessa on Her 2024 Christmas Plans
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, so Christmas Day. I don’t know what I’ll be doing Christmas Eve. I’ll do the show and…We’ll see, ee’ll see what what kid shows up…You get one of the four.”
Vanessa on Ugly Betty
“Our writing staff was incredible. And our read throughs were hilarious…Because I never knew what was gonna happen next. What was she gonna do this episode?…Take the cold sperm from her dead husband?…You know, it’s just like, what? You know, playing softball with Naomi Campbell…Like all these like, being on the roof and just, you know, smashing mannequins. I had no idea what was next, so.”
“You know, our talent was so deep as an ensemble…We just couldn’t wait to play, you know, slamming a door on Betty White’s hand and dragging her…Wilhelmina, you know, Wilhelmina Slater doesn’t get wet, you know.”
Vanessa on Being Crowned Miss America
“I was at university second year. My sophomore year majoring in musical theatre…Which I’m doing as a career. Your freshman year is your core year, so you can’t do any performing…You have to learn how to stage craft and voice and piano and dance, all that stuff. So, my sophomore year I was allowed to perform and I basically did everything…I did all kinds of, um, musicals, and every time I’d perform one of my buddies, they had a friend who was on the board of the Miss Greater Syracuse pageant, and they would say ‘Oh, we’d love to have her be in the pageant,’ because they used to scout their talent from the, the voice department and all that stuff. And I’m not a pageant girl like, no no no. I had auditioned for production of Cyrano de Bergerac, which was our local rep theatre, Syracuse Stage, Got the job. And I was supposed to do that that spring and I’d gotten scholarships the previous two years. The show got cancelled, and I had April free, and I called my mom and I said, ‘Do you think I should do this Miss Greater Syracuse?’ And she’s like, ‘Is there scholarship money?’ It’s like, ‘Yeah.’”
“So, um, entered it in April…And I sang a song that I did in performance class. I bought a, a swimsuit downtown at our local department store and got a gown, and won that in April. My parents didn’t even come ‘cause it, you know, it was like not a big deal. Ended up going to Miss New York state in July, won that. And then I was headed to Atlantic City in September…But all my, all my friends in school were like, ‘Do they know who they have?’ They’re going, ‘What?’…Because I was like a normal university kid who, you know, had a boyfriend, smoked pot, I mean, I’m, you know…And ended up winning the whole thing at twenty years old.”
“So yeah, it was, um, completely unexpected. I knew talent wise and intellect wise, I had what it took, but there had never been a black Miss America that time…We’re talking 1983…But again, being from New York, very multicultural, whatever. So I thought, why not? But then when it actually happened, I had no idea the extent of change that it would actually happen due to me, you know, being me.”
“So, it was the quickest lesson to realise that yes, there’s division in the United States. Yes, there is bigotry and prejudice. And I was kind of in a bubble…Successful bubble, and when I won at twenty years old and being black, I realised that oh I’m getting hate mail because of who I am and what I look like. I was getting death threats because of being the first black Miss America My parents had an FBI file, which I don’t know what your equivalent is, but Federal Bureau of Investigations.”
“Of the death threats that I was getting while I was being Miss America throughout the United States. So, I had no idea the danger that I was actually encountering, that I was being protected from. And also having to prove myself on a daily basis, over and over again as a, as a twenty-year-old. So, it was the hardest period of my life for sure. The biggest kind of achievement, but also the biggest slap in the face because it was, um, a lot of, you know, racism rears its ugly head, and, and I, you know, I was born in 1963 and my parents had me in the middle of John F. Kennedy being shot, Martin Luther King about to be shot, I mean, all this racial unrest, but all this lovely movement for empowerment…And I thought those days were over. We had done it and solved it and being in the eighties. And then it all kind of.”
“But it made me grow up really, really quick…Yeah. And I look back at my kids, at twenty, I go, my god, I was so young…So, I thought I was, you know, brave enough to, to handle anything, and I realise what a baby I was.”
“During that time, I would get elderly black women in tears saying, ‘I never thought I’d see the day.’ I remember being at the inauguration of Obama and, and that same kind of wave of like, I never thought this day would happen and how proud you are collectively as a community. That was kind of a parallel thing when you’re the first. Similar thing with Kamala, you know, with which we just obviously saw what happened with that. But that kind of collective energy of like, can this be the first, can this be a game changer? It’s like a family moment…So it’s, It’s heartbreaking, but it’s also very uplifting.”
Dominion Theatre, London
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