The Devil Wears Prada musical redeems its original villain of toxic masculinity – and I'm not mad about it

Georgie Buckand as Andy and Rhys Whitfield as Nate in The Devil Wears Prada musical at the Dominion Theatre - (Matt Crockett)

Everyone knows that the real villain of the 2006 cult classic movie The Devil Wears Prada isn’t Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep). Sure, she’s the boss from toxic workplace hell, but the actual baddie is much more insidious: the awful wannabe chef boyfriend. But while the new West End musical adaptation is a mostly faithful adaptation of the source material, one character gets a saint-like rehabilitation.

In the film, poor Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway) is trying to make it in the world of magazine journalism with zero help from her undermining, cheese-obsessed chef-adjacent boyfriend Nate Cooper (Adrian Grenier). Sure, he’s supportive at first, but once he gets tired of her pulling long hours and refusing his Jarlsberg-loaded toasties he becomes surly and mean. You honestly can’t blame Andy for sacking Nate off to shag a publishing sleazeball Christian Thompson (Simon Baker) at Paris Fashion Week after enduring endless not-so-subtle digs at her success.