Elton John revealed during a gala performance of his new musical The Devil Wears Prada, for which he wrote the lyrics, that he was physically unable to watch the show. The reason for this was his ongoing vision problems, the Guardian reported.

Speaking on stage, the 77-year-old singer thanked his husband David Furnish, "who has been my rock".

"I couldn't come to many of the previous ones because, as you know, I lost my sight. So it's hard for me to watch it. But I love listening to it and it sounded really good tonight," he said.

In September, John shared that a severe eye infection he contracted in July while in France had left him blind in his right eye and with "limited vision" in his left.

Last week, he said on "Good Morning America" that his eyesight delayed his next album with longtime collaborator Bernie Topin.

"Unfortunately, I lost my vision in my right eye in July because I got an infection in the south of France and it's been four months and I still can't see, and my left eye is not the best. So there's hope that everything's going to be okay, but... I'm kind of at a standstill right now because I can do something like that (the interview), but to go into the studio and record, I don't know because I can't see any of the lyrics to begin with," Elton explained.

The Devil Wears Prada has just begun performances in London's West End at the Dominion Theatre. The gala performance on the evening of 1 December was organised to raise funds for Elton John's AIDS Foundation.

The film The Devil Wears Prada, which was originally a novel by writer Lauren Weisburger and later adapted for film, tells Andy's story. She is an aspiring journalist who becomes the assistant to the famous fashion magazine editor Miranda Priestley. In the musical, Priestley is played by American model and actress Vanessa Williams.

The star-studded event was attended by many famous faces from the fashion world, including Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour. She has long been rumoured to be the inspiration for Priestley's heroine.

"The public and the people I work with have to decide if there is any similarity between me and Miranda Priestley," Wintour told the BBC on the red carpet. | BGNES