Dreamgirls Costume Change (Original Production)

[sondhead]

Posted: 1/10/07 at 6:02pm

Does anyone know how that super-quick change was done (during Heavy, if I remember correctly)? It sure was an impressive effect.

I searched to see if this thread existed already, but couldn't find anything so sorry if this is re-hash.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 1/10/07 at 6:11pm

For the two super quick changes (for "I Am Changing" and "Heavy") the key words are ........Velcro and snaps. Theoni V. Aldridge was a genius of a costume designer and a couple of friends of mine who were in the show actually demonstrated how they did it. A friend who was one of Jennifer's replacements as Effie told me that during "I Am Changing," once you got to "Walking down that long road, there was nothing I could find ....." the only light on the stage was a pin spot on Effie's face and so the rest of her body was in darkness. All she had to do was keep singing, subtlely reach up across her body to a patch of velcro on her shoulder and pull. The shoulder piece was weighted and once it fell, it would fall and unfold into an entirely new dress that was underneath (it's hard to describe; she showed me how it worked -- use your imagination). Earlier in the run, Effie began the song wearing an overcoat and she simple took it off during the pinspot to reveal a new dress when the light came back up, but later Aldredge figured out how to do this two-dress in one technique.

"Heavy" was basically the same principal -- light, diaphonous, two sided fabric. A simple tug at the shoulder by each of the three girls would produce a new, different colored dress, so that it would appear that they had somehow done a complete costume change in the five seconds after the fringe curtain descended and they all stepped through it on the beat. Genius (all of the designers on Dreamgirls were the best in the biz even before the show, and Bennett pushed them to outdo themselves and go beyond anything they had ever tried or even heard of before -- they each advanced their respective artforms working under Bennett for that show).

Updated On: 1/10/07 at 06:11 PM

[theaterdude87]

Posted: 1/10/07 at 6:16pm

I remember last year for the Philadelphia production they had this really great article on how all the costume and wig changes were done...it was pretty crazy.

[Raviolisun]

Posted: 1/10/07 at 6:18pm

Is it the same way in "Show Off" in The Drowsy Chaperone?

[ahimsa]

Posted: 1/10/07 at 6:21pm

Great story.

Sorta like what William Ivey Long did for Gary Beech in the La Cage revival for the More Mascara song when he goes from bathrobe to glamour gown.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 1/10/07 at 6:25pm

William Ivey has had a couple of "trick dresses" in his shows over the years, but I believe Aldredge did it first (though it's certainly possible that in the long history of costume design, someone did it before her).

[sondhead]

Posted: 1/10/07 at 6:44pm

Yea, Margo I never knew they had changed the effect for I Am Changing. I'm guessing that's how they were able to delete the "I am I am I am I am" bridge that Holliday originally did.

Costume changes like that are really impressive. I wish shows would do it more often. Long's effect for Beach in La Cage is also a stand out, as mentioned earlier.

[Mattbrain]

Posted: 1/10/07 at 7:36pm

Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeetttttttttttt

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 1/10/07 at 7:39pm

It wasn't until the 3rd time that I saw "Dreamgirls" that I was able to figure out how the "I Am Changing" costume change was done.

[DryMartini]

Posted: 1/11/07 at 9:36am

Not sure if I'm remembering this correctly, but during the pin spot transition in "I Am Changing", didn't the set go from a recording studio to a nightclub? I seem to remember the stage suddenly being filled with couples slow dancing as she sang the last chorus. Or is this all in my head?

[Londonskyguy]

Posted: 1/11/07 at 9:42am

My memory may be just as cloudy considering how long ago it was, but I dont recall any set change or people slow dancing.

[best12bars]

Posted: 1/11/07 at 9:43am

Margo---I certainly wasn't there to see this one, but my father remembered a similar "lightning quick" onstage change done with wires (believe it or not) in "Ondine" with Audrey Hepburn.

Something about an actor going from a full suit of armor to a completely different costume on stage with only a light cue change in color to cover it.

The audience gasped and applauded (so he says). This was in the Pre-Velcro Days.

He maintains that was one of the best designed shows he ever saw (and he was a regular first-nighter for just about everything starting in the late-'30s through the late '60s. (After that, not so "regular" since we left NY, but if you name a Broadway show from that Golden Age... he saw it, and usually on opening night.)

Updated On: 1/11/07 at 09:43 AM

[madbrian]

Posted: 1/11/07 at 9:57am

During the Papermill's recent production of R&H's Cinderella, they did both of Cinderella's costume changes right on stage, in a very impressive manner. Her rags-to-riches change before the ball was done as she piroutted around the carriage, and she came around the carriage with a different dress, hair, shoes, and with the smudges gone from her face. Then, at the end of the ball, she ran up the stairs in her gown, the stairs rotated on stage, and she was back in tatters, with different hair and smudges on her face.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 1/11/07 at 12:59pm

I just did that production this last summer and was in charge of Cindys quick changes... Fun.

The one I liked the best was the transformation back to 'ragged' Cindy on the staircase in full view of the audience.

I had everyone asking me how I did that....

One word, magnets.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 1/11/07 at 1:52pm

Best12 --

I figured someone must have done a similar kind of lightning fast quick change before (probably going back to the days of vaudeville at least), but my knowledge of the history of costume design is rather sketchy at best. I imagine it would be quite enlightening to sit down with someone like Aldredge or Jane Greenwood and ask them about some of the tricks of the trade that they picked up over the course of their long careers.

[theleadingplyr]

Posted: 1/11/07 at 2:12pm

TheatreDiva, was that the same way they did the change on the tour with Gibson and Kitt? I thought it was always a double? Thats pretty cool it was magnets!

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 1/11/07 at 2:24pm

It was the same on the tour.


The magnets were in place of velcro and snaps, but there was more too it than that.....

[Sandy in Sable]

Posted: 1/11/07 at 5:52pm

The scene transitions from club to club (whether it's supposed to be the same club or not I don't know), Effie's audition to an actual performance (yes, with ensemble members now onstage as her audience). There's a picture in one of those big Broadway coffee table books of Jennifer Holliday singing "I Am Changing" in the "before" outfit noting the blue sequined material of the "after" dress seen in her sleeves. Months ago, ou-Yay ube-Tay ad-hay e-thay oot-bay eg-lay of this scene. The "I Am I Am I Am" was still in at this point, velcro, snaps, and all.

I know someone who worked with Theoni in The Three Sisters way back in the day. She has an amazing gift for design, her watercolor costume sketches for Dreamgirls belong hanging on a wall (Vogue sequence, farewell performance). I don't know if many of the posters here who are always talking about "The First Wives Club: The Musical" know that she designed the costumes for that movie as well. About two years ago I saw Olympia Dukakis as Clytemnestra, costumes designed by Theoni. Her bio in the program is something I will never forget. D-I-V-A (and rightfully so).

[Broadwayboy2631]

Posted: 1/11/07 at 5:59pm

How does that Apple Tree transformation happen?

[WickedGeek28]

Posted: 1/11/07 at 6:29pm

When the lights are dim and Mark is in the tv, Krisitn has already run offstage and changed and when she returns and the lights come on, it is Passionella sitting in the chair, not Ella.

[soapguy17]

Posted: 1/11/07 at 6:32pm

Sandy, the pig Latin line made me laugh.

[cheezedoodle]

Posted: 1/11/07 at 7:10pm

I worked wardrobe at The Shubert with the LA production and the velcro had been replaced with magnets because the ladies would panic because of the timing and rip the velcrow off during the changes. Our fingers actually bled from haveing to re stitch the velcrow back on after every performance.

That curtain "trick" got applause every time they stepped through it too!

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 1/11/07 at 7:23pm

It's always impressive how Bennett combined every element of the theater to create a specific effect in the audience. The change of dress is a seamless combination of costume design, lighting design, plus the music, lyrics, and the performer herself. Brilliant.
Last night I was watching the Tony clip of Barbara Harris doing the "Oh,To Be A Movie Star"/"Gorgeous" sequence from The Apple Tree, during that number she does an impressive costume change including wig, fake breasts, and what impressed me the most was how all the black stains on her skin were gone. Does anyone know how they did that specific costume change? (sorry for the threadjack).

[wickedfan]

Posted: 1/11/07 at 9:37pm

wickedGeek28 answered that question. Kristin's change is exactly the same as Barbra Harris'.

[zepka102]

Posted: 1/11/07 at 10:25pm

sitting front row at apple tree, i saw they used a double as Kristin was changing into Passionella... it's dark on Ella... and the stains on her skin are some kind of fabric