I'd have to list two shows from 1981 -- the original Theoni Aldredge costumes for Dreamgirls and the William Ivey Long costumes for Nine.
Because of the blank canvas of the set in Dreamgirls, Aldredge's costumes did the work in the production, effortlessly taking the show through fashion of the 1960s and 1970s. The production's costumes featured two coup de theatres, courtesy of the costumes, the famous "Heavy" costume change, where you see the three girls in one costume in a television studio, and the next second they walk through a silver curtain in different costumes for a San Francisco concert apperance, and the transforming dress for "I Am Changing" where Effie's dress converts itself in the middle of the number for a change of scene. The disco dresses for "One Night Only" are also spectacular, and finally, the "Hard to Say Goodbye" gowns, are white gowns to end all white gowns.
The original production of Nine put William Ivey Long on the map, and his work was extraordinary. The 21 women were costumed in individual, exquisitely crafted black dresses, each perfectly designed for the character and for the actress wearing the outfit. For the "Casanova" sequence, the show's black and white palate suddenly went crazy into a riot of red and green technicolor, that at the time was considered a bit of a nod to the famed "Loveland" sequence in the original "Follies". In the dreamlike coda of the musical, the women entered in white versions of their black costumes, another eye-popping moment.
Both sets of costumes were exceedingly memorable. Long took home the Tony that year, but the work of both designers was exemplary.
"Gif me the cobra jool!"
Updated On: 8/6/04 at 12:47 AM
