Understudies and Costumes

[theminutepast]

Posted: 2/20/07 at 5:04pm

In the Julia Murney Wicked video on Broadway.com, she says that the black dress in the 2nd Act is specially made for each actress who plays Elphaba. (I'm not familiar with Wicked, so I hope I got the details right). This brought up a question that I have always wondered about. Do understudies wear the costumes for the main performer or do they have their own costumes for the role they understudy? It seems like it would be way too expensive to have separate costumes for the understudies, but it also seems like it might not always be easy to find understudies that have the same dimensions as the main performer. So, how does this work?
Updated On: 2/20/07 at 05:04 PM

[stagegrrrl]

Posted: 2/20/07 at 5:06pm

they have their own costumes

[theminutepast]

Posted: 2/20/07 at 5:07pm

I should have included stand-bys in my question, too.

[stagegrrrl]

Posted: 2/20/07 at 5:08pm

they also have their own costumes. broadway budgets are huge.

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 2/20/07 at 5:17pm

They're not always ready, though. Chris Peluso and Sean MacLaughlin had to wear Jim Stanek and Drew Sarich's costumes for their performances in the final week of Lestat.

[WickedGeek28]

Posted: 2/20/07 at 5:29pm

Instead of making costumes, the producers decided to spend that money on recording a never released CD.

[jonartdesigns]

Posted: 2/20/07 at 5:30pm

i know in the case of wicked it takes 5 weeks to make the new performers their costumes, so for their first 5 weeks ( i assume this only regards the understudies) they wear a "loaner costume"