Where costumes and wigs go to die...

[goodoneinlou2]

Posted: 5/24/12 at 12:46pm

With Priscilla closing, a question I've had for years raised it's head again.

Where to the costumes/wigs from closing Broadway shows/tours go? Obviously in Priscilla's case, they'll likely re-use them for the tour (if possible.) But what about shows that don't go on to tour - that close outright, or tour and then close. Do they go to costume shops? Is there a contract with the designers that they are destroyed or go back to them?

I know there are special conditions - like Glenn Close in Sunset had it stipulated in her contract that she got to keep her costumes and wigs. But I've always wondered - what about all the others?

I know from a prior thread here that sets are often scaled down to tour, while many are simply scrapped and sent to a landfill in NJ. However it seems to me that a wig or costume could go on to a much more usable life than a set ever could.

There's probably a multiude of answers - but does anyone know?

(And please board smart@$$es - I already did a search for a thread on this and didn't find one in the first 20 pages of results.)

Updated On: 5/24/12 at 12:46 PM

[Gothampc]

Posted: 5/24/12 at 12:49pm

Sometimes they are sold to regional and community theaters.

[morosco]

Posted: 5/24/12 at 12:55pm

Goodspeed Opera has a large number of complete sets of costumes from original broadway shows. Grand Hotel, Spider Woman, Sunset Boulevard, etc.
Costume Rental Collection (many pics)

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 5/24/12 at 12:56pm

Its usually a long path before a Broadway costume would end up in the closet of a community theatre.

The costumes are retained by the producers of the production. Most of the time (for a hit show at least) they are recycled and used for touring productions. From there, they usually are acquired by a large costume rental house like the TDF Costume Collection.

From there outcasts might be sold to smaller regional or community theatres.

There are exceptions to that of course, but it would be very rare for a regional theatre to buy directly the Broadway costumes for something like Priscilla.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 5/24/12 at 1:13pm

They never die. They get re-used and rented out as costume packages.

As Morosco said, Goodspeed has a HUGE collection of costumes from past Browadway shows for rent, including SUNSET BLVD.

The warehouse is amazing, and if you are ever plan on visiting the area, call ahead to see if you can set up a tour of it. You will not be sorry!

[nasty_khakis]

Posted: 5/24/12 at 1:13pm

Lord, I forgot just how awful and cheap those Follies costumes were.

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 5/24/12 at 1:44pm

Or if it's a very large franchise -- like Les Miz -- they may go to another production in another part of the world. I think at one point most of the costumes in Duisburg had been on the US tour. I'm pretty sure I also read that some of the costumes in Phantom on Broadway came from the sit-down San Francisco production.

Updated On: 5/24/12 at 01:44 PM

[kadu335]

Posted: 5/24/12 at 2:00pm

Adding to what LizzieCurry posted about franchises sending costumes and wigs to productions around the world, the brazilian production of Priscilla got a lot of the costumes and wigs (as well as the whole set - including the bus) from the West End production.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 5/24/12 at 2:45pm

The Le Miz costumes are all in a huge warehouse in NY, being stored until someone needs them.


How many is a brazillion?