after a show closes...

[rent1988]

Posted: 2/2/05 at 9:41pm

hey everyone. i was just wondering- after a show closes, where does everything go? i know they like take apart the sets and reuse them but what about costumes/props etc.? do the actors get to keep them, or are they used in tours? like, for example, where would the original..."a chorus line" costumes be right now? haha are they stored somewhere or do they just disappear? and not specifically that show, i just picked one.

[Justice]

Posted: 2/2/05 at 9:44pm

They find a home.
This past Halloween, one of the storage units where old costumes were, was giving away bags of B'way costumes from old shows for a very good price.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 2/2/05 at 9:44pm

They used to take the sets out & burn them. What they do now I have no idea

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 2/2/05 at 9:44pm

Tours, other companies around the world, auctions....

[Justice]

Posted: 2/2/05 at 9:47pm

Years ago I tried to get Jarred Emick's poster from Damn Yankees at the Marriot, and they wouldn't give it to me (or sell it, either). I was kinda upset, because I knew it would be destroyed.

[RumTumTugger22]

Posted: 2/2/05 at 9:50pm

Cats had a "garage sale" of sorts.

[Rose_MacShane]

Posted: 2/2/05 at 9:54pm

Some things from CATS wound up on eBay and amazon.com through BC/EFA.

[Ebonic_Singer]

Posted: 2/2/05 at 9:59pm

Yeah, sometimes donations, sometimes other productions, sometimes storage. It all depends.

[chinkie azn jai]

Posted: 2/2/05 at 10:00pm

I think if the costumes, sets, and props won't be used in another production, then they should donate as much as they can to BCEFA or just give it away somehow. Another person's trash is another person's treasure. I know I would love to own almost ANY prop from a Broadway show.

[rent1988]

Posted: 2/2/05 at 10:00pm

when i was in nyc this summer, it was the week after "gypsy" closed. we were walking around and passed the shubert, so i went in and they were taking apart sets and stuff. haha i begged them to sell/give me something..anything. they just laughed

[wildcat]

Posted: 2/2/05 at 10:32pm

Actors certainly don't get to keep costumes. They can offer to buy them but often as not producers hang on to them for possible future remountings. Or, if you're Patti LuPone, you steal them.

[Dreamcatcher]

Posted: 2/2/05 at 10:53pm

Yeah really, they could be putting that stuff to much better uses then burning and destroying sets, props and costumes. All I can say is that if and when RENT closes they'd better not destroy a piece of that set. Those things could really raise alot of money for charities and donations etc.

[bronxboundexpress]

Posted: 2/2/05 at 11:27pm

"i begged them to sell/give me something..anything. they just laughed"

I would laugh too. Get a life.

[InfiniteTheaterFrenzy]

Posted: 2/3/05 at 12:29am

"Or, if you're Patti LuPone, you steal them."

HAHAHAHA what did she steal?

[Jon]

Posted: 2/3/05 at 12:47am

The sets may be used for other productions OUTSIDE of New York City. You will never see a piece of scenery frrom one Broadway show reused in another Broadway show. The stage carpenters/painters, etc. unions have a rule against that, since reusing a peice of sceney would take away work from them.

[peterjoshua]

Posted: 2/3/05 at 11:37am

Patti admits to stealing costumes frequently. In Patti LuPone Live, she did a whole bit about it: "I steal costumes from every show I'm in. I steal costumes, I steal jewelry, I steal wigs. I'm surprised I leave the scenery." And, as this concert was performed just before she went to London to do Sunset Boulevard, she then added, "I can't wait to get my hands on that Norma drag!" During one of her appearances on Rosie's talk show she said that it all started during Evita, because the jewels she wore in one scene were originally Ethel Merman's jewels from Call Me Madam, and she just couldn't bear the thought that one of these days somebody would probably just trash them, not knowing their history.

Sorry for the semi-highjack. We now return you to your regularly scheduled thread...

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 2/3/05 at 12:19pm

I wonder what Patti did with Ethel Merman's necklace since she sold most of that memorabilia on eBay.

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 2/3/05 at 12:26pm

You can probably pick up a cheap surf board out on 49th Street in a couple of days.

[EponineThenardier]

Posted: 2/3/05 at 12:30pm

I know after Les Miz closed everything, all the costumes, props, the entire set was shipped to Belgium for their opening of Les Miz. However God knows how many costumes they may have gone through to fit the various actors.

[redhotinnyc2]

Posted: 2/3/05 at 12:36pm

A lot of things live in large storage compartments. When I did the ten year anniversary tour of Sunday in the Park with George, we used all the original Broadway costumes - it was very exciting to wear a suit with Charles Kimbrough's nametag sewn into it.

[CatieElphie1]

Posted: 2/3/05 at 2:48pm

this is kinda random, but along with theatre...what about movie costumes?? Like LOTR...they are all just sitting in storage...thousands and thousands of props and costumes..what i wouldn't give to be let loose in there for an hour...

[TheOneAndOnly]

Posted: 2/3/05 at 2:59pm

After the bway Seussical closed, I'm sure much of it was put towards the Nat'l tour, but not everything... After the final performance, Kevin Chamberlin & Ann Harada could be seen passing out the pink & green 'clovers' from the set to fans at the stage door. They also had feathers from Gertrude's one-feathered-tail, and the wooden 'berries' that Gertrude ate to grow her tail. :)

[Jacques_Clouseau]

Posted: 2/3/05 at 3:20pm

You will never see a piece of scenery from one Broadway show reused in another Broadway show.

I'm not entirely sure about that... Many of the tables and chairs from the 'Dance of the Vampires' tavern were regifted to 'Fiddler'. I'm not sure you can count chairs as scenery, but they are certainly set pieces.

[jonartdesigns]

Posted: 2/3/05 at 4:14pm

i'm pretty sure actors can stipulate in their contracts to keep their costumes- when sebastian bach was on mtv cribs he showed them all of the jekyll/hyde costumes in his closet saying he got to keep them

[personB]

Posted: 2/3/05 at 5:25pm

I know for costumes, they rent them out to other shows. My HS did Forum, and when they rented the costumes, Pseudolus' had "N.L." written on the tag, and other costumes had the actors' initials all over the tags.