Costumes for Hollywood Musicals
Broward-based Costume World plans to open a producing theater company along with its museum at the former Caldwell Theater building in Boca Raton around September, CEO and President Marilynn Wick confirmed Thursday. She has worked with the biggest names in the industry and provided theatrical costumes to producing organizations all over the world. But let me assure those of you who are more optimistic folk, most of the neighbors of the nationally renowned Goodspeed Opera House have very little regard for the theater company that has brought great revenue to their little hamlet of East Haddam, CT. Musicals including ANNIE, SHENANDOAH and MAN OF LA MANCHA began there. All the costumes are displayed under the gleaming light from of the original chandelier from Tavern on the Green restaurant, of course. Theater, of course, but also the huge demand for costumes for Hollywood musicals as well.
There were more than 500 boxes in all, newly purchased by Marilynn Wick to add to her multi-million dollar collection of costumes at Costume World which she rents to professional theaters and high school productions. The mother-daughter duo opened a museum in 2011, showcasing more than one million costumes from nearly 50 shows, guiding daily tours through a non-descript South Florida warehouse against a backdrop of hand painted sets and a marquee replica from storied Broadway theatres like the Winter Garden. In 1990, she made a deal to provide all the clown costumes to the legendary Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus.
The single mother said she fell in love with the theater decades ago when she saw her first Broadway play at age 7. Little by little, she purchased costumes and Broadway trinkets from auctions. She now runs four costume stores around the country, a division that rents costumes to theaters and the museum. They also receive frequent phone calls from the White House press secretary and handle costumes for shows at army bases around the world, as well as national historic libraries.
For many of the shows, the Wicks own multiple sets: the original Broadway costumes, the Broadway revivals and two or three that their own wardrobe company has recreated to rent out for school productions. The first real musicals were born under MGM with Broadway Melody later to be followed by The Wizard of Oz and Little Caesar. In the beginning, musicals featured similar themes, revamped versions of stage plays, and backstage tales.
When the song from The Wizard of Oz won an Academy Award, it opened the doors to other more spectacular musicals with extravagant, artistic sets and expensive costumes. Among those who followed the way to stardom in the musicals were Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Gene Kelly, Howard Keel and Kathryn Grayson, and Gordon MacRae. One of the most popular musicals of all time is highly praised for its music, sets, and costumes. Often there were 12 to 16 dancers to clothe, along with the principals’ costumes.
Some of the earlier musicals of note are: Show Boat, Singing in the Rain, For Me and My Gal, Ziegfeld Follies, Brigadoon, Oklahoma, The King and I, Carousel, South Pacific, Gigi, West Side Story, The Sound of Music, My Fair Lady, and The Music Man. The most stunning costumes often include bright colors and fabulous sparkles and it’s not surprising that Priscilla won the Tony Award for Best Costuming in a Musical because the amount of color and glitter is astounding. There is so much glitter; the costumes used about two to three pounds of glitter a month!
The costumes are so detailed, there are incredible details you couldn’t even see if you wanted to unless you were half a foot away from the costume. It just goes to show how much work the costumes put in to make costumes look realistic and accurate. Fifties clothes, in particular 1950’s dresses, persist to serve as the impetus for a sizable number of 1950s costumes for Halloween night and all year long.