Saturday night live-tweeting #PlaybillPlayback of @BandstandBway! (special #costume edition). I miss this show!
Bandstand is the largest musical I’ve ever worked on, but it was specifically designed not to look that way. It was key that the clothes look like they belonged to real people. Bless our actors for doing this marathon of a show in ragged wools and droopy rayon.
there are over 200 unique costume looks. This 1st number, Just Like It Was Before, is divided into 11 beats and visits 12 locations-each dancer is doing 3-5 changes in one song. There was a big version of this chart taped to our tech table to keep it straight #PlaybillPlayback
The set doesn’t change until act 2, so the costumes and the lights needed to be shorthand for where we were. This cigarette girl at The Rio is one of my favorites.
For the folks who thought a show called "Bandstand" would be all jazz hands and sparkle vests, we have just 2 and you just saw them in "I Know A Guy" ;) #PlaybillPlayback
Some of the research collages that sent me to the emergency room on the way to 1st rehearsal. It’s nice to see the way early images shape what ends up on stage
Julia's "messy" apron was so hard! In order for it to look bad at all, she looked like she had just ripped open a bag of flour and rolled around in blueberries. It's a bit much on screen! This was the Paper Mill Playhouse version. We made it Navy for Broadway #PlaybillPlayback
Pretty sure #CoreyCott still has some of Donny's tight polo shirts
Our surplus guy sent an email complaining about Donny's dog tags. I had done a lot of research about the rules post discharge-we had a valid dramatic reason for them being "wrong", but in the end, I didn't want anyone distracted by that so I went with Jim's way. #PlaybillPlayback
Arnold Levine made the most beautiful felt tilt-hat that Julia used to add to signal we had gone from try-outs in Cleveland to Ohio state finals. But the script changed, those competitions got merged together and the hat became superfluous. #madeinNY #PlaybillPlayback
This look also moves into Right This Way, which needs to feel raw. Some of the guys throw off their sport-coats or loosen ties, but it’s hard to remove this particular style of hat in a huffy, dramatic way
A lovely close-up of Jean Anne in process! Glorious work from John Kristiansen NY https://www.instagram.com/jpkny.inc/
Nobody was the my favorite to design. It’s fantasy, but on a real human scale. What if every person in Cleveland got to have their pretty woman moment, dressed-up, groomed, sexed-up with confidence?
We started pulling out some of the browns of Cleveland and revealing the colors of engorgement
red, purple, navy, fleshy pink!

The dancers’ dresses in Nobody are inspired by the late 40s designs of very forward looking Joset Walker. I drew on the lines of her famous sundresses, but reinterpreted in cocktail fabrics. This complex origami-esque draping was so interesting to figure out!
The Jamie/Max duet for Welcome Home Romantic is one of my favorite moments in @BandstandBway and @ABlankenbuehler made it up to cover a quick change. You're welcome, Andy ;) #PlaybillPlayback
I’ve been waiting for the right moment to share this!! The finished dress arrived at The Jacobs during tech so we had to test it our somewhere bigger than @lauraosnes dressing room. Worked perfect except for the auto-faucet at the end
(watch it after with sound on!)

I was just about to say this! Every other Julia wears her blue floral dress in this scene, but I'm just a sucker for Laura's puppy dog eyes https://twitter.com/LauraOsnes/status/1249155048027930624?s=20
1st time these girls came onstage, we all realized at the same time that, even though they were based on research I had looked at 100 times, they really kind of looked like vaginas. oops! We made some adjustments, it got better--but for sexist set-dressing, it kind of works?
My Italian grandfather and his brother were in the military and were musicians. I loved how @BandstandBway let me bring his memory to work with me. #PlaybillPlayback
Thanks for everyone who watched and followed along! So amazing to see the work of my fellow designers @DavidKorins, @jjjanas, @Nevstein, #JeffCroiter again. xo