Slaying on Stage
Sunday night, George and I sat down to partake in the 75th Annual Tony Awards, really the only major awards show I watch these days. Partly because of my background in theatre that will forever have a hold on me, and the other part is because it is the only show where the people working it have just come from their matinees and will proceed into one day off to start their 8-show week all over again. Say what you will about theatre people, but they are some of the hardest working people out there.
However, my bone to pick is with every awards show, why in 2022 when there are so many behind the scenes docs we are still relinquishing the designers to commercial breaks and gatekept programs? I found out that Paramount+ had its own event before the nationally televised event that was specifically for honoring all nominated designers. Yes, they will make the argument that “we got our own program” so what’s the gruff, but this wasn’t advertised. Also, if you don’t pay a subscription for the service then there is no chance of you seeing it. This is the ultimate form of gatekeeping. I know that I shout about this issue quiet often but really it breaks my heart to see the work of my peers be shoved to the side, when Broadway is built on the spectacle that these art forms create. Set, lights, costumes, props, all make the productions before your eyes well rounded theatre, and allow the actors and directors to play in that world. The Costume Designers Guild has a brilliant hashtag for their fight for the pay gap and gaining recognition and it is “Naked Without Us”. Which is absolutely true.
Well enough of my ranting on the subject I know that this will not be my last, but I want to highlight some of my favorite horror musicals and their costume designers for their hard work. Not only do they have built a wardrobe for the main cast, but they need to have enough doubles for 8-shows a week, plus understudies and swings. This is no small feat.
In 1979 one of the first horror musical to take the stage was Sondheim’s bloody masterpiece Sweeney Todd; the Demon Barber of Fleet Street. This gory look at a barber who kills his customers and makes them into meat pies has been revived time and time again and even received the Hollywood treatment. But in 1979 it made it’s debut on Broadway with Len Cariou as the Todd and Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Lovet. His sadistic baking partner. Franne Lee was the costume designer who won the Tony for best costume design for this show. Not only is she a powerhouse on the stage but she started as the original Costume and production designer of SNL in 1975. Saturday Night Live and Broadway seem to have a special connection because the original costume designer of Little Shop of Horrors Tom Broecker is now head of costuming at the New York institution. To be fair both mediums are New York institutions, so I am not surprised by this trajectory at all.
Little Shop is one of my favorite musicals for stage and screen and opened at the Workshop Players Art Theatre in May of 1982. Based on the 1960 movie of the same name, it tells the story of Seymore (Lee Wilkof) who finds a mysterious plant after an eclipse of the sun. The plant seems to thrive when fed human flesh, and Seymore’s care for the plant gets out of hand. Differing from the movie on stage the plant winds up killing Seymore, his love Audrey, and boss Mr. Musnik. Although there is an alternative deleted scene of this shot for the movie the final cut features a happy ending of Seymore and Audrey living happily. This musical was only nominated for a few awards, and despite how popular it is was only on actual Broadway for a short time. Each remounting has found its home Off-Broadway.
When adapting horror to the stage, we often find that musicals tend to be on the lighter side. Going for laughs rather then scares. This makes sense, when you are breaking the pace of speech to burst out into song, it drops the anticipation that needs to build in order to have a successful scare. No musicals have done it better than 2007’s Young Frankenstein and 2019’s Beetljuice. Both adapted from previous films brings these larger then life characters to the stage with laughs, music, death, and the advancement of science. Both costumed designed by the legendary Broadway designer William Ivey Long (who has unfortunately become legendary for reasons beyond his work when last year headlines hit that he was charged with sexual misconduct and predatory behavior for many years). Both shows won a myriad of awards, but only Beetlejuice was nominated for best costume. It really pains me to speak of his work so highly because of the man that he is, but the costumes in both these shows do not disappoint and have become visual features for buying a ticket.
Then there are those shows who are able to transcend into the horrors of their original source material and still fulfill their musical duties. American Psycho was adapted for the stage in 2013 for the London stages. Staring Matt Smith as the high and mighty Patrick Bateman. It was then brought to the states in 2015 for workshop productions and in 2016 made its Broadway debut. Taking the novel by Brian Easton Ellis and later film by Mary Harron, the musical version of American Psycho was able to retain its sterile feelings and left you with uneasy synth ballads. I attribute this in part to the music by Duncan Sheik, who to me is one of the most revolutionary modern composers to this day, past hits include Spring Awakening. Sheik is not a song and dance man, but a rock star who has found his way into the Broadway pipeline and has produced hits that create grounding where there wouldn’t be in musical theatre. Costume Designer Katrina Lindsay took the look and feel of Isis Mussenden and made the hard world of 1980’s corporate New York completely her own. This is a musical I wish I could have witnessed on the stage. While it didn’t win any of its Tony nominations for costumes Lindsay did take home the Drama Desk Award and Outer Circle Award. Solidifying her in the annals of Broadway. She would later go on to design Costumes for the Broadway production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.
It is important to keep the work of our peers alive and well (or dead and buried depending on the subject matter of your show). More awards show’s need to take a page from the Fangoria Chainsaw Awards book by highlighting every person and honoring their achievements. It takes a village, and theatre especially has one of the hardest working villages. There’s a reason the “city that never sleeps” hosts the industry that also rarely sleeps. I hope in the future that these practices will change, and we will see more then the egos of actors on display during prime-time broadcasting. It becomes tiresome and uninspiring to young creatives that want to work behind the scenes. I love my actor friends dearly and I do not hold them to blame. It is not their fault that our culture by and large will only accept the work of some without realizing what goes into making art. I myself have experienced this, where others have discredited or taken credit for my work. It’s exhausting to consistently defend yourself, but it is so important to continue to do so. Walk away from this with a flutter of jazz hands and know that behind every stage exit is someone pulling back a curtain, so the actor doesn’t trip.
