Edna Turnblad Costumes

[CouldBeWorse]

Posted: 11/7/14 at 6:17pm

Sorry if this has been brought up before. I did a search but couldn't find anything.

Does anyone know why Edna had two different costumes for "You Can't Stop the Beat"?

This one that Harvey Fierstein wore on the Tonys and when he returned to close out the show:


And then this one that he wore at some point, along with all of the replacements (Paul Vogt in this case):


It's just interesting to me that Harvey had two radically different costumes, but the red dress was used on all replacements. And then Michael Ball used the red dress and the boa one in the UK.

Are there any other examples of a costume going through a complete change during the course of a run?

Posted: 11/7/14 at 6:25pm

I would bet the feathers were expensive to replace and difficult to clean

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 11/7/14 at 6:44pm

Sometimes if a costume gets changed during previews the production will still hang on to the original piece to potentially use as a back up or for understudies and swings (when a friend of mine was a Tracy cover in the Broadway production her dress for "You Can't Stop the Beat" was different than what was used for the actual Tracy and it turned out to be a rejected design from earlier in the show's life). It could be, and just my speculation here, that for the Tony Awards they didn't have enough time to prep and clean the red dress from the matinee performance and decided to just use the one we saw.

When Harvey returned (and again, this is just a theory) it could be that his original red dress had been altered for somebody else or had just worn out and rather than go through the expense of building a new one the producers decided to pull this one out of storage.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 11/8/14 at 1:08am

You'd have to speak to Fierstein / Ball, Long and the creatives for a specific reason.

What I can say is that the pink dress far lighter in weight, easier to get in and out of, easier to move in, etc.. And a cheaper build.

Personally, I like both dresses.

The pink dress only bothered me in that there was never a newly designed shoe to match it.

The red dress was a heavy, very details, complex beast of a costume and, yes, Harvey's (and likely, Ball's) was likely altered to fit a replacement in the role and the expense to alter it again for a short period would have been great.

As a note on the red dress, it varied a bit in neck line and detail from actor to actor, as did the jewelry..but always maintained that classic color and silhouette that not only harkened back a bit to Channing as Folly, but more specifically, Divine in Pink Flamingos, so depending on the audience member, there were one or two wonderful inside jokes to the costume.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 11/8/14 at 1:12am

Oh god this brings back memories of the time broadwayguy went off on this list of injustices the powers that be at Hairspray committed when they made some changes to the show. It was nutzo.

[06s091]

Posted: 11/8/14 at 1:31am

I'm not exactly sure why the pink one was introduced but it seems like it's very few Ednas who wear it.
My guess is this: the red dress is the original design and the pink one was originally made for special performances (like the Tonys) and afterwards was used by Harvey.
The only other person I've seen wear the pink one is Michael Ball. In the West End production he wore the original red one but on the first UK tour he wore the pink one. He shared the role with two other guys but as far as I know they both wore the regular red dress.



As for the question about other costumes going through big changes during the run the first one that comes to mind is the Masquerade dress that Christine wears at the beginning of act 2 in Phantom of the Opera. The original London design was very different and was changed when the show transferred to Broadway. Then later that year the broadway design was implemented in the West End production. The original dress is often called either "The Saloon Girl" or "The Hersey's Kiss dress" and the current one is known as "The Star Princess".

Original dress:


Replacement:







Updated On: 11/8/14 at 01:31 AM

[06s091]

Posted: 11/8/14 at 1:35am

sorry... double posted Updated On: 11/8/14 at 01:35 AM