I went to see Xanadu on Broadway tonight..... meh. I'm a big kitschy fan of the movie so I was super excited about seeing it. There was some things I liked, some things I didn't. Overall it was very very gay. (I can say this because they said it themselves several times through out the show.) If you want to see it, go. If not, don't. As far as reviews go, I think that's a fair statement.
But we're here to talk costume. David Zinn was the costume designer. According to playbill this was his first Broadway show, lots of theater and opera before that.
Before I went, I didn't like what I saw in pictures. Of course that's always unfair. One of the major themes in the show is that it takes place in 1980 Venice Beach... this is a constant joke. I think he was going for a goddess slash 80s thing with the muses... I think it worked, but only if you thought about it alot.
The best scene (not pictured above) is when she's on Mt. Olympus talking to Zeus and the cast comes out dressed as different gods and goddesses, including a centaur and Medusa... he's clearly gifted at comedy design. Every costume was head to toe white (with a little gold accent) and hilarious. Amazing that an all white array of characters works but it totally did. I wonder if he had to fight for it. The last scene (pictured above) is grotesquely 80s disco and it's awesome. Also the best scene of the show.
The muses costumes bugged me the most though, which is what they're in most of the time. Like I said- some of it's good, some if it's only ok. Although I've been seeing alot of Broadway lately and I'm starting to come to the conclusion that I just don't like Broadway design. Sometimes it's glitzy for glitzy's sake and I'm not sure that's a good thing.
Here's the website (warning: sound):
At the bottom of the page there's the Xana Fun section where there's a full array of costume sketches (this is only a snippet). Each one will blow up when you scroll over it. Sketches are always fun!
