Twenty-one years: That’s how long Wicked has been running at New York’s Gershwin Theatre. $1.66 billion: That’s how much it’s grossed on Broadway (at the time I'm writing this). Twenty-five: That’s how many actors have played Elphaba full-time. Add to that the 238 costume changes, 226 pairs of shoes, and 84 wigs per performance, and one’s eyes begin to water a bit. It’s a lot—but then again, isn’t “a lot” sort of Wicked ’s whole thing?
It’s a big show about the powers of good and evil, with a talking goat, flying monkeys, and a spiky love triangle thrown in for good measure. And this November, this juggernaut of a musical—now starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo—will hit theaters. And tasked with ensuring an authentic representation of the classic, the man behind every iconic look in this ambitious adaptation, is Oscar-nominated costume magician Paul Tazewell.
It's Just Life, So Keep Dancing Through.
Paul Tazewell was 16 years old, and living in Akron, Ohio, the first time he designed costumes for a high school production of The Wiz. He's been designing costumes for Broadway, regional theatres, film, and television for over three decades since; Tazewell is just that guy. He's more than earned his spot as one of the industry’s most revered designers. You can see his Academy Award-nominated work in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story or the Tony Award-winning Broadway production of Hamilton or Kasi Lemmons's Harriet (also starring Cynthia Erivo), to name a few.
Now, the New York-based designer’s work will once again appear on the big screen in the film adaptation of Broadway darling Wicked, a musical best described as "a bit much".
Tazewell, and the team charged with turning Wicked into a two-part movie-musical extravaganza, true to form, have certainly embraced its muchness.
For the costume designer, the project has three main references: Gregory Maguire’s 1995 take on the world of L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West; The Wizard of Oz, Victor Fleming’s classic 1939 film adaptation of Baum’s book; and the Broadway show itself, with its fantastic score by Stephen Schwartz, its fantastic book by Winnie Holzman (who also wrote the new film’s screenplay), and, of course, its devoted fan base.
Tazewell's meticulous approach to research and creative interpretation has certainly led to a stunning array of costumes for the Jon M. Chu-directed film. Drawing from his ingenuity as a creative visionary, Tazewell crafts each design so that every detail—from pink ball gowns to the legendary black witch’s dress complete with a pointed hat—reflect his inventive world-building and, of course, his unique taste.
It's Time to Trust My Instincts, Close My Eyes and Leap.
Tazewell has made the earth and the air his lodestars while building the wardrobes, especially when it comes to its two central characters: the green-skinned outcast Elphaba, and the girlish, blond-tressed Glinda.
Other important players include Michelle Yeoh’s wise and wily Madame Morrible, headmistress of Shiz University, where Elphaba and Glinda meet; Jonathan Bailey’s dashing Fiyero, their shared love interest; and Jeff Goldblum’s charlatanic Wizard of Oz.
Let's start with the school’s headmistress, Madame Morrible, who undergoes the greatest style transformation in the leap from stage to screen—more stately and elegant than on Broadway, and with no cartoonish bustle to be found.
To establish her as a magical professor, Tazewell instead looks to classic academic robes for inspiration. In a riff on the colored hoods that scholars use to indicate their academic disciplines and degrees, Morrible wears a stole screen printed with a series of vaguely astrological-looking runes over a robe of amber-colored silk panne velvet.
On Broadway, the character of Glinda the Good Witch, popular and irrepressibly peppy, and who represents “all that is air-bound and effervescent,” is already strongly associated with the color pink. Tazewell doubled down, outfitting her in ethereal bubble dresses—all in pink—that take visual cues from motifs both tangible (butterflies) and abstract (the Fibonacci spiral). Recreated in carefully sculpted folds of nylon crinoline, the spirals give structure and complexity to the more traditional fairy princess silhouette of Billie Burke’s Glinda costume in The Wizard of Oz.
Each nylon cone is sandwiched between layers of lighter, more buoyant silk organza and printed with bubbles which are themselves embellished with foil, creating a sense of iridescence. And lots and lots of sequins, beads and paillettes complete the absolutely impressive effect.
With Elphaba, a fighter who risks her safety to protect the animals of Oz, Tazewell outfits her largely in glazed bark cloth, mushroom pleats, and takes influence from the sober, restrictive silhouettes of Victorian mourning dress at the start of her arc. Since the character's costumes tend to skew dark in her most important moments onscreen, Tazewell was left to create that same visual interest not with color but with dynamic textures and unusual fabric pairings.
Her Emerald City day-tripper ensemble, including the dress she’s wearing when she takes to the sky for the climactic “Defying Gravity” number, is representative for its deceptive complexity. What looks solid black is actually three different fabrics: black silk chiffon on top of black lace on top of what Tazewell describes as "secret purple" taffeta. Why the secret purple? “It’s really just to give it more life,” Tazewell says. The taffeta, even beneath two other fabrics, "helps the garment avoid reading as just a flat black dress." Fair enough.
We Can’t All Come And Go By Bubble.
On the busiest production days, Tazewell commands a workshop of over a hundred creatives, among them couture-level tailors and dressmakers, weavers and embroiders, hand-felters, knitters, milliners, shoemakers, armorers, and jewelry-makers, along with specialists in 3D-printing and laser manipulation. It is, in every way, a full-court press—albeit one driven by a spirit of enchantment.
It's settled; Paul Tazewell is one of the most brilliant human beings on the planet, from his shapes to the color story to the thoughtfulness behind every look. No piece of costume is frivolous. Everything has a use. And everything is meaningful.
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