Was “Aida” Civics big gun for costumes last season?
There were a couple of big guns. “Leading Ladies” was a huge costume show. I got my biggest kick out of it. It’s a comic farce about two English Shakespearean actors who are down on their luck. They discover that a wealthy woman with two English nephews is dying, and decide to become the nephews, who end up being “nieces.” It’s similar to “Some Like It Hot,” where the two men are made up as women. You start with Shakespearean costumes. The wealthy woman has a sense of style from the 1920s and ’30s, and the fake nieces wear ’50s dresses. What big costume shows are coming up for 2008-09? “Little Shop of Horrors” (Sept. 12 to 28) will be fairly easy. Those costumes I will find here at the costume shop and at thrift shops. “Golda’s Balcony” (about Israeli prime minister Golda Meir, Oct. 31 to Nov. 16) is a one-person show, and we know how she looked. She was sedate. I’ve been going through costumes for “The Wizard of Oz” (Dec. 12 to Jan. 4, 2009), and they are very worn. There are 50 Munch
