Former NYU faculty member and San Diego native Gregg Barnes made his Broadway debut with the costume designs for Sideshow 12 years ago, and he’s been in the public eye ever since, even garnering a Tony Award for The Drowsy Chaperone in 2006. Nashville will experience his exceptional costume designs shining onstage in Legally Blonde, The Musical at TPAC later this month. Barnes also designed the costumes for Laura Bell Bundy, who played Elle on Broadway, and then redesigned them a few years later for the tour with Becky Gulsvig.
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So, were there any issues translating the Broadway version to the touring version?
Laura and Becky are both outstanding. They’ve been with the show since the beginning, Laura from the workshops and Becky, of course, was Laura’s understudy. One thing, though, there are a lot less scenery tracks in the floor on tour than there are in a Broadway theatre. Because of those tracks, most of the shoes in a Broadway show are made a certain way, with a certain width at the bottom of the heel that makes sure they don’t get caught. Laura came to me concerned about them, saying, rightly, that these aren’t the shoes Elle would have.
She was right. If Elle is buying Jimmy Choos at, say, The Beverly Center, the shoes Laura was wearing on stage didn’t have the fragility and elegance that those high-end things have. But I worried, she’s still got to be able to basically run a marathon in them, given all she does in the course of a show and work around the stage tracks. But as much as I worried, Laura just said, “I’ll learn where the tracks are. Don’t worry—let’s go with the right shoes.” And she did.
Becky said to me, “You know, in life, I’m more like Emmett than Elle ...” She wasn’t really into the shoe thing. But she had a lot to live up to and she did it, and handles it well.
Explain some of the things you did to make what we’re watching look interesting?
The look for Harvard is a good example. It’s loosely based on the pictures my friend took, but they also sort of look like they’re wearing things from their own father’s closets. It’s anachronistic; it’s part of what defines it as a special place. So for example, the character may be wearing that Brooks Brothers blazer, but it will look like it was the one the character’s father might have worn there in 1965. It’s all modern, but it’s got some wear, some history to it. Color was a tool there as well. Harvard’s colors are maroon, gold and gray, so we used those to great effect.
How do you manage all those quick changes?
For Elle, a lot of her outfits are actually sort of jumpsuits, for example the sweater, blouse and skirt all sewn together with a zipper down the back, but it’s still a challenge to get in and out of things for all the cast. The touring company actually has two fewer actresses than the Broadway version, but no fewer characters, so people double up tremendously. I think there’s one woman who has five costume changes in the space of a few minutes with no break.
You won a Tony award for The Drowsy Chaperone. How different a task was that show for you?
I did the tour as well as the Broadway version of that one, and it’s quite different than Legally Blonde. It’s set in the 1920s, and where Legally Blonde is a play about real people, this is a show about stereotypes. It put a lot of demands on the designer—there’s a wedding scene for example, and a scene with mistaken identity and even Chinese opera. The lead actress in Chaperone has eight changes in one number, which is pretty impressive, but all things considered, it was more of a challenge to get Elle changed from the first eyelet dress to her date with Warner dress (the floral, bias cut one). Sutton Foster at least had set pieces to change behind. With Becky, we just have a crowd of sorority girls surround her, and when they move away, there she is in the second dress, so she’s got it on underneath the first one. There’s really nothing dearer to my heart right now than Legally Blonde.
What’s it like to be a designer? It’s a great way to spend your life. I know I’m doing what I was meant to do, and I love it. Which is good, because it’s really a tricky, nomadic sort of life.
I grew up in San Diego, in a Little League sort of family. I loved art and theatre and they didn’t know what to do with me. I’m not sure my Dad realized being a costume designer was a job when I decided to be one. I think he just thought it was something people did for fun.
But I really do believe in the American dream. Opportunities are out there if you go make them for yourself, and I am extremely lucky.
Legally Blonde the Musical will be presented June 23-28 at TPAC.
