CMU School of Drama


Wednesday, April 08, 2020

Episode 212 – Six-Time Tony Award-Winning Costume Designer, William Ivey Long

The Producer's Perspective: William has not only won six Tony Awards, but he has been nominated for 11 more and has already been inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame!

And he is still designing as much as he ever has, working in all the entertainment mediums, from opera to ballet to tv and film. He has a whopping 76 (!) Broadway credits including Chicago, Beetlejuice, Tootsie, Cinderella, Grey Gardens, Hairspray, The Producers, Crazy For You, Nine, and the new musical Diana

2 comments:

Claire Duncan said...

This podcast was long, but very interesting. I love podcasts but I have never actually listened to any that are theatre-orientated, usually because it feels more like work than relaxing. But this was surely an interesting podcast. Two years ago I had the chance to briefly meet William Ivey Long’s associate at the Lost Colony in North Carolina. He was very kind and showed me around the shop and the massive stock filled with Long’s designs. William Ivey Long is obviously a huge name with an incredible reputation. I have always respected the insane quantity of work he produces every year, and the attention to detail that is always present in his designs. This podcast was the first interview I have ever listened to with him, and it was very nice to hear about his process. A lot of us are very removed from big commercial productions like broadway and we understand that their process is different then what we are used to but we do not really know how. Listening to interviews like this one help us understand that corner of the industry.

Jillian Warner said...

It is such a joy to hear William Ivey Long speak on this podcast! I have always been a huge fan of his costume design work on Broadway. When my high school did Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella I thoroughly studied his designs for the Broadway production as I would be designing and making my own version of the Cinderella transformation dress. I remember watching an interview with him where he talked about his design process and how he creates mood boards for each character. I also thought it was interesting that he does a lot of charcoal sketches throughout his design process. I had the pleasure of seeing Beetlejuice on Broadway last fall which he designed as well. That was such a fun show. I enjoyed every minute of it. I know that there were some mixed feelings about Beetlejuices costume being different than the movie but I actually loved Ivey long's version.