by Priscilla

Jul.07, 2009, under Backstage Blog

It is a challenging job working in the wardrobe department of Priscilla, but we all love the challenge. We have tonnes of costumes on this show and it is nice to work with such sparklyand unusual costumes.

My role is really a management job, I manage the wardrobe team. I have 5 full time employees in the wardrobe department and 11 dressers on Priscilla. I organise it so that the costumes are in the right place at the right time, making sure all the maintenance and laundry gets done on set on a daily basis.
The wear and tear on Priscilla is quite high, we spend hours each day on maintenance, making sure that the standard of the costumes is the same it was for the first night. That's the goal, to achieve the standard of the costumes from the first night.

Sandy Smith Wilson

The costumes that are most difficult or the ones that we have the most problems with are what we call the, ‘nude illusion’. All the men wear them, because it saves them from having to shave their legs, arms and chest every night. We have unitards that are made and dyed individually to the colour of the performer’s skin. It’s basically a big version of a pair of tights. It’s a challenge to maintain them with these boys with big toe nails.

Wardrobes backstage

All underwear is washed per show, the shirts and things that are next to the skin are cleaned a couple of times a week and the dry cleaning goes once a week. The show is so big that we have to rotate the dry cleaning. I have one wardrobe assistant who works solidly everyday on laundry. We have a lot of costume changes, but the main challenge is not the time we have to get the cast into the costumes, but the confined space we have backstage to do it. Getting everybody ready at the same time, particularly in the cupcake costumes is a real challenge.

I have worked on other large scale musicals and every show is obviously different. I particularly like Priscilla because it is so vibrant. The costumes are so vibrant, the atmosphere, and the show itself.

My favourite part of the show is the Finale, it is so spectacular. It is a really vibrant upbeat show, with a great ending and it makes you forget about the credit crunch for two and half hours. It’s just a great fun show to come and see. It has everything, great costumes, songs and a fabulous set.