I once did a performance of Cinderella with a double cast, and both girls who played cinderella looked very similar. So instead of a quick change, we just swapped them out for one scene. Made sure the fake was facing upstage and then she walked behind the carriage- boom, the one who had the on night came out in costume while the other stayed behind. No one could tell, it was super good.
Correction: the applause is for EVERY technical element, not just the costume department. Most of those changes can't happen with the lighting being designed to support it, the actors "selling" the change, the music being scored for the appropriate moment, etc. etc.
Ye, I’m pretty sure there was a whole in the stage and someone pulled off the dress that was over the other one. (And her cloak and glove were pulled off with an invisible string)
Ye, I’m pretty sure there was a whole in the stage and someone pulled off the dress that was over the other one. (And her cloak and glove were pulled off with an invisible string)
The most impressive ones are the ones where it's just a single person on stage and they don't use darkness or smoke to cover it up (and since it's one person on stage, they also aren't using a group of people doing jazz hands to cover it up). Also the ones where they're apparently still dancing while it's happening are very impressive.
@@louisawilliamson7210 I found it!! Like I think the week of this comment, it's from Beautiful? I think, some sort of paino musical and the song Locomotion... thanks tho!!
@@carterstarks5703 I haven’t seen the musical but I love love love ck, if you like locomotion you should listen to more of her stuff! Pre-tapestry she did a lot of writing for other artists, especially soul and Motown style
I took a class in costume design, quick changes specifically, and the number of tricks and techniques that are entirely invisible to the audience that go into those garments is incredible. What I learned most especially is that magnets are a powerful tool and 100% magic.
@@BeeDub57 I haven't studied costume design at all, but I think they cut the dress down the front like a coat and sew magnets along the cut. That way you can just pull from behind and it all snaps right off. There are super strong magnets used for costumes too.
I've done quick changes and they are stressful but it makes it all worth it when the audience is sitting there astonished. I've brought my bf to a few shows with quick changes and it always makes me smile because he sits there in disbelief trying to figure it out. Theatre magic is wonderful
quick changes are *SO* satisfying to watch but like being on the other side(aka being the person needing to be changed or being in the cast) is SO stressful bc you’re just *PRAYING* that nothing will go wrong
I did one performance where me and 11 other girls had about 5 seconds to change out of our poofy massive dresses into a different skirt, a vest thing on (that had 4 buttons on each side), and a bow tie (that had a weird clasp). Again 5 seconds. None of us ever missed it at all. Man I miss my sisters ☹️
@Madison and Leah We did Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. I was one of the wives/ one of the dancers. We had a lot of costume changes because we were on stage the whole 1.5 hour show
i love how that mean girls quick change appears like a stage version of an abrupt cut in a movie/show/video. the excellent comedic timing with help from the lighting and staging!
The Cinderella dresses are straight up genius, and the special one for the Tony's that was an all-in-one was also incredible - she had to do the spinning behind bits of the set in the actual show because she had to dance in the first costume earlier on and it would have been too heavy.
The purple layer is concealed by the first layer. The first layer is held in place by a fasting which can be tugged loss. After the garment is tugged the first layer falls down and is concealed. Many quick changes involve variations on this design.
That one is so unexpected. For Cinderella and Elsa you know the story so you know it’s coming but with the Mean Girls one you just assume she’ll go offstage and then POOF
Its 50 seconds isn't it? But yeah it's incredible Although one of the others in that show that seems incredibly difficult is the think of me one, considering they have such a limited time to put the skirt on And ik it probably isnt the most difficult one in history but the skirt has fallen off in some performances and the Christine's just had to go with it so it also cant be easy
@@juliasings6131 don’t know but it’s a whole dress that is kinda heavy. These costumes are light and har like spring locks. The dress doesn’t have that.
@@sephtis1157 I remember seeing/hearing/something how it worked backstage (I think it was a video) Iirc they have the dress ready for her to quickly take off the ponr one and step into the wedding dress Not that its gonna be easy but they have it all ready to let it take as little time as possible And even if they're heavy, they probably arent too hard to take on and off with the help shed have, it's probably mostly the time constraints that make it difficult, less than a minute (ik its 40-50 seconds) to get off the ponr dress and into the wedding one Definitely stressful but definitely doable And tbf I'd imagine that if they do it every night, it would get less stressful after a bit considering theyd get used to doing it and know they can do it
for the people who were too distracted in the wizard of oz quick change to figure how it was done; a green layer of clothes was actually folded on top as the white section in the blue outfit. So when she did the twirl the green outfit came lose and replaced the colour palet of the blue outfit.
I clicked on this video expecting the type of quick change I am familiar with, a backstage one in less than a minute or so, depending on how complex the outfit is, but I've never seen an on-stage quick change like this and I'm fascinated! I assume the clothing is folded in some specific way but wow!
the audience did NOT pass the vibe check for only applauding less than half the time. The amount of stress for the actors/actresses to get it right, and the prep work the crew has to do to make sure the dress/suit falls apart correctly or folds underneath itself is INSANE. bravo!
Costume changes are always best when celebrating the art of theatre. Like Pippin's one at the start. It's a bit of stage trickery and one with an amazing history. Directors that revel in it in like Frozen make it all the more awe inspiring. I'll be real I'm not fond of most Cinderella transformations. Budget constraints make it hard I know but the Fairy Godmother can often carry a few moments of sass by herself to get the technicalities neat. She is built around lifting Cinders up, storywise and strategically.
My strongest memory from musical theatre was the state of the wings during/after a quick change, costume pieces flung everywhere, people grabbing random bits of costume, just sheer chaos
I watched the tour of Beautiful, and my mom and I didn't even notice she had changed until a few minutes into the song, it was so smooth. quick changes are actually magical and the costumers deserve all the applause
Fave is 1:25 followed by 2:23 , plus of course the ending. But one of the all-time fabulous quick changes is Sutton Foster in Drowsy Chaperone "Show Off" - in which there are several!
I was blown away but that one too but I think unfortunately it's not technically a quick change because what happens is they use two girls. The one you see get to the bottom of the pole is a different girl. Still a really cool trick though.
0:40 i actually talked to a stage crew member when i saw this on broadway. basically, she unlatches a hook in the front, then a vacuum on stage sucks off the outfit. it’s so cool!
She's probably wearing the costumes as layers! The skirt of the second dress (red) is folded up into the first costume and falls down as she slips it off, and the final costume (the leotard) is just concealed by the red dress!
@@meaghan99 ah right. I guess it’s because I’ve seen the Cinderella one loads of times where it’s more obvious how the dress is layered so I got used to how that was done.
@@danielthompson4463 it's sooo interesting! But yeah, you can kind of see someone grabbing whatever costumes she's slipping off as she moves. I guarantee she spent countless rehearsals just practicing taking each piece on and off 😫
@@N3RDYG0GGLES I think it's "I will never shut up again" from the west end production. The song wasn't in the original play but I think it's nice that they gave Heather Duke a solo
I remember I did Mary Poppins a few years back and I played the role of Bert. Now this was the Jr. version and me and the person who played Mary had only a short amount of time to get off stage, change, and get back on for the final stretch of Jolly Holiday. Mary had it easy with just having to slide on and off a dress while I’m ripping off multiple layers and I always ending up running out to Mary. Good news is we only had flukes in the first few runs with changes but after that it ran smooth.
I have been in a show that I had to do 2 quick changes on stage and 5 quick changes off stage so have a lot of experience with these things, but the people are so talented being able to these things in groups. It just incredible.
The Cinderella scenes makes me so hyped! Although I'm not doing the Broadway version, I'm still gonna be Ensemble for my theater's production of Cinderella! I hope we can make the quick changes as magical as Broadway did for what little of a theater we are!
I actually saw Cinderella on Broadway with Laura Osnes. It was AMAZING when she changed costumes onstage. Truly magical - there are some incredibly talented costumers/stage techs out there!
I’m Yurdle da Turtle in my schools production of the Seussical, but I’m also a circus animal so right after the circus scene I have to get out of my neon colored costume and dress like a judge. 😆😭 It so difficult not to run into a wall
I remember quick changing between characters, leaving stage left, running across behind stage, changing everything, and coming out the other side in 30 seconds flat
I'm in a performance of Cinderella, and there are quite a few transformations. There's the fairy godmother, Cinderella's first one, Cinderella's second one, and now that I think about it there's only three haha. But they do it beautifully, and they've only messed it up twice before. It's amazing what they can do with those costumes.
I know it's dumb semantics, but I would argue that most of these are reveals, not quick changes. IMO, the factors that influence the distinction are... 1) is anything added, or is the actor fully dressed with layers being removed? 2) Does it happen in view of the audience as a transformation, or is it hidden? Reveals are so much fun for the audience, that they seem to be kind of taking the place of quick changes.
When I was in footloose I was apart of Willards gang and we had abt a minute to run backstage, change completely out of our normal clothes into our prom outfits and run on stage and let me tell you that was the most stressful thing I’ve ever done in a musical 😂
Wow, that's fast. Makes me think of how quick Lydia switches from her knee length black dress to the giant red wedding dress and back again in Beetlejuice
as an actor quick changes are probably the most terrifying thing ive done while performing. i played Charlemagne in pippin and my quick change was about 20 seconds give or take. my boots needed to come off so my pants could come off along with a change in shirt and crown. its was about a 5 person operation. but that was LEAUGES better than peter and the starcatcher where i went from dressed like a mermaid to dressed like and orphan in about 2 minutes.
