Long Lost Plans For Costumes

Any Broadway show takes an enormous amount of planning. A Broadway musical takes even more. Compare early sketches of costumes to the final version!

Ebay offered up yet another "It's a Bird It's a Plane It's Superman©" treasure.
We've found some of the original plans for costuming the actors.
Let's see how these initial plans compare to the costumes that actually made it to Broadway.

Sydney

This initial sketch of a costume for Sydney (played on Broadway by Linda Lavin of Alice TV fame) features a coordinated outfit comprising Sydney's coat, hat, and dress. Note that the lining of the coat matches the brim of her hat, and the dress has a dropped waist with a small bow as detail. A small sample of the proposed fabric was stapled to the original sketch, showing a navy tweed would be used.

Further design work must have been completed, as this ensemble is not seen in photos from the show. The sketch indicates that the outfit was to be worn in Act II, Scene 5 without the coat and in Scene 6 with the coat. Act II, Scene 5 is the famous "Meanwhile ..." scene.

Ms. Lavin appears in the 1st Floor Center Box on the right. As you can see, the dress has a normal, not dropped, waistline.

Act II, Scene 6 pretty much ends the show, and all plot lines are resolved. While we cannot find a photo of Ms. Lavin in Scene 6, we do have a photo of her singing during the curtain call, which took place immediately afterwards. Here we see that Ms. Lavin is wearing the same dress as in Scene 5; neither coat nor hat has been added to her costume. We do see, however, that the bow from the early sketch was, in fact, retained in the production version of the costume.

Ms. Lavin is the woman on the right in this photograph.

Is it possible that the costume that we see in the sketch was used earlier in the show?

	Act I, Scene 2 The audience is introduced to the Sydney and Max Mencken characters
	Act I, Scene 9 Sydney notices Clark Kent for the first time
	Act I, Scene 9 Sydney sings "You've Got Possibilites," the hit song of the show Note the hair band Sydney is wearing. This photo must have been taken at a different performance than the previous photo.

So was this early sketch accurate? As far as we can tell, the only design element that made it from sketch to fabric was the dainty bow on Sydney's outfit. Were the coat and hat completely eliminated? There is a brief outdoor scene during which Sydney, misled by her boss Max Mencken, brings Clark Kent to the local Power Station where the final scene of the show takes place. Could Sydney have been wearing the coat and hat from the sketch? Conceivably, but since she appears immediately afterwards in the curtain call and is NOT wearing either, it's hard to imagine the costumers went through the work of planning, purchasing, sewing, and altering a coat and hat for a mere 30-second walk-on!

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Footnotes:
"Costumes by Florence Klotz"
per the "It's a Bird It's a Plane It's Superman©" program.
While the sketch is unsigned, the style is quite similar to known sketches by Ms. Klotz.
Also in the program are the following notes (CREDITS, p.40)
Wardrobe Mistress ........ Lillian Beuttel
Costumes executed by Costume Associates, Inc.
Shoes for Superman and the Flying Lings by LaRay Boot Shop.
Other shoes by Capezio.
Misses Marand's-Lavin's hats by Archie Eason.
Stockings by Jessie Zimmer.
Fabrics by Julian Tomchin.
Raincoats courtesy of Fashions by Claudia
Miss Marand's yellow ensemble by Bill Blass for Maurice Rentner, Ltd.
Miss Marand's eyelashes by Eylure.
First Act Finale costumes executed by Grace Costume Co.
Handbags by Coblentz.
Men's shirts by Excello.
Men's hose by Marum.
Superman Sweat shirts courtesy of Allison Mfg. Co.
Raincoats courtesy of Fashion by Claudia.
Watches by Sheffield.
What a super team was needed simply to clothe the cast!