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ShowbizU: Broadway Vs. Off Broadway Costume Designs- Linda Cho

Name: ShowbizU: Broadway Vs. Off Broadway Costume Designs- Linda Cho
Uploaded: 2014-08-19T20:31:11+00:00
Duration: 1 min 16 s
Channel: Tim Kashani
Description: In this interview excerpt, costume designer Linda Cho discusses the distinct challenges of designing for Broadway compared to regional theater. She…

19 Aug 2014 · 1 min

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1:16

In this interview excerpt, costume designer Linda Cho discusses the distinct challenges of designing for Broadway compared to regional theater. She highlights the high financial and political stakes of Broadway productions, where cancellations due to missing costumes can jeopardize hundreds of thousands of dollars. Cho notes that understudy costumes, often overlooked in regional work, become crucial on Broadway. She also emphasizes the value of long‑term relationships with New York‑based vendors—shoemakers, drapers, hat makers—and the need to build durable costumes that can endure potentially indefinite runs.

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Well, it's been interesting being in this Broadway world because it's not necessarily just about getting the show on stage. There's lots of other things, financial things that have to be considered, and political things. The stakes are higher. It's millions of dollars at stake, you know. I had no idea that understudy costumes were so important in regional theater. That conversation is totally separate from my process. Like, the shops take care of that. Here, if an understudy— if a lead can't go on or a character can't go on, they can't cancel the show that hundreds of thousands of dollars are at stake for. So, you know, things like that. What was nice about doing a commercial show in New York was getting to know all of the amazing vendors in town. So the shoemakers and the and the drapers and the hat makers and, you know, people that maybe you got to do one thing with them when you're doing a regional show. Here, you know, you sort of build it all. So that was different and wonderful. And things have to really, hopefully, be built to last because hopefully your show will run indefinitely. So you want things to basically just live on and on and on and on.