In this interview, costume designer Linda Cho explains her collaborative and actor‑driven approach to designing the costumes for the musical Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder. She describes her long‑standing relationships with director Darko, set designer Alexander Dodge, and lighting designer Philip Rosenberg, noting how their teamwork eased the creative process. Because the show was a new piece being workshopped, Cho was able to attend early readings with Jefferson Mays, who performed all nine victim characters. She met with Mays to identify the essential props and visual cues for each role, a rare opportunity that informed her designs before the usual deadline constraints. Drawing from Mays’s ideas—such as a monocle, safari hat, and muscle suit for Lord Bartholomew—Cho infused a steampunk aesthetic into the Edwardian setting, creating a distinctive visual edge for the production.
Chapters
This team is again sort of my theater family team. This is Darko, show number 42. The set designer Alexander Dodge, also nominated, show number, I don't know, 30, not only with Darko but with other directors. Alexander and I ended up working together. Philip Rosenberg, also the lighting designer, somebody very dear that we've become friends with. So that collaboration was like one of our normal, easy discussions. We've done it at two different regional theatres, so some things have evolved. What was exciting about this was that it was a new piece, and the writers, who are extremely dear and extremely passionate about this project, they have been working on it for 10 years, so it was a true labour of love. And also in this particular case, because it was a new piece that was being workshopped, I got to see it just as readings, you know, with Music Stands. Jefferson Mays did some of the early workshops, and he is so wonderful at delineating each of his characters. So in, in, in the musical Gentleman's Guide, he plays all the victims. So he plays like, is it 9 different characters throughout the play? And with a simple prop, whether it was a hat or mustache or monocle, he completely transformed And so even before putting pencil to paper, I met with Jefferson Mays and said, what are the essentials for each of these characters? What will get in your way? What do you need? And I don't often get that luxury because oftentimes I have to design— my design deadlines are before it's cast. So, A, there's no time to meet with the actors or even sketch with them in mind or body types or race or or anything in mind. So that was sort of wonderful and different about this production. And he had amazing ideas. And one of the things he wanted for Lord Bartholomew was monocle, the safari hat, and, you know, maybe a muscle suit. And we talked about perhaps those sock garters. And it made me think of— and the curly mustache— the steampunk movement. So that— a light bulb went off and I said, "Let's just carry that throughout." So even though it's set in Edwardian times, I have a steampunk edge. Steampunk's a little more Victorian, but, you know, just took that as sort of a source of inspiration from that conversation, and that's how that evolved, that design.
