A Chorus Line No. 25 - Theoni Aldredge & Alyce Gilbert
- Lauryn Johnson
- Jul 15
- 5 min read
Our costume designer was a lovely, gifted Greek woman named Theoni Aldredge, who'd been creating Broadway theater wardrobes for more than fifteen years. We all loved and respected her and felt lucky to be working with her. Michael came up with the interesting idea of having her sit with him in the rehearsal hall to discuss what each of us wore to rehearsals, and then Theoni would design our costumes based on our own personal styles. There was certainly enough variety among us to give Michael and Theoni plenty of inspiration- every possible combination of T-shirts, sweats, yoga pants, sneakers, you name it. I always dressed like a showgirl at rehearsals, in leotards and tights, which inadvertently created the problem.
--The Third Gilmore Girl: A Memoir by Kelly Bishop
"For the dancers these were simply work clothes. The costumes they wore in Broadway shows usually were far glitzier and more gaudily ornamented. Their work clothes--tights, leotards, trunks, clingy t-shirts--allowed them free movement, but also flattered their healthy muscular bodies. After the show opened, this would not escape the notice of clothing designers. As the dancers were being measured and fitted, there was no way they could know they were launching one of the biggest clothing fads of the late 1970s and 1980s. The success of A Chorus Line would generate and ride a wave of dance mania. Coinciding with the explosion of interest in health food, jogging, and aerobic exercise, the body-hugging form-fiting Chorus Line costumes can be credited with helping inspire the next decade of fitness wear.
"'Theoni sat in for about a week or two to see how we were dressed when we came in,' Lopez said. 'Michael had given us this big speech about how he wanted these costumes to come out of us, that Theoni would be doing them and she wanted to see how we dressed. Then we could talk to her if we had any particular desires. When I got around to talking to Theoni, I said I have to have a turtleneck and a shirt over the turtleneck and pants and sneakers and socks. I never mentioned colors. I was very into Katharine Hepburn at the time and that was the kind of thing she wears. I originally started out wearing my pants. I wore them for about two performances and then Michael said, 'No pants. I want to see legs, legs, legs.' And after that I didn't wear pants anymore.'
"For Renee Baughman, Aldredge created perhaps the show's cleanest, simplest women's look, a simple burgundy leotard and tights. The same is true for Dennis, tight dance pants and a tank top muscle shirt, though he said he hated the pea-green color and was angry that a simple change could not be made to accommodate him.
"For Patricia Garland, Aldredge resurrected square-neck leotards, which had been discontinued. Donna McKechnie liked the color red and liked the way she looked in dance skirts, so Aldredge combined those two points into a costume. Cilento's classically simple ensemble of boots, dance pants, and collared short-sleeved shirt translated into his costume virtually without change.
"Sammy Williams, who had been stung by Bennett's admonition that he was too effeminate, had taken Lee's advice to butch up his image. 'I would wear army fatigues because I figured it would make me look more masculine,' he said. 'And I get cold real fast so I always had a jacket with me. One day I was asked what I wanted to wear for the show and I said, What I've got on, this is it? I had on fatigues, polo shirt, and jacket, plus my bag and sneaks. It was comfortable."
"Thommie Walsh's costume was a statement of personal style. 'I was always wearing my little sweaters and my scarves,' he said. 'I was wearing scarves during this show called Music! Music! [for which Aldredge had done costumes) and Theoni had picked up on [the fact that] a scarf and sweater was definitely a signature of mine. I felt comfortable because I didn't feel skinny. I wasn't wearing just a leotard and tights; I had a little bit of armor. It had a lot do do with my character, that costume did. It was a good costume.'
"Clive Wilson found numerological significance in his outfit. 'Theoni picked up on what we were wearing to rehearsal. There was a particular shirt that I wore more than any other, a green tank top athletic shirt with white piping, and it had a number on it. The costume she came up with has the number seventeen on it, which is my birthdate. At the time I was living on the seventeenth floor, and other things since then have had to do with that number. When I bought my house in L.A., the address was eight five three one and I thought, 'Hmmm, those numbers add up to seventeen.' At the time, I thought it was just another reason why I should be there, there was a rightness about it.'
"Not everyone was that happy. Besides Dennis's objection to the color of his costume, Blair was unhappy that simply because she sometimes wore sneakers to rehearsal, her character had to dance in the arch-crushing shoes forever.
"Kelly Bishop made the mistake of wearing a too-small leotard to the workshop one day when all her better ones were in the laundry. She hated this particular leotard because it was so revealing and because she believed it put ten pounds on her. Bennett caught sight of it and told her he wanted her to wear it as her costume. Bishop protested, thinking it was because Bennett wanted Sheila to look as brazen as possible. But Bennett explained to her that in the 'At the Ballet' sequence, it made her look like a naked, vulnerable child. After that explanation, Bishop capitulated, though she said every Sheila after her has hated the costume just as much.
"Nancy Lane objected the loudest to Bennett's no-pants rule for women. "I'm bowlegged," she said. "They put me in tights and heels which was awful because I had a real bad back, so standing in heels for two hours did not appeal to me. She claimed that they wanted costumes that we would feel comfortable dancing in. But I hated my costume and every time I tried to tell somebody they'd tell me how fantastic my costume was. What's so great about a T-shirt and briefs and tights? So I just stayed in it and-who cared? I was working in a fabulous show. After a while it didn't bother me."
"Bennett enforced the no-pants rule for all the women but Baayork Lee. Lee felt more comfortable in dance pants, and out of deference to their long friendship, Bennett relented in her case.
Eight years later, when Bennett threw a gala to mark the show's achieving the longest run for a Broadway musical, the New York Shakespeare Festival published a scroll-like poster six feet tall showing the twenty-six chorus lines that had performed the show in that time. With rare exception, every Connie after Lee wore tights instead of pants."
--On the Line: The Creation of A Chorus Line by Robert Viagas, Baayork Lee, and Thommie Walsh
"Aldredge had been visiting the studio to study the dancers own rehearsal clothes. Don Percassi recalls of his costume: 'That's what I wore to rehearsal. I always wore a hat 'cause my hair always looks like this. That was my TKTS T-shirt. I still have the original one in my trunk, without the sleeves. I cut the sleeves out of them all, cause they bother me.' And Clive 'had a pair of dance pants and a top like that. Actually it was kelly green and had a white number on it.' Aldredge assembled the costumes by balancing theatrical needs for individuality with the real clothes of the dancers.'"
--What They Did For Love by Martin Denny Flinn
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