Costume
Over previews in the 1984 London production, Pearl went through at least four separate costumes. Two outfits were a combination of hot pink with black, while the others were pink and white, as they tried to establish what best suited her character. They settled on a mostly white design, with black piping and a puffball skirt. From 1992 onwards she had "Observation" written across the front of her costume and "PM" (Short for Pullman) on her skirt in London, as this was the costume Reva Rice had worn on Broadway and the US Tour. The base was a salmon pink.
The Bochum, Japan/Australia, first US tour and "New" London productions all used the Broadway design, with the all-over pink lycra, paneled skirt with the 'PM' monogram and 'Observation' on a panel across the chest. In London the design was soon adapted and altered, since the designs were flexible there, and lost the 'Observation' panel in favour of a visible cleavage, influenced by Las Vegas redesign.
Although the Las Vegas production initially used the Coaches' costumes from the first US tour, they were soon changed to suit their environment. The leggings came off, the necklines plunged and the skirts shrunk. This was the costume used on the second US tour, and the design came over for the UK tour. Pearl's skirt lost its front panel revealing the crotch of her leotard, and the 'PM' monogram with it. It was replaced by an 'PRR' monogram on her belt, which is the symbol of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company (also represented on Caboose).
For the obscure Starlight on Ice production, Pearl's colours changed as well as her whole outfit design. There is no pink but only silver and blue. She wore a skirt fashioned as a wheel around her waist, but it's much shorter than in the original productions. She wore gloves that looked like metal framed windows and wore a small hat.
Read more about this topic: Pearl The Observation Car
Famous quotes containing the word costume:
“My neighbors tell me of their adventures with famous gentlemen and ladies, what notabilities they met at the dinner-table; but I am no more interested in such things than in the contents of the Daily Times. The interest and the conversation are about costume and manners chiefly; but a goose is a goose still, dress it as you will.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Sleep takes off the costume of circumstance, arms us with terrible freedom, so that every will rushes to a deed.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“His hair has the long jesuschrist look. He is wearing the costume clothes. But most of all, he now has a very tolerant and therefore withering attitude toward all those who are still struggling in the old activist political ways ... while he, with the help of psychedelic chemicals, is exploring the infinite regions of human consciousness.”
—Tom Wolfe (b. 1931)