So backstage is really tightly choreographed.” You grab your laundry basket and your chair and your sheet and you just go because some big prop or set piece is going to come rumbling through where you just were. “You get them redressed and then you clear.

“And you’re holding the costume they need to go into,” Fleming said. There is a chair for the actor to use and a laundry basket where previously-worn clothes are discarded. The audience will never see it, but it’s something you do wrong on purpose because it makes it easier to do the actual change.”Ī sheet is placed on the floor to keep all costumes clean. “Sometimes you will literally, on purpose, put a black snap on a white vest because you can see it in the dark better. “You have to be able to do it in the dark by Braille because there’s not a lot of light back stage,” Fleming added. “Meanwhile, I’m getting a vest on and they’re snapping. “Here’s your tie, and it’s already tied and I slip it over my head,” Jacoby said. He focuses on one thing while two dressers do everything else. is rigged with Velcro because that’s a quick in.”īen Jacoby, who plays Raoul, said the between-scenes costume change is all about teamwork. “His military jacket has closures down the center so that it comes off really, really fast,” Fleming said.

The phantom of the opera costume design