Shout! Sixties fashion dictates 'Mod' musical
A sneak peek at the cast of "Shout! The Mod Musical" singing "Downtown."Click here to see more videos
PHOTO GALLERY
'Shout!' backstage
Drury Lane Theatre Water Tower Place, 175 E. Chestnut
Tickets, $45-$55
(312) 902-1400 Through May 16, use the code "SIXTIES" in person at the box office or online at ticketmaster.com and two tickets to the show will be $19.60 off the original price.
"Shout! The Mod Musical," a jukebox musical, began as a cabaret review of Sixties music in the New York club The Duplex.
From there, the show's fashion simply took on a life of its own.
"I didn't just want to do my take on '60s clothes," says costume designer Philip Heckman. "I realized I could create specific characters simply by what they wore."
As Heckman's vision for the costumes began to take shape, so too did the book of the show. The musical examines the lives and loves of five women living in London during the heyday of the Mod movement. Recreating the look of that era was no small feat.
"I would say something like 90 percent of the designs were built from scratch," Heckman says.
That decision was made in part out of necessity. There's an old saying in the fashion world: if you live long enough to see clothing come back in style, chances are you'll be too old to wear it. Or, in the case of mod fashion such as miniskirts and gogo boots made famous by British designers like Mary Quant, too expensive to afford it. Vintage mod clothing, particularly pieces that were made by the small London boutiques on Carnaby Street can cost hundreds of dollars.
And that's only if you can find it.
"It's not like now when everyone shops at the Gap or Urban Outfitters and 50,000 people all own the same clothes you do," Heckman says. "There was a lot more individuality back then. People still actually made their own clothes."
He says he'd love to see a return to an individual sense of style.
"It was a big surprise when a lady would take off her cape and the lining would match her dress," he says. "I'd love to see more more high heels and dress shoes. Big, chunky jewelry. Hats!"
He admits that not everything should be revived, however.
"There was a trend in the '60s when women wore white lipstick," he says. "That's something that should probably stay dead and buried."
Handling the care of the one-of-a-kind fashions used in the Chicago production is costume and wig wrangler Matt Kyle.
"There's a lot of upkeep," Kyle explains. "The costumes don't get dirty, but the girls move so much in the show, they do get sweaty."
The costumes are dry cleaned as needed and Kyle performs any emergency fixes like most wardrobe people do.
The wigs are another matter. Some of them need to be set with rollers every night and all get washed and restyled at least once a week. The most challenging wig in the show is the one that looks the most simple, though.
"The character of the Green Girl has a scene where she wears this wig of really long red hair," Kyle says. "It's very Ann-Margret and kind of a pain. Long hair tends to tangle."
Kyle, who also performs around town as drag queen Velicity Metropolis, says he even has a favorite dress in the show.
"The Green Girl wears this fringe dress at one point," he says. "Where ever fringe is, it's where it's at and where you need to be."
'Shout!" is a stroll down musical memory lane, and who better to take that walk with than legendary Chicago oldies DJ Dick Biondi?
"The thing that most surprises me about this show is that it seems to mainly feature English female singers," he says. "That's a bit surprising because so few of them managed to hit it big here."
While he hasn't seen the show (he plans on catching "Shout!" at some point during its limited run), he says the music rings a bell, though.
Among the hits collected in the show are Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Were Made For Walking," Petula Clark's "Downtown," LuLu's "To Sir With Love" and Dusty Springfield's "You Don't Have to Say You love Me."
There are some obscure musical choices, too. The show boasts an arrangement of the Isley Brothers' "Shout!" that is closer to the arrangement released by Lulu than the one featured in the film "Animal House." And then there's the music of Cilla Black, a virtual unknown on this side of the pond.
"Her biggest hit was probably 'You're My World,' [featured in 'Shout!']" says Dick Biondi, who can be heard 8 p.m.-midnight nightly on WZZN-94.7 FM. "I played it a bit in 1964, but it never got to be like Lulu's 'To Sir With Love.'"
Black has the distinction of being the only female artist ever represented by Beatles' manager, Brian Epstein, which Biondi thinks had an adverse affect on her U.S. success.
"She was close to the Beatles and a lot of teenage girls might have been a little jealous because of that," he says. "Then again, there were so many good female singers back then, so who knows."
The Association, “Windy”
Cilla Black, “You’re My World”
Mary Hopkins, “Those Were the Days”
Lulu, “Shout!”
Nancy Sinatra, “These Boots Are Made For Walking”
Dusty Springfield, “The Look of Love”
Compiled by Misha Davenport
