See exclusive costume sketches for the upcoming Broadway musical.
It’s all happening!
“I approached this production like a movie,” he tells EW.
Neal Preston
It’s been tons of vintage shopping.
It’s a really cool era to dig into.
It’s post-hippie, pre-disco.
David Zinn
Of course, the original movie itself was there as a springboard for Zinn.
“The original film is gorgeous and iconic,” he adds.
Partly, I like it because it’s so simple.
Neal Preston
They really feel like clothes in the movie.
Even though it’s such a starry world, it captures the low-key California, early 70s vibe.
You feel like the person is wearing the clothes, not the other way around.
David Zinn
That’s the vibe we took with us."
So let’s take a look and find out what it takes to dress like a golden god.
He went with a familiar look from the film, a striped t-shirt, jeans, and jacket.
Drew Gehling in ‘Almost Famous’ on Broadway.Neal Preston
“He’s a kid in a world of adults,” explains Zinn.
“In some ways, it’s an iconic child outfit.
This is a world where everybody wears jeans and they all wear variations of sexy, fitted flare bell-bottoms.
David Zinn
William’s jeans have to express something different.
He’s young; he’s growing into himself.”
Zinn says they tried several variations of t-shirt, but this one felt right.
David Zinn
“We had to find something that felt iconically kiddish,” he adds.
He almost feels likeLeave It to Beaver,just an iconic young person.
It felt like a great place to keep him rooted."
Of course, bell bottoms were a must.
“Some people really did wear just straight Levi’s.
Some people wore super flares and some people wore medium flares.
The amount of flare that they have tells a lot of story about their showiness or vanity.”
“Russell’s super low key,” Zinn explains.
“Jeff is more of a peacock,” he adds.
It has more of a showman, peacock-y costume vibe."
Yes, that’s right, even Broadway costume designers use Etsy for hard-to-find looks.
As such, Zinn knew it was the one look he had to get absolutely right.
Solea Pfeiffer, who stars as Penny, brings her own stamp to the role.
“She is so physically different than Kate Hudson,” Zinn explains.
We’ve just taken that same idea and adapted it for Solea."
“The coat feels almost like a magic carpet,” he continues.
“It’s history and warmth and worn-ness was more forward in our world.
Also, we have to make her stand out in a big stage full of people.
Diving into a color felt a richer and more of the theater, which felt appropriate.”
We are here because of the music, we inspire the music.
We are Band Aids.")
also needed to reflect the variation and effortless cool of the music scene at that time.
“They’re Penny’s band,” says Zinn.
“They’re the band together, and she’s the lead singer.
They all have to be different from each other and also feel like a unit.
I dove into color and texture and pattern with them.
There’s a real painterly quality to how they hold together, so that they can be different.
So that Penny pops out against them.”
For Sapphire, he turned to a photograph from the era that captured his imagination.
“I don’t know her name.
“I looked at Betty Davis, Miles Davis’s ex,” he says.
When it came to Estrella, Zinn stayed closest to the movie and her gentler, softer approach.
“I held on to that world for her.”
Almost Famousopens Nov. 3 at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre.
