Alvin Colt Exhibition to Open at Museum of the City of New York

Costumes and Characters: The Designs of Alvin Colt, a retrospective of sketches by the Tony Award-winning costume designer, will open at the Museum of the City of New York (1220 Fifth Avenue) on Saturday, February 17.

The exhibition will encompass about 40 of the more than 3,000 sketches that Colt has donated to the museum, spanning his 52-year career. Approximately 20 of the shows on which Colt has worked will be represented, including Guys and Dolls, The Golden Apple, Fanny, Wildcat, Destry Rides Again, Sugar, and Forbidden Broadway.

Colt’s biggest regret, he told TheaterMania, is that the exhibition will not include the sketches for one of his favorite shows, the musical L’il Abner. “When they made the film version, they bought all the sketches, and then they never returned them,” he says.

Conversely, he is particularly pleased that the exhibit will include sketches for the short-lived 1959 musical First Impressions, based on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice: “I still remember what Brooks Atkinson said in his New York Times review. He wrote, ‘Not since My Fair Lady have I seen such beautiful costumes.”

Colt was nominated for three Tony Awards in 1956, for The Lark, Phoenix ’55, and Pipe Dream, winning for the last-named show. He was also nominated for L’il Abner and The Sleeping Prince in 1957, and for Greenwillow in 1960.

For more information, call 212-534-1672 or visit www.mcny.org.