Loose Lips

A LONG STORY
Costume designer William Ivey Long is known for making some of the prettiest clothes in the business but, right at the moment, he’s working exclusively with the actors of the male sex; specifically the 20 guys who make up the cast of The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial. “It’s all about the uniforms,” says Long. “It’s the opposite of what I usually do, which is to help people be individual and fabulous. I did a lot of research for the period, like buying manuals from the 1940s on eBay. It also helped that I bumped into Jack Green, the Pentagon’s liaison for the arts. He has such a wealth of knowledge, and so does the show’s author, Herman Wouk. He was at rehearsal one day and Zeljko Ivanek, who plays Queeg, wanted to know why he had only three ribbons. Herman knew that once you get a ribbon for a particular achievement, that’s it. After that, you get stars.”

Long admits that there have been some challenges in outfitting the cast, which is also led by David Schwimmer and Tim Daly. “There are so many different body types, some of them very 21st-century gym bodies like Joe Sikora, who plays Maryk. I had to cut his uniform a little differently to show off his shape. Terry Beaver, who plays the head judge, has to look God-like so I’m tailoring his uniform a bit differently. And some of the ensemble members understudy three parts each, so they need three different jackets.”

Meanwhile, Long has another man to outfit: Reverend Nigel Massey, who’ll appear as St. George at the St. George’s Society’s English Ball at the Pierre Hotel on Tuesday. “It’s the 18th-century group that helps needy British people in Manhattan,” the designer explains. “It makes sense for me to be involved, since I’m mostly of British descent. I’m designing his outfit, which is based on a painting of St. George by Bourne Jones. We’re making a head-to-toe outfit of chain mail, and the trick is to make it look heavy but not actually be heavy.”

None of this is meant to suggest that Long’s clothes for women are being overlooked. On the contrary, he’s up for a Lucille Lortel Award for his work on Grey Gardens. “The real fun for me, and the real challenge, was heightening the contrast between the two acts while maintaining the connection between them,” he says. “For example, you first see Mary Louise Wilson in that tattered kimono, and then you see Christine Ebersole wearing a fresh version of the same kimono.” Long wanted to remain true to the documentary film on which the musical is based but couldn’t copy the real-life Beales’ clothes exactly. “We found a way to make you think they’re the same,” he tells me. “Edie wore a lot of turtlenecks in the film, but a real turtleneck wouldn’t go over a microphone, so we came up with these wrap-around sweaters. We had to make them from scratch because nothing on the market had big enough armholes.”

HOT, HOT, HOT!
It means a lot to the legendary Maurice Hines that he’s directing and choreographing the new Broadway musical Hot Feet, an African-American update of the classic film The Red Shoes, featuring the music of Earth, Wind & Fire. “I saw the movie when I was young, and I loved Moira Shearer,” he says. And though he and his brother, the late Gregory Hines, were renowned as two of the world’s greatest tap dancers, ballet has always been close to his heart. “When we did The Girl in Pink Tights with Henry LeTang, I used to always stand in the wings in first position,” he recalls.

Working with the show’s songwriter, Maurice White, is also a dream come true for Hines. “I’ve been using his song ‘September’ in auditions for the past 10 years,” he tells me. “We have the same agents at William Morris, and they told me he was interested in doing theater. The minute I told him my concept for the show, he hugged me and said, ‘Let’s do it!’ ”

Hines says that the casting process for Hot Feet, which stars Keith David, Ann Duquesnay, Allen Hildago, Michael Balderrama, Wynonna Smith, and an ensemble of amazing dancers, was an exhausting one. But it turns out that there’s only one degree of separation between the director-choreographer and his star, Vivian Nixon: namely, Hines’s old friend and Nixon’s mother Debbie Allen. Says Nixon, “I go to Fordham University, and someone convinced Maurice to come to one of our shows, which is where he found me.”

Despite her pedigree, Nixon — whose father is basketball great Norm Nixon — didn’t start dancing until she was 13. “I was a tomboy for a long time, and a real daddy’s girl,” she says. “But my mom is my best friend. We can talk about anything, and she does give me advice if I need it, though she thinks it’s important that I be my own person.”

WINGING IT
The American Theatre Wing’s April 10 gala saluting Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick was a supremely stellar affair. On hand to honor the popular duo were Broderick’s wife, Sarah Jessica Parker; Neil Simon and his wife, Elaine Joyce; Tony Award winners Patti LuPone, Jim Dale, and Marian Seldes; Grammy winner Phil Collins; Emmy winner Richard Thomas; singer Karen Akers; happy couples Jill Clayburgh and David Rabe, and Michael McKean and Annette O’Toole; playwright David Henry Hwang; and everyone’s favorite sex therapist , the pint-sized Dr. Ruth Westheimer.

And here’s a short-list of celebs recently seen at the theater: Dominic Dunne, Marilyn Michaels, and Juliet Mills cheered Mills’s husband Maxwell Caulfield and his co-star Amelia Campbell on the opening night of Tryst at the Promenade; Justin Bond (a.k.a. Kiki), just back from London, attended Marga Gomez‘s hilarious solo show Los Big Names; the very busy Marin Ireland and playwright Brooke Berman were at the Culture Project to see Peter Morris‘ s controversial play Guardians; and the wonderful singer Ann Hampton Callaway took in Festen with her brother-in-law, Dan Foster.

CASTING CALLS
John Cariani heads the cast of his new play cul-de-sac, beginning performances on April 20 at the Connelly Theatre; George Lee Andrews, Mary Beth Piel, and Charlie Pollock will star in a concert version of the new musical In This House at Symphony Space, April 26-28; Julia Sweeney will reprise her solo show Letting Go of God at Ars Nova, April 28-29; Michael Hunsaker is set to star in a free reading of the new musical Ethan Frome: An American Romance on May 9 at the York Theatre; and Kevin Chamberlin will join the Broadway cast of Chicago as Amos Hart on June 12.

Elsewhere around the country: Andrea Burns, Sean Martin Hingston, and Pamela Myers will star in the musical The Pirate at Philadelphia’s Prince Music Theatre, May 6-28; former Oz star Robert Clohessy and the fabulous Portia will co-star in Hartford Stage’s Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, May 18-June 18; and Law & Order‘s Annie Parisse and the hunky Jeremy Davidson will team up for the Berkshire Theatre Festival’s Coastal Disturbances, July 11-29.

In Los Angeles, there are lots of TV favorites to be seen on stage: French Stewart, Gregg Henry, and Sara Rue are in the world premiere production of the musical Little Egypt, beginning performances on April 20; former Night Court star Charlie Robinson heads the cast of the Actors Studio revival of August Wilson’s Fences, beginning April 21; and Falcon Crest good guy Robert Foxworth stars in the Falcon Theatre’s Darwin in Malibu, bowing on April 26. Finally, Broadway faves Tonya Pinkins and Craig Bierko will join Annabelle Gurwitch in the revolving cast of L.A. Theatre Works’s Fired Again!, May 3-7 at the Skirball Center.