BEHIND THE SEAMS

As an actor, I wear a lot of suits and tuxedos.

It feels like every musical I've ever been in has a "Party Scene" where the entire male ensemble is in a formal, black tuxedo. I can still remember my first one: My Fair Lady in ninth grade. We all had to drive to the local mall (remember malls?!) to get fitted at the tuxedo store, who was generously donating the rentals in exchange for an advertisement in the show program. Two years later, I donned another tux as Evelyn Oakleigh in Anything Goes. Again as John Brooke in Little Women.

And over and over in nearly every musical in my professional career over the last 20 years...

So, a few months ago, I was faced with a new challenge: after wearing so much black and white onstage for the last two decades, what suit or tuxedo would I like to wear at MY wedding?

Being the avid newsletter reader you are, and knowing my proclivity for the color green, you've probably already assumed that I'd land on a green suit. And that's where you'd be...

...right. 

I'd never worn a green suit before. Sure, I'd seen many online. But all of them seemed tacky, or ill-fitting, or not "me." I put out a call to action on our Instagram, and lo and behold, many of you came through with lots of recommendations. And eventually I found my way to an online retailer who had just the right shade of green I was looking to don on my special day.

I ordered it. And surprisingly, it arrived on time. I held my breath as I unpackaged it: would it be the right shade of green? Would any of it fit? My Irish ancestors must've been smiling down on me: it was the perfect shade of green. The vest fit. The jacket fit. And the pants...almost fit. I'd never worn anything like them: the butt area was nonexistent and way too tight, and there was extra fabric in the front that bunched up. Who could I turn to for help? I did a swan dive into my contact list of amazing wardrobe humans and re-surfaced with one name: Shireen Unvala. We first worked together on a show in Michigan and now she's taking over the backstage wardrobe world working on nearly every new musical in NYC. 

Shireen quickly responded: "Oh, for expert tailoring there's only one person you should reach out to. His name is Scott." She passed on his contact info, and after a few quick texts and a flurry of ill-fitting-pants photos later, he gave me an address to head to so he could take a look in person.

The next day, I found myself looking up at this old garment district building on 8th Avenue, garment bag in hand. As I stepped off the elevator on the seventh floor, that's when I saw it: a door with the unmistakable silhouette of a star set against a yellowish-gold background.  

THE HAMILTON DESIGN STUDIO 

With a few gentle knocks, the door opened and I stepped into my favorite type of room: one STEEPED in Broadway. Parchment colored corsets surrounded me. Garment racks were neatly lined up with beautiful handwriting on each tag. 

"What are those?" I asked Scott, just moments after shaking his hand and meeting him for the first time. "Oh, those are every dress we've ever made for every actress in the world who has played one of the Schuyler Sisters." Behind those were large receptacles with bolts of shiny fabric. "And these?" I asked. "Those are the custom rolls of green fabric that we have milled for all of the Alexander Hamilton act two suits we make here." 

As it turns out, mine wouldn't be the first green suit Scott had worked on! 

I kid you not when I say that five minutes after I handed them to him, Scott returned with my pants instantly transformed. It turns out one of the seams in the back had been sewn wrong. An easy fix by one of Broadway's best tailors. 

With so much Broadway in the rest of my life, I hadn't intended to have many Broadway-related things at my wedding. But with the help of Scott, that special Broadway magic was sewn into the seams of the best day of my entire life, as I said "I Do!" to the most beautiful woman I've ever met - who I now get to call my wife.