NR: I'm trying to understand how the process works from the beginning. Does the director say, "This is sort of what I want" or do you say that? Does it depend on who the director is?

JG: It varies. No two people design the same way and there are no two directors who direct the same way. Some directors are much more visually interested and others are more cerebrally interested. As a designer you have to be somewhat of a chameleon and get under the skin of the director. You sort of have to have a love affair with the director because you're creating this piece as a team - there's a director and a lighting designer and a set designer and a sound designer. All of you are really like a cog in the wheel, so you all have to really be in love with each other for the time that you're all working on that project. Sometimes I take along research for the first meeting with a director. If I don't know a director, I will perhaps just go and hear what they have to say and then go back and have another meeting to say we can go this way or that way.

NR: How did it go with Peter Hunt? How did you two work together?

JG: He came here and we sat and looked through some of my books in the library and some of the research that was very obviously part of what would be in the story of The Scarlet Pimpernel. Then I said to him, "Do you want this to look realistic or do you want it to be very stylized?" He said, "Oh, no no. I want it to be very realistic. I want them to look like the people of Paris and the people of London, and I want these people to have real characters and real development and I want the clothes to look like clothes." So, that told me how he wanted me to proceed.

NR: Since it got a little crazier in the second version, I'm assuming Bobby Longbottom had a different approach.

JG: He has developed a much more stylized feeling for the clothes. In a way he sees the humor of a period and I think "The Creation of Man" ...actually they were the first set of sketches. Peter felt that they were a little over the top. When I first met with Bobby, he said, "You know, I think you can have more fun with this" and I said, "Would you like to see the first set of sketches that we actually came up with?" He said he loved them and that they were right. We also had to put in a new "Valentine" number for the opening.

NR: Is that realistic? Did they really do that? They didn't have pink wigs, did they?

JG: They had very elaborate wigs. (Jane then showed me a book of pictures showing women wearing wigs that were just as elaborate as the "Storybook" wigs, although I have to say that none of them were pink.) The wigs were quite large. This picture is for the number that we're doing now - for the ballroom scene which is going to be completely different.

NR: Really?

JG: It's all in gold and silver. Percy and Marguerite are going to be in red.

NR: Can I ask you something? Why does Percy say he's going to be in "creamy satin" when actually he's in beige velvet? That really bothers me. (laughs)

JG: It bothered me and I don't know why they never changed it. He's changed it now from "creamy satin" to "ruby satin" because it's red, but in all truth, it's a brocade.

NR: Does it shimmer?

JG: It does.

NR: Good. So, all the ball gowns are going to change?

JG: Yes. They haven't changed since the beginning.

NR: Do you find that you have to make a compromise between what's historically what you really want to do and what's practical because they have to dance in it, or because they have to wear it over and over again?

JG: Well, yes, you always have to... I mean, here we are. It's 1999 and we do know about dry cleaners and washing. But, curiously enough, those clothes don't go to the dry cleaner.

NR: How do you keep them clean? They're all sweating when they're wearing them.

JG: They have a t-shirt and they have underwear and they have tights. They have a linen shirt. When men wore these clothes, they had linen. Their linen protected the clothes. That's why they have those high collars and those cravats that kept the perspiration away from the velvet and the silks. I think the same thing is true today. Their shirts and their underwear and their tights are washed every night so they're clean. If you think about it, you think they must get terribly hot but they only wear them for one number. They take them off right away and they're on to the next thing. The costumes are hung out and they air. I beg them not to send them to the cleaners more than they have to because it takes all the joy out of the clothes.

NR: They only have one of each of these. Is that true?

JG: Yes. In the movies, it's very different. You usually have quite of few of them. But, in the theater, the cost of these things is prohibitive.

NR: Now, what about the understudies? I think Bryan (Batt) told me he had his own, although he and Douglas shared a few items.

JG: They shared a couple of things. Producers never want to invest in more than they have to. If an actor isn't wearing it next to the skin... as I said, they have their own shirts and their own vests and all of that.

NR: But Douglas is a lot taller than Bryan.

JG: Yes, and he needed larger things made for him.

NR: What about physical limitations? For example, I remember when Christine (Andreas) said that her dress was as wide as the bridge.

JG: Well, we measured what it was.

NR: What about the women's ball gowns? Did you have to make them a bit smaller so that they could get on stage?

JG: No, because they were flown from the back of the stage.

NR: Even the Thanksgiving Day parade, when they had to stand outside in the rain, did that kill you?

JG: Killed me, killed me. But the Bounders wore their woolen ones for that number, so it wasn't too terrible.

NR: Who designs the color schemes, the set designer or you? Or, do you work together?

JG: We work together. The set designer's going to design the rooms as he feels they should be designed. The clothes go in those rooms. In life, people don't have clothes because they know a room's going to be a certain color.

NR: That's true, but if you had a red room you probably wouldn't want someone in peach in that red room.

JG: That would look very interesting actually.

NR: Who decided the colors? Chauvelin had to be in black because that was in the script.

JG: But that was what they all wore - all those revolutionaries.

NR: But Percy's all in creamy things pretty much and Marguerite's in the red family for the most part.

JG: Well she's an actress. She was very flamboyant. I kind of kept thinking if you were a leading lady, you'd wear something "center stage," wouldn't you?

NR: I suppose you would. Who decided to make Rachel (York) a redhead?

JG: We all felt that it was warmer. Paul Huntley, who designed the wigs, is excellent at helping to choose what is the right color for a person on stage. He discourages blond many times. I've worked with Paul for many, many years and he always says that blond can be aging on stage. It can look almost gray. A warmer color gives more focus to the face.

NR: Well, she looked wonderful as a redhead. Now, Douglas is blond.

JG: He isn't really. It's quite brown with highlights. It wasn't blond blond.

NR: I think the lights made him look blonder.

JG: That's the trouble, you see? If he was a real blond the lights would make him look washed out.

Interview conducted and photographs by Nancy Rosati.