Behind the Scenes with Jersey Boys in San Francisco

Each iridescent pendulum that lines the rim of the sleeves and bottom of the Jersey girls sparkling sequins white dress, (that cost thousands of dollars to produce), is sewn on by hand; hundreds of them.

The third layer of pendulums down is a combination of purple and white pendulums each glued together back to back by hand.

All of the tedious, time-consuming work is done by the wardrobe team for the Jersey Boys under the direction of Wardrobe Supervisor Gerbie Connolly, who knows the importance of detail and fine-crafted work.

“It’s all about logistics,” she said.

After just 15 minutes into a behind-the-scenes tour of Jersey Boys at the SHN Curran Theatre, one can see the overwhelming amount of meticulous detail and organization it takes to keep an flawlessly functioning wardrobe system.

So why take hours of the day to glue back to back pendulum pieces, about the size of a nickel, back to back on the rims of dresses used for one dance sequence in Jersey Boys?

Well for one, durability, and two, it makes a much thicker sound according to Connolly.  

This is just one example of the extensive thought process that goes into building the costume set.

The Jersey Boys sparkle suit is another example. It is adorned with colorful swarovski crystals that are all glued on by hand to match the different colors of the fabric.

A wig room, laundry system, and a seamstress/repair station are just a few crucial areas of the system. And within those systems, every piece (shirt, pant, shoe, dress and wig) is organized, mostly by order of appearance on stage and further labeled with a number and a color.

And all of the outfits that are worn are hung to dry to keep the color.

In the end, all of the thought and time that goes into the process makes a big difference. In the Winter season of the show, the outfits are silver and black, according to Connolly.

Even small props are colored to correlate with the season -like a pack of Marlboro cigarettes, which is red in act one and white in act two, Connolly said.

And we all know how handsome those Jersey men look in their taylored suits on stage. Where do those suits come from?

The one and only Calvin Klein, whom Jersey Boys has a partnership with.

The suits, as well as the women’s dresses are custom taylored to each actor/actress for a clean and sharp fit. They also exactly match every other Jersey Boys outfits in all seven other productions, Connolly said.

Once the actors hit the stage the detail all pays off. Costumes come to life with extra sparkle and shine and hold up through many standing-ovation performances.

Though the fashion no doubt plays a huge part in the production, meeting the cast at the tail end might have been our favorite part ;).

• behind-the-scenes