After scheduling conflicts pushed the show from October of 1999 to June of 2000, we were charging forward in the spring of the new millennium. Of course, by the time the little money that we had came through, about four months of preparation time remained. Noted McManus: “Jack Pierce and the people all part of the team in making those great monster movies certainly took more time than we did in this tribute. But we did put our hearts into it, and I think that’s the most important part.”
Pieces of costume materials were purchased, borrowed or rented; the vast majority had to be fabricated by McManus working alone by hand. The first item to be assembled was the Monster costume, actually done a year earlier for a makeup test that was assembled to see if the project could physically be pulled off. “During the construction of the Monster costume, there was much padding and densing up in order to create the same sort of qualities that we saw in the movies for the actor playing the Monster, Matt Thompson,” said McManus. “I pulled off the rest of the costumes in about a month except for the Bride of Frankenstein, whose gown was built by Simone Williams. She literally sewed the actress, Sheila Marie Shostac into her costume, just like they did in the old days.”
McManus also made different lab coats for show, to be worn by actors playing Clive and Thesiger. “They went through so many changes in the films, and so I carefully studied the pictures in the film archives that I could get my hands on,” she explained. “I discerned the silhouette and created various different coats.”
