Over 2000 individual outfits, around 60 theme-related costume areas, plus background information on a 250 page website updated regularly,
yet we'll try to get you where you want to be within four page/screens.
Chess
Oh What a
Lovely War
Phantom of the
Opera
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum – Ancient Rome.
Annie Get Your Gun – The Wild West at the time of Buffalo Bill’s Travelling Show.
Anything Goes – 1930s musical set aboard a cruise-liner en route from New York to London.
Aspects of Love – Aspects of a 17 year love affair, with music by Lloyd-Webber.
Babes In Arms – A teenager puts on a musical show to avoid being sent to work camp.
Barnum – The early years of Phineas T Barnum, the American showman. The movie 'The Greatest Showman' also tells aspects of the Barnum story
Boy Friend, The – The French Riviera in the1920s.
Boys from Syracuse, The – A musical based on Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors.
Buddy – Biopic ‘jukebox’ musical on Buddy Holly’s life, set in 1950s America.
Bugsy Malone – 1920s Gangsters, Molls & Flappers.
Cabaret – 1930s Berlin during the rise of the Nazis.
Camelot – Courtly love in Arthurian England.
Carousel – A play of Hungarian origin, transplanted to a New England fishing village. Best known for ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’
Cats – Highly successful show based on TS Eliott’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats. The recent film wasn’t such as success!
Chess – Settings and endings vary. It has been set in the Tirol, Bangkok and 1960s New York. Sometimes Freddie wins, other times Anatoly.
Evita – Argentina 1935-62 – The story of Eva Peron. Made into a film, starring Madonna.
Follies – Set at the reunion of the artists originally in a 1930 ‘Follies-style’ Broadway revue.
Grease – ‘Romeo & Juliet’ in an American High School setting.
Guys and Dolls – Set in 1940s New York and inspired by the stories of Damon Runyon.
Gypsy – Semi-biographical piece on the life and times of artiste Gypsy Rose Lee.
Hair – A Tribal Love-Rock musical, this hippy-orientated show broke new ground and several taboos.
Hairspray - Based around a TV talent contest with a sub-context of racial tolerence.
Half a Sixpence – Based on HG Wells’ novel ‘Kipps’ and originally starring Tommy Steele
Hamilton - American Revolutionary hip-hop musical.
Hello Dolly – New York City, turn of the 20th Century, featuring brassy widow Dolly Gallagher Levi, whose arrival in the city causes a stir.
King and I, The – Supposedly based on the true story of English governess Anna Leonowens in the court of the King of Siam (Thailand) in the early 1860s.
Kiss Me Kate – Issues of ‘Taming of the Shrew’ are mirrored in the contemporary theatre group performing it.
Les Miserables - Popular stage-show (and now film) set in French Revolutionary times
Little Night Music, A – Musical on the romantic lives of a number of couples.
Little Shop of Horrors - Extreme gardening drama
Lock Up Your Daughters – Set in 1735. a British musical in the Restoration Comedy-style based on a Henry Fielding novel and featuring lyrics by Lionel Bart.
Me and My Girl – Set in the 1930s, the culture-shock of a long-lost Cockney heir to an aristocratic fortune.
My Fair Lady – Not dissimilar to the above, a street-girl is made ‘posh’ to satisfy a gentlemen’s wager.
No No Nanette – A bible-publisher and his wife seek to ‘tame’ their wild ward Nanette.
Oh What a Lovely War – The First World War done as an ‘end-of the-pier’ show.
We haven’t pictures for every suggestion here, but for the benefit of those wanting inspiration for a Musicals-based event, here's a short list of musicals from which you could perhaps get some ideas!
West Side
Story
Wicked
Oklahoma! – Set in 1906– the first blockbuster of the 1940s’ ‘Golden Era’ of musicals.
Oliver! – Adaptation of Dickens’ Oliver Twist with lyrics by Lionel Bart.
Paint Your Wagon – Set in the 1853 California Gold Rush.
Pal Joey – 1930s Chicago and the ‘Joey’ in question is looking to set up his own night-club.
Phantom of the Opera – Set in a Paris Opera House in 1911.
Pippin – A Bob Fosse oddity, involving the son of King Charlemagne and some strolling players.
Pirates of Penzance – Comic opera from Gilbert & Sullivan
Pretty Woman - From the film of the same name..
Rocky Horror Show – A musical inspired by horror classics and B-movies.
Seven Brides For Seven Brothers – Lumberjack woodsmen and shotgun weddings.
Showboat – Musical set aboard an old-time Mississippi paddle-steamer.
Sister Act - Musical adaptation of the film of the same name.
Song and Dance – A ‘Concert for the Theatre’ comprising ‘Variations’ and ‘Tell me on a Sunday’.
Sound of Music, The: The tale of the singing Von Trapp family at the time of the Nazi invasion of Austria
South Pacific – Tales of a Polynesian US Naval Base during the WII conflict with Japan.
Starlight Express – A musical about trains performed on roller-skates.
Sunset Boulevard – The musical of the famous film of 1950. Ready for my close-up, Mr De Mille?
Tell Me on a Sunday – The loves & losses of a single British girl in Los Angeles.
Tommy – The Who’s rock opera about a deaf, deaf and blind boy who becomes a messiah.
West Side Story – Romeo & Juliet set amongst the New York gangs of the 1950s.
Whistle Down the Wind – Musical adaptation of a much-loved film.
Wicked - Spin-off/backstory musical based on the better-known Wizard of Oz.
Wizard of Oz – Follow the Yellow Brick Road, with Dorothy, Toto, Scarecrow, Lion and Tinman