READER PANEL

Join the Soap Opera Digest Reader Panel. If you love this magazine, you'll love being on the Reader Panel!

PROFILE

Star of the Week

PASSIONS - feature

Behind The Scenes Of PASSIONS's "Homage" To Wicked

— By Lori Latusek

The soap that brought you 2003's Chicago parody "I Ain't Sorry" and last year's Bollywood sequence featuring the Emmy Award-winning original song "Love is Ecstacy" put together two great Wicked-like numbers, "Spellbinding" and "Perfectly Frightful." From wardrobe to choreography to original music, this musical was quite a collaborative effort. Here's the scoop from Digest on all the work that went into the entertaining episode.

Juliet Mills (Tabitha, l.) and Georgia Engel (Esmerelda)
— Paul Skipper/JPI

COSTUME DESIGNER DIANA EDEN
"We had something like 45 costumes made from scratch," says Costume Designer Diana Eden. "We brought in extra people to the workroom; we had a hat maker; we had a dyer. It was crazy here for two-and-a-half weeks, but we made it."

On The Color Scheme And Theme: "I wanted to make the palette bright and fun," smiles Eden. "I always talk with [Production Designer] George Becket and tell him what I have in mind and make sure we're on the same page. It's essential not to compete with each other, but to collaborate. I was in Calico Corners, an upholstery fabric store, and they had this display of sofas and pillows in the most wonderful lime green, coral and yellow. I saw that and it looked so yummy. I thought, ‘That's going to be my palette.'

The [cast was] in interpretations of school uniforms. The boys had the striped blazers, like the old cricket blazers, or vests. We made sure that everybody had a different color shoe and a sock. The girls were all in pleated skirts. Some were in striped blazers that we made here, and blouses and ties and accessories. I had some sweaters knit specifically in our color scheme."

Challenge Chat: "A great challenge was the size of the undertaking," she adds. "We had 18 singers and dancers and two principles. The singers and dancers had two changes each, and the principles had three changes each. It was like doing three or two Broadway numbers in two weeks instead of two months. So it was pretty tough, but I love doing musical theater, so it was really a fun project."

Kim Huber (Young Tabitha, l.) and Melissa Fahn (Young Esmerelda)
— Paul Skipper/JPI

Young Tabitha: "She had to fly, so that presented a challenge because she had to wear a harness underneath and the wires had to be attached," notes Eden of the black witch costume. "My shopper found a wonderful fabric downtown that had a spongy texture to it, so I was able to create a costume that showed off her beautiful figure. We had her hat made by a well-known hat maker at Western [Costume Company] named Harry Rotz." Then it was time for Young Tabitha's colorful outfit. "That's her version of a school uniform," she says. "When she shows up, she's totally a misfit. While everyone else is in peaches, pinks, corals, lime greens and yellows, she's in olive and a muted blue and she looked as drab and out of place as possible."

Young Esmerelda: "She is all pink and white and fluff," beams Eden. "When we first meet Young Esmerelda, she's in her little beige suit with pink piping and pink ruffles, then she changes into another dress, which is the only dress I didn't design. It's a Betsey Johnson dress and it's peach laced ruffled. All I did was add a little ruffled sleeve. She is the exact opposite [of Young Tabitha]. She is a supreme good witch, so her dress was a white embroidered organza over a silver sequin. It also had a touch of pink and green and ruffles. I had this wonderful Elizabethan collar made here in the workroom. They had to first construct the wire and sew the organza to it. Of course, she had a crown, which all supreme witches have. There is a Web site called rhinestonejewelry.com. They have a whole range of crowns."

Fahn (second from r.) and chorus
— Paul Skipper/JPI

COMPOSER/LYRICIST JOHN HENRY KREITLER
"I haven't seen it yet," admits composer/lyricist and 10-time Emmy-winner John Henry Kreitler of Wicked. "I was aware of it, of course, and it was near the top of my list of things to do, places to go and things to see and hear. I have been very busy and wasn't able to go, so I can't say that I've actually seen it."

On Finding The Right Words: "I listened to the [Wicked] songs a couple of times to appreciate what they're about and the musical universe they are in," he explains. "Then I put them aside and never listened to them again because the last thing I want to do is write those songs. That's not what we're about at PASSIONS. We do original, either spoofs or homages. This is a beautifully done tribute to the style and substance of Wicked, but done in our own way and completely original."

Location, Location: "I drove to Malibu to write the lyrics and spent two days writing the lyrics, one day for each song," Kreitler says. "Then I spent a week at a condo in Mexico. I turned off all the phones to not be distracted, and spent a week writing the music for the two songs. The rest of the work was doing all the orchestrations and recording and production. All in all, it took about two months total for the two songs. It was seven days a week, about 15 hours a day."

No ‘I' In Team: "I actually collaborated for the first time with Executive Producer Lisa de Cazotte and [Supervising] Producer Richard Schilling," he adds. "They are both enormously talented and I felt the songs became better songs because of the collaboration. Frankly, I was stuck on one point in ‘Spellbinding,' and they solved that problem and made it a better song. They brought a little more focus to Tabitha's voice, particularly. They made significant contributions, definitely. In this particular instance, I didn't collaborate with my longtime partner, Wes Boatman. He was in the process of moving, so his studio was in boxes. Timing- wise, it didn't work out."

Got Talent? "Our Young Esmerelda [Melissa Fahn] is the understudy for Glenda in the Pantages version of Wicked [in L.A.]," notes Kreitler. "So she has that type of character completely nailed and brought such professionalism and technique to the character. Kim Huber, who does Young Tabitha, just amazed me with how she was able to bring Juliet Mills's character into her character of 25 years before in the flashback. They play off each other very well."

Above And Beyond: "I think we've reached new heights with this one," enthuses Kreitler. "It's spectacular and really well done. My hat's off to everyone in the cast and crew who participated in this. Everyone did a tremendous job. We hope we're setting standards for anyone else who wants to do this. This is a very unusual thing to occur in daytime television and I'm impressed with [Vice President, NBC Daytime Programs] Annamarie Kostura for supporting and pushing this and her vision. I truly think that our fans are getting to witness a historic event here, or have over the last two or three years because nobody had done this in daytime TV. Who knows what the future may bring, but it's really remarkable for that reason. PASSIONS doesn't like to do things like everybody else and always does a superb job. It's always cutting edge."

Kim Huber (Tabitha)
— Paul Skipper/JPI

CHOREOGRAPHER LANCE McDONALD
"They've brought me on for a couple of scenes for a situation like a dance in the living room or yoga, then they called me for this particular production number," shares Choreographer Lance McDonald.

In Tune: "What was awesome for me was I received the music from John and was listening to it, thinking, ‘Is this from the show?' " shares McDonald. "That's how amazingly accurate John was with the music. It was spot-on with the feeling that was composed in Wicked. It was really exciting for me to come on board and have it produced the way it was. They went first class all the way. It's exciting to have that kind of playground. Diana and George outdid themselves. I don't get excited about a lot of work and I'm excited about this. I think it's quite special."

Doing The Math: "There was a cast of 18 total," he says. "Primarily, there were singers that moved well and about eight dancers that were real strong dancers, and then the two leads. Kim and Melissa were amazing. The two of them were so much fun and totally willing to just jump in and throw their characters into it. I had a great time. I was really blessed to have two leads as talented as them. They are triple threats."

The Right Direction: "Phideaux [Xavier], the director, was beyond prepared," he smiles. "He liked being around during what he called the embryonic stage, and he enjoyed watching the process and where we were going with it. That showed in the way that he covered it. I was so not worried. It was amazing. He had every camera angle ready to go throughout the whole thing. I was very impressed and I'm hard on directors. It was exciting for me to watch him work. I have the utmost respect for him."

Connect The Dots: "Lisa Martsolf [wife of Eric Martsolf, Ethan] and I go back many years, have worked off and on on many projects," he said of his assistant for this job. "I was fortunate enough to bring her out of hiatus; she had just had the twins five months before I called her to work on the SCRUBS musical episode. I was fortunate enough to have her come back for that because she kind of hung up her shoes for a while. When the call came for this, I didn't know if she would be available, so I was really lucky. I love everybody [at PASSIONS], but [Eric is] the one person I haven't been able to play with yet."

RELATED RESOURCES


 

   
Subscribe to Soap Opera Digest for just $21.95 - a savings of 75% OFF the cover price! With your subscription you'll receive THE INSIDER, our subscriber-only weekly email newsletter filled with the news and gossip you won't find anywhere else!

Soap Opera Digest is the insiders' guide to daytime. Every week we bring you behind-the-scenes secrets, the latest star gossip, the latest star fashions, complete show recaps and VCR alerts so that you get the most out of your soaps!




GIVE A GIFT
 
Email:
First Name:
Last Name:
Address Line 1:
Address Line 2:
City:
State: Zip:
Select a payment option:
Charge my credit card
Bill me later
Do you have a promotional coupon code?
Enter Code:
Please send me special offers and exclusive promotions from Soap Opera Digest's premiere partners.
 
 

HOT OFF THE NET

POLLING BOOTH

SOAP OPERA OFFERS