If there is anyone busier than costume designer Emilio Sosa working on Broadway this season, I’d love to meet that person. For the 2022-2023 season, Sosa has designed costumes for the revival of Sweeney Todd, the play Ain’t No Mo’, A Beautiful Noise (the Neil Diamond musical); Good Night, Oscar and the revival of the musical 1776.

That last show is currently on tour around America. 1776 opens at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles on April 11th where it will run through May 7th. From there the show goes to San Diego and San Jose. You can find all the tour stops here.

The musical, by Sherman Edwards and Peter Stone, was first on Broadway in 1969. That production was nominated for 5 Tony Awards and won 3 including Best Musical.

The story is that of the discussions and arguments that preceded the writing and the signing of the Declaration of Independence with John Adams being the most forceful presence in the musical.

In 1969 there was only one role for a woman – that of Martha Jefferson (played by Betty Buckley in her Broadway debut.) This production, directed by Diane Paulus, finds not a single role is played by a man. The cast is made up entirely of women, non-binary and transgender performers. Which means Sosa had the dual challenge of representing history and accommodating contemporary bodies in clothes not originally designed for them.

I spoke with Sosa in late March about 1776 and some of his other shows in this very busy season he has. What follows are excerpts from our conversation that have been edited for length and clarity.

Thomas Jefferson wrote, and this is truncated a bit, “I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions, but laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind.” He goes on to say that “Institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as a civilized society to remain ever under the regiment of their barbarous ancestors.” It sounds to me like he’s advocating for exactly this production of 1776. 

Thomas Jefferson enjoyed fashion. He enjoyed clothing. He enjoyed looking good. He loved French fabrics. He spent a lot of time in Paris. So he was influenced by the culture there and the way the men and the women dressed. So for him to use the analogy of clothing is so in line to the person he was in general. 

For me what’s very powerful about this piece is when you hear these words spoken by people that look like you, who were never, ever represented in the room, just changes the dynamic of the course of this country. I still believe America is the best country in the world. I would not live anywhere else, but it is not without its flaws. And a major flaw traces right back to this document. That’s the central core, I think, America goes back to. Unless we are willing to go to the very beginning and try to undo what was wrongfully done, we will never, ever heal as a nation.

I saw an interview that Diane Paulus gave the New York Times where she said, “Audiences are interested in looking back to our history to understand the present moment.” What is your role in making it possible for audiences who see 1776 to do exactly what she thinks they want to do?

As the costume designer, I want to give a sense of the period because the period is very specific. The interesting thing about 1776 for me is that it’s a musical, but the underlining things are so rich and deep. I don’t want to give it away for anyone who has not seen it, because the very beginning is really encompasses the entire language of the show. But it’s about when we put on the coat of history what do we learn from it.

So my job was to give the audience a sense of the history. That’s why the coats that the performers wear, the shapes are completely authentic. We researched everything that men wore at that period, what women wore, what Europeans were wearing.

Even in the book of the of the musical, the playwright give us some historical fashion history. They are very specific in the fabrics and colors that we used. They wanted to make the distinction between the pious, puritanical aspect of New England, the North, by the use of color and fabrications, earthier colors, muted colors in simpler woven fabrics versus what the South was. The South was the the central capital of the slave trade in this country. So a lot of things came from overseas fabrics. They had access to silks, to laces to buttons. We were able to show the difference in the fabrications they wore; the ornamentation because they took really pride in their way of life. That was a huge central theme in not only the musical but in our American history.Those were the themes that I wanted the audience to get.

Are there unique challenges knowing that you are not making these costumes for men, but making them for a wide spectrum of bodies that are going to be in them? 

Totally. Because when you look at those patterns they were definitely made for a specific gender. When you open up the pool of humans, we’re all shaped differently. Maintaining the correct silhouette and adjusting it to a modern form, that’s always the challenge. But talented drapers and makers can make it work. It’s just a matter of adjusting the patterns and being conscious of the body in front of you and how do you dress it and not go by the textbook a bit.

It is my understanding that the mantra for the show was “to hold history as a predicament rather than an affirming myth.” For people who aren’t sure what exactly that mantra means, what would you tell them? 

The way I absorbed it is history is always someone’s take on what happened. It’s debatable. It’s good to have the facts and then make your own assumptions and I think that’s the way I looked at this this show. We know what the history of it is, but let’s explore how we get there. And then if we are going to explore how we get there, we explore the people who were excluded from the table for telling you the story. History is a moving target. I also remember always hearing history is written by the winners. So how you look at it depends on what side of the argument you end up on. Some of the greatest people in our world have not been treated kindly by history.

This is not the only revival you’ve done. You did The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess. You’re doing the Sweeney Todd production that just opened this weekend to almost universally rave reviews. Is there a difference for you or a different area of passion for you when you’re doing a revival of a production versus doing something that’s new, like Motown the Musical or Ain’t No Mo’ or Good Night Oscar? 

I approached them all as new work because to me they were new, especially Sweeney. Because Sweeney Todd is mythical. People have these memories attached to this show at some point or another in their lives. Now that I know it so well, I can understand why. I think it’s one of the most joyously written musicals. I think of the musical as a horror musical. 

Sweeney Todd never done it, never seen a production of it. I just knew some of the songs and the legendary performers had been in it, but to me it was new. I knew was about a barber who killed people and a woman who made pies out of them. That was the core of the story. I didn’t see Sweeney as just the killer. I think what was interesting is to see the human who became that. No one starts where they end. So there had to be some kind of arc that we can trace and I think by making these characters more human made the tragedy even greater.

Oscar Levant, the subject of Good Night, Oscar, is a hugely complicated character. He’s one of my favorite people in the history of culture in this country, but words fail me for how to easily sum up who Oscar Levant was. So how did you approach Oscar Levant for Good Night, Oscar?

I saw some of Oscar Levant as our inner voice. What we want to say if we had the courage to say it. Oscar had no filter. That’s what made him brilliant. He was self-deprecating. Well, he took himself really seriously. That’s why he had those issues. I think we all wish we could live that way, especially now. In the world we live in I don’t know whether Oscar Levant could exist. Maybe he could, because you do need someone that has no filter to cut through the political correctness of our times.

What Oscar was saying at the onset of TV was already was controversial. I think he represents all of us. We’re all born with a gift. Whether or not you exercise that, you find it, you nurture it, always treat it, that’s your journey. But even when he was at his lowest mentally, he was able to give the gift that was given to him.

In the penultimate episode of Project Runway season seven, where you competed, you said “I wanted to leave a lasting impression on these judges.” With five shows this season on Broadway and you’ve worked on countless films, what’s the lasting impression you would like to leave on the people who go to the theater?

The lasting impression: we’re all in it together. Theater is a community experience and that’s what life should be. We are all in it together and if we could only look at each other as equals we will be in a much better place. That’s why I love theater so much. Once the lights go down we are all experiencing something together that’s unique for this one audience. That can never be replicated again. Theater is a great denominator. Once the lights go out, we are all the same. We’re being taken on the same journey. If we think about that in our daily lives, then I think we would be in a much better place.

Photo: The cast of the national tour of 1776 (Photo by Joan Marcus/Courtesy Center Theatre Group)

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At the ripe old age of 25, vocalist Veronica Swift was praised by Giovanni Russonello in the New York Times for “her startling command and improbably mature delivery.” That was the year that her album Confessions was released. Her next album, This Bitter Earth, was completed in late 2019, but with the onslaught of the pandemic she decided it wasn’t the best time to release new work.

Earlier this year the album was finally released. Swift is now touring to support it with performances this week at the Newman Center in Denver on Friday, two sets at the Samueli Theater at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa on Saturday and a fourth performance at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts in Davis, California.

I discovered Swift when I first read about her shows at Segerstrom. That lead me to listen to three of her albums and I think she’s one of the finest young singers out there. One thing I admire is that she doesn’t fall into any one category. Her choice of material comes from the Great American Songbook, Broadway and bands you may never have heard of. What she does with all this material is to make each and every song completely her own.

Last week I spoke by phone with Swift about the record, her influences and the kind of songs that make her want to just sing. What follows are excerpts from that conversation that have been edited for length and clarity.

In 2019, you told San Francisco Jazz that for your previous album “each song on the album could be an entry from a diary.” When This Bitter Earth was recorded what does this audio diary reveal about who you were in that time and place? 

This Bitter Earth, instead of it just being a continuation, it’s really a social commentary record. Not a political record, but it’s just a reaction to all the things that we’re experiencing in this ever-changing world. Things were coming up in the news that were just so upsetting. Rather than just taking an escapism approach, I wanted do a record that was just an artistic reaction and observation to all that. 

Given the album’s delay due to COVID, how has your relationship to these songs and the way you perform them evolved?

All of these songs are completely different now, if not not in the way we play it, but the way I approach singing them. I had no idea what we were in for. But some of the material that the record had on it, it’s kind of some weird spiritual unveiling that happened. That’s why we held off to release it because it didn’t feel right to release any music and try to forward my career at a time when everyone was suffering so much. But after that, we kind of had a little glimpse into the future hope. That’s when I released the record, and it really reflects the songs well. It’s uncanny.

We’re not out of the woods on so many of the issues that inspired This Bitter Earth. Is it tough for you to remain optimistic?

I always call myself like a pessimistic optimist, but I think that’s being a product of my generation. My generation – just look at the pop music. I mean, it’s just all very dark. It’s just been going down a dark tunnel. The music is getting so evil and like giving up; all the songs are just about detaching from any kind of reality. And I want my music to inspire something else. I don’t want to have part of that.

How important is getting younger listeners to listen to what you and other artists do as you move on to greater success with your career? 

It’s always important to listen to what’s out there. I get a lot of young singers and musicians that are always asking me, ‘What should I listen to?’ I just think there’s no answer to that. You just listen to who you like and then you figure out who they listen to, then figure out who is kind of doing that in your present contemporary time. Our job, if you’re a musician or deejay, you’re in that industry, is to listen to every possible thing out there, whether it had already been recorded years and years ago, or if it’s current.

My buddies, Cyrille (Aimeé) Cécile (McLorin Salvant), we all talk about how it’s amazing how different we all are, and we have completely different stories and tales to tell and a purpose. Between us there’s like so much history in there, but also like completely current. We definitely belong in this time period doing what we do. 

The album ends with Sing, a song written and recorded by The Dresden Dolls 15 years ago. It’s a great recording and the song feels like it could have been written six months ago.

And it could have been written forty years years ago. I mean, that’s the beautiful thing about great music. The best music to me is timeless and ageless, especially with musicians that are inspired by music of different times. And that’s what I loved about that band. They were, you know, kind of like a mix between like hardcore punk mixed with like some 1930s old like Berlin cabaret and theater and this and that and jazz. There’s everything. But if you can make that a sound that is completely uniquely yours and write music also with this – this is like everything to me. A song that can transcend time. Like many of the great standards can. Many, not all. Many.

You spent four years performing as Frank ‘n’ Furter in The Rocky Horror Show in college. You’ve also stated a desire to play John Adams in a production of the musical 1776. How much does theater influence your performance style?

I can only hope to perform my fullest self for the audience. I don’t want to hold anything back. And for me, performance art and theater doesn’t have to mean you sacrifice a musical and artistic integrity of your musicianship or the lyric content. For me both enhance each other. It’s my dream to have props on stage and have the musicians be the characters – whatever the show we’re doing. Musical theater is always a huge part of my background. Whether you’re a musician or a writer everything comes down to story and narrative. And that’s why I like to call myself a storyteller more than a singer or a musician.

All photos by Matt Baker (Courtesy UnlimitedMyles)

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