Theatre Legends
William Ivey Long
About William Ivey Long
William Ivey Long is a costume designer for stage and film. His most notable work includes the Broadway shows The Producers, Hairspray, Grey Gardens, Young Frankenstein, and Cinderella. Long’s father was the founder of the Winthrop University theatre department.
Long attended the College of William and Mary and worked for Paul Green’s outdoor drama, The Lost Colony. He then went to the Yale School of Drama to study set design. It was here that he met Sigourney Weaver, Wendy Wasserstein, Meryl Streep, and Christopher Durang. While at Yale he studied under designer Ming Cho Lee, whom he has credited with being a major influence on his work.
Upon his graduation from Yale in 1975, he moved to New York City where he worked for couturier Charles James as an unpaid apprentice. He has designed for over 60 Broadway shows. He has been nominated for fourteen Tony Awards, winning six (for Nine, Crazy for You, The Producers, Hairspray, Grey Gardens, and Cinderella). He also won the Drama Desk Award for outstanding costume design for Hairspray,
In June 2012, he was elected Chairman of The American Theatre Wing. He is the first working theatre artist to hold this position since Helen Hayes.
Artist Links
Videos
Working In The Theatre: Costumes
Tony Awards Acceptance Speech: William Ivey Long (2013)
Classic Clips: William Ivey Long (2001)
Audio
Select Credits
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Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella - Costume Design, Broadway Theatre
2013 Tony Award Best Costume Design of a Musical
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Young Frankenstein - Costume Design, Lyric Theatre
2008 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Costume Design [nominee]
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Grey Gardens - Costume Design, Walter Kerr Theatre
2007 Tony Award Best Costume Design of a Musical
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Cabaret - Costume Design, Kit Kat Klub / Studio 54
1998 Tony Award® Best Costume Design [nominee]
1998 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Costume Design [nominee] -
Chicago - Costume Design, Richard Rodgers Theatre
1997 Tony Award® Best Costume Design [nominee]
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Lend Me a Tenor - Costume Design, Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre
1989 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Costume Design
1989 Tony Award® Best Costume Design [nominee] -
Nine - Costume Design, Richard Rodgers Theatre
1982 Tony Award® Best Costume Design
1982 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Costume Design
