There are fashion show locations, and then there are locations that become part of the story. On September 15, Consuelo Vanderbilt Costin staged Makers, Moguls, and Muses inside Vanderbilt Hall at Grand Central Terminal—the landmark her family helped bring into existence more than a century ago. For a New York Fashion Week presentation celebrating America’s 250th anniversary, it would be difficult to imagine a setting with more history embedded in its walls.

Consuelo Vanderbilt Costin

I loved this show.

Presented by Vanderbilt & Seewald Global Studio and Signet Fashion in collaboration with House of Vanderbilt, the evening brought together fashion, technology, art, history and commerce before approximately 300 fashion industry leaders, investors, buyers, media and VIP guests. Actor and Access Hollywood host Mario Lopez served as emcee, but the real host was Grand Central itself. There was something wonderfully full-circle about a Vanderbilt bringing a new generation of creators into Vanderbilt Hall—not simply to celebrate the past, but to ask what comes next.

That question is at the heart of Vanderbilt & Seewald Global Studio, co-founded by Vanderbilt Costin and media entrepreneur Michaela Seewald. The new venture combines fashion investment, media distribution, technology and commerce with the goal of helping designers grow without surrendering their creative identity or ownership. The studio grew from recognizing a very real problem in the creative world: enormously talented independent people can remain unseen, underfunded and sometimes unpaid simply because they don’t have the machinery of a major agency or corporation behind them.

Mario Lopez

For its runway debut, the studio presented three designers with strikingly different aesthetics: Mexico City’s Lorena Saravia, Dustin Glickman’s Stockholm-based DSTN and French couturier Nabil Hayari of Hayari Paris.

The outfit I covet

For me, Lorena Saravia was irresistible. I would have bought practically every outfit that came down the runway. Working in earthy colors and fabrics that included crepe, jersey and beautifully light leather, Saravia played continually with structure and movement—dresses layered over fluid trousers, architectural draping floating over the body, fabrics that changed character as the models walked.

Still photographs don’t quite capture these clothes because movement is part of the design. They were chic, timeless and sensual, but also looked extraordinarily comfortable. Saravia understands something I increasingly want from fashion: clothes can be sophisticated without looking tortured. These were clothes designed for women to actually inhabit their lives in—and I wanted virtually every damn thing she sent down that runway.

Dustin Glickman’s DSTN took the room somewhere entirely different. At just 22, Glickman has developed a vocabulary rooted in sharp tailoring, leather and a rebellious rock-and-roll edge. Fringe, lacing and Gothic influences gave the collection its attitude, but there was discipline underneath the rebellion. It was darker, younger and deliberately tougher than Saravia’s effortless sensuality—a little rock star, a little dark cowboy, and very much aware of the power of a beautifully controlled silhouette.

Then came Nabil Hayari, and suddenly we were firmly in the world of couture. Hayari Paris brought glamour, workmanship and that particular French understanding that excess works beautifully when someone knows exactly when to stop. His made-to-measure work has long been associated with red-carpet dressing, and on this runway it provided the evening with its most unabashedly glamorous chapter.

Hayari

Hayari’s presentation also connected fashion to art through a collaboration with photographer and visual artist Karen Bystedt, whose work includes her celebrated images of Andy Warhol. The evening incorporated a tribute to Warhol, adding another distinctly New York strand to a show already layered with the city’s history.

Hayari

But Makers, Moguls, and Muses wasn’t interested in nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake. The runway also served as the debut of Vanderbilt & Seewald’s Click-To-Buy technology, designed to allow people in the room and watching remotely to purchase looks directly from the runway. AEXA’s interactive AI hologram technology brought members of Vanderbilt history into the experience as well, creating an almost surreal collision between old New York and the increasingly technological future of fashion.

Famed Photographer Patrick McMullen

There was also a civic dimension to the evening. In recognition of America’s 250th anniversary, 25 members of the U.S. military, FDNY and NYPD were honored, with the presentation opening with the Color Guard and the national anthem. It gave the evening a sense of occasion beyond Fashion Week and connected the idea of American legacy not simply to wealth or famous names, but to service.

Hayari

That distinction matters because the Vanderbilt name inevitably arrives carrying history. Costin isn’t pretending otherwise. House of Vanderbilt and Vanderbilt & Seewald Global Studio are using that history as capital of another kind: access, visibility and the ability to put people into rooms they might otherwise struggle to enter.

Hayari

That is ultimately what made Makers, Moguls, and Muses so much fun. This wasn’t three collections being marched through an anonymous white box. The setting meant something. The clothes were genuinely worth seeing. The designers had distinct identities. Technology was being used to connect the runway directly to commerce, rather than being attached merely because somebody thought Fashion Week needed an AI gimmick.

Most importantly, I wanted the clothes.

After a week of seeing collections that ranged from inspired to inexplicable, there was enormous pleasure in watching Lorena Saravia send look after look down that runway and thinking, yes, I would wear that. And that. And definitely that.

Fashion can carry history, technology, cultural ambition and an entire family’s legacy on its shoulders. But eventually somebody still has to want the dress.

At Makers, Moguls, and Muses, I did.

Andrew Scott is returning to Sea Wall, the Simon Stephens play written specifically for him, but this time the performance will exist somewhere between theatre, cinema and documentary.

Scott will perform the intimate monologue for 19 performances at Studio Seaview, 305 West 43rd Street, from October 16 through October 30. Yet the audience walking into the theatre will not simply be attending a limited theatrical engagement. They will also become part of a feature film being created around the performances.

Directed by Peabody Award winner Tina Satter, the project is conceived as a film about the creation and experience of theatre itself. Cameras will capture not only Scott performing Sea Wall, but everything surrounding the performance: backstage, onstage and inside the house. Most unusually, the audience at each of the 19 performances will become an essential part of the finished film.

It is an intriguing idea because theatre and film usually approach performance from opposite directions. Film can stop, repeat, edit and choose exactly what the viewer sees. Theatre disappears the moment it happens. Even when a stage production is professionally filmed, what remains is generally a record of the performance rather than the complete ecosystem around it.

This Sea Wall appears determined to capture something more elusive: what happens before an actor walks into the light, what happens in the room while he is speaking, and what happens between performer and audience that cannot be recreated in an empty studio.

Scott is an ideal actor for the experiment.

Few performers understand stillness quite as well. His work can be remarkably quiet while remaining electrically alive, which matters enormously in Sea Wall, a piece that depends less upon theatrical machinery than upon the relationship between one man, his story and the people listening to him.

Andrew Scott

Stephens wrote Sea Wall specifically for Scott, creating an intensely personal monologue centered on Alex, a photographer speaking about family, love and a devastating event that fractures the life he believed he understood. Its power lies partly in its apparent simplicity. One actor. One story. Almost nowhere to hide.

That simplicity should make the filmmaking experiment particularly revealing. Instead of attempting to turn the play into a conventional movie, Satter and her creative team are making the theatrical act itself the subject. The performance remains at the center, but the camera will be allowed to look beyond the frame normally imposed by the stage.

The theatrical creative team includes lighting designer Isabella Byrd and sound designer Ben Williams. For the feature film, Paul Yee serves as director of photography, with Parker Lutz advising on production design.

The production also brings together an extensive producing team. Sea Wall will be produced onstage by Seaview, Spencer Ross, Steven Demmler, Mickey Liddell and Pete Shilaimon, Linden Productions, Both/And Productions and Pam Hurst-Della Pietra and Stephen Della Pietra, with Wessex Grove and ATG Productions serving as executive producers.

What ultimately makes the project exciting is that it is not simply filming theatre. We already know how to do that. This is attempting to capture the strange living organism surrounding theatre—the preparation, the waiting, the audience settling into its seats, the performer entering the space, and the invisible exchange that occurs once everyone agrees to believe in the same story for a little while.

And because each audience will be different, no two performances can produce exactly the same film material.

That may prove to be the most fascinating part of the experiment. Theatre audiences are usually treated as witnesses. Here, they become part of the work itself.

Andrew Scott will perform Sea Wall at Studio Seaview from Friday, October 16 through Friday, October 30. Tickets are now on sale. Details regarding the feature film’s eventual release will be announced at a later date.

For a play built around one man standing before an audience and telling the truth as he understands it, turning the people listening into characters of their own feels strangely appropriate.

Theatre has always depended upon the audience.

This time, the camera intends to prove it.

I hope George Winters doesn’t mind a bit of playfulness with his lyrics, but the temptation was too great.

A weekend trip to Covington, KY to see La Cage Aux Folles was highlighted by a surprise stop in Cincinnati to see Klea Blackhurst. What in the world is she doing there, you may ask?  How about rehearsing a revue of the songs of Stephen Schwartz entitled Corner of the Sky: The Songs of Stephen Schwartz, an early song from Pippin and Schwartz’s first big hit.

The perfect person to create such a piece is Scott Coulter, whose long-time friendship with Schwartz eased the sometimes difficult and lengthy approval process.  Coulter came up with the idea for the show and chose Schwartz’s first “I want” song as the title. As Coulter told me, all selections followed from that, and as will seen as it develops, the rest will be history. It’s running at Ensemble Theatre in Cincinnati until the 27^th of September. Why not take a quick weekend hop out there to see theatre history in the making?

Blackhurst will be returning to New York to star in the Styne/Comden & Green 1956 classic Bells Are Ringing at 54 Below, which is celebrating the 70^th anniversary of this quintessential post-World War 2 America musical. Known for being a Broadway belter in the tradition of Ethel Merman, she is a superb choice for this piece. Joining her are Penny Fuller, Robert Cucciolli, and Christine Pedi, with the popular Ethan Mathias in the chorus. Michael Lavine will be handling the musical direction, guaranteed to bring out all the exuberance of this jaunty score, which perfectly captures the zaniness that was the 1950s.  It will be live streamed as well, so mark your calendar for October 7^th!

There are Broadway events, and then there are Broadway rituals. The Broadway Flea Market & Grand Auction belongs firmly in the second category. On Sunday, September 27, the Theatre District once again turns itself inside out as casts, crews, producers, fans and collectors take over West 44th and West 45th Streets, Shubert Alley and Times Square for one of the industry’s most beloved annual traditions. This year carries an extra bit of history: the event celebrates its 40th anniversary.

What began four decades ago with two tables set up by members of A Chorus Line outside their stage door has grown into a full-scale Broadway bazaar, with more than 60 tables selling memorabilia, costumes, props, signed Playbills and the kind of wonderfully strange theatrical ephemera that becomes irresistible the moment someone tells you it was actually used backstage.

This year’s event runs from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., with the silent auction in Shubert Alley and the live Grand Auction beginning at 5 p.m. in the Times Square pedestrian plaza between 45th and 46th Streets. For those who do not want to wait until September 27, online pre-bidding is already open on more than 150 auction lots and continues through 2 p.m. on Friday, September 25, with additional items being added along the way.

These are not your average charity-auction offerings.

Among the experiences currently available is the opportunity to make a one-night-only walk-on appearance in & Juliet. Fans can bid for meet-and-greets with Rachel Zegler after Evita, Tom Felton after Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, or cast members from The Lost Boys and The Rocky Horror Show. Other experiences include shadowing a stage manager at Paranormal Activity or The Lion King, conducting a portion of the exit music at Wicked, sitting in the orchestra pit at Hamilton or The Lion King, and even dancing with Jeremy Jordan in Just in Time.

For the collector who wants something tangible, there are stage-used props, set pieces and costumes, including Jonathan Groff’s signed fedora and bow tie from Just in Time, Patrick Ball’s signed Birkenstocks from Becky Shaw, oversized chess pieces from Chess and pieces associated with Moulin Rouge!. Earlier announced lots have included signed props from George Clooney and Leslie Odom Jr., along with stage-worn heels signed by Audra McDonald.

The tables themselves are half the fun. Productions scheduled to participate this year include & Juliet, Aladdin, Hadestown, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Just in Time, The Lion King, Little Shop of Horrors, The Lost Boys, Maybe Happy Ending, Oh, Mary!, Operation Mincemeat, The Outsiders, Schmigadoon!, Six, Stranger Things: The First Shadow, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) and Wicked.

There will also be a Curtain Call table devoted to productions that have recently closed, including Death Becomes Her, Dog Day Afternoon and Titaníque. Theatre organizations including the Broadway League, the Dramatists Guild, Playbill, the Metropolitan Opera, the Shubert Organization and the Entertainment Community Fund will also have a presence.

The fan-favorite Autograph Table and Photo Booth will return as well, with participating stars to be announced closer to the event. Located on the deck of Junior’s in Shubert Alley, it has become one of the day’s most popular stops, giving fans the chance to meet Broadway performers while raising money for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

Beneath all the fun is the reason the day matters.

Last year’s Broadway Flea Market & Grand Auction raised a record $1,633,803. Across its previous 39 editions, the event has raised more than $21 million for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, supporting services including medication, meals, counseling, housing assistance and other critical resources for people living with HIV/AIDS and other serious illnesses.

There is something wonderfully appropriate about Broadway raising money this way. Theatre is filled with things that would look meaningless almost anywhere else: an old prop, a worn shoe, a page of sheet music, a costume piece, a signed scrap of scenery. Put it into the hands of someone who saw the show, loved the performer or remembers exactly where they were when they first heard the song, and suddenly it becomes treasure.

That is what the Broadway Flea Market has understood for 40 years.

On September 27, the Theatre District becomes one enormous backstage closet, reunion, marketplace and fundraiser.

Somewhere in Shubert Alley, the thing you never knew you desperately needed is almost certainly waiting for you.