Twenty-five years after Our Sinatra became one of Off-Broadway’s unexpected musical pleasures, Eric Comstock, Christopher Gines and Hilary Kole have returned to the material that started it all. What is remarkable is how little dust has gathered on either the songs or the performers.

Our Sinatra: A Musical Celebration, now at the Marjorie S. Deane Little Theater, isn’t an impersonation show. Nobody is trying to become Frank Sinatra, and that is precisely why the evening works. Instead, three exceptionally accomplished interpreters take on the extraordinary catalogue Sinatra made famous and allow the songs to breathe in their own voices. “Fly Me to the Moon,” “The Way You Look Tonight,” “Come Fly with Me,” “The Best Is Yet to Come,” “I’ve Got You Under My Skin,” “Where or When,” “One for My Baby” and “The Lady Is a Tramp” arrive carrying all the memories we associate with Sinatra, without becoming museum pieces. Ironically missing is “My Way.”

Eric Comstock, Hilary Kole, Christopher Gines Photo Genevieve Rafter Keddy

The chemistry among Comstock, Gines and Kole is the evening’s greatest asset. After all these years, they fit together musically with an ease that cannot be manufactured. In harmony, their voices match beautifully, yet individually they couldn’t be more distinct. That contrast keeps the evening alive.

Eric Comstock Photo Genevieve Rafter Keddy

At the piano, Comstock is brilliant, with the kind of musical intelligence that makes everything look considerably easier than it is. As musical director, his choices feel intuitive and instinctive rather than arranged within an inch of their lives. As a singer, he is suave, personable and completely at home in this material. His patter is equally important. Comstock understands that Sinatra’s catalogue came from a world in which the space between the songs mattered almost as much as the songs themselves.

Christopher Gines Photo Genevieve Rafter Keddy

Gines brings a wonderfully smooth, creamy vocal quality that simply melts you. There is warmth in his singing without sentimentality, and he understands the conversational nature of this music. Sinatra’s greatest performances never sounded as though he were demonstrating how beautifully he could sing; they sounded as though he had something to tell you. Gines understands that distinction.

Hilary Kole Photo Genevieve Rafter Keddy

Then there is Hilary Kole, whose sophisticated jazz sensibility makes her particularly thrilling in this material. She honors the Sinatra sound without ever becoming imprisoned by it. Her scatting on “I’ve Got the World on a String” is worth the evening by itself. It is playful, technically dazzling and completely alive—a performer taking a familiar song and reminding us that a standard becomes a standard precisely because there is always another way into it.

Eric Comstock,m Hilary Kole, Christopher Gines Photo Genevieve Rafter Keddy

That is what makes Our Sinatra so fabulous. These performers aren’t trying to preserve the songs under glass. They make them their own.

Eric Comstock, Hilary Kole, Christopher Gines Photo Genevieve Rafter Keddy

Kole’s stories about her father and Sinatra give the evening an unexpectedly personal dimension, while Comstock’s patter provides both history and humor. Those stories matter because Sinatra wasn’t simply a singer with an enviable songbook. He represented an era when popular music was built around lyricists and composers who assumed an audience was listening to the words. Cole Porter, Rodgers and Hart, Sammy Cahn, Jimmy Van Heusen and the other writers whose work became inseparable from Sinatra understood sophistication without mistaking it for pretension.

The musical economy of the production is another pleasure.

Marco Panascia Photo Genevieve Rafter Keddy

Backed only by the superb bassist Marco Panascia, Comstock’s piano provides everything these singers require. There is nowhere to hide in an arrangement this exposed, but there is also nothing unnecessary competing with the lyric. The result has the intimacy of a great New York supper club—the kind of room where the performer wasn’t some distant figure across an arena, but someone telling a story a few feet away.

Richard Maltby Jr. Photo Genevieve Rafter Keddy

That intimacy is particularly appropriate because Our Sinatra began in precisely that world. Created by Comstock, Gines and Kole, the revue premiered in 1999 at the legendary Algonquin Oak Room before moving into a commercial run in 2000, first at the Blue Angel Theatre and later the Reprise Room. It ultimately played more than 1,000 performances during its two-year run, followed by national tours and regional productions. Now the original trio has come home to celebrate its 25th anniversary, with Richard Maltby Jr. supervising the production and Kurt Stamm directing.

David Zippel Photo Genevieve Rafter Keddy

There is inevitably nostalgia in Our Sinatra, but nostalgia isn’t what makes the show work. The songs do. In an age when so much music is produced, processed and digitally perfected, there is something wonderfully luxurious about sitting in a small theatre listening to three singers, a pianist and a bassist trust melody, lyric and musicianship to do the work. And they do.

Jamie de Roy and David Zippel Photo Genevieve Rafter Keddy

Our Sinatra takes us back to another time, but it doesn’t feel embalmed by that time. Comstock, Gines and Kole remind us why these songs survived in the first place: extraordinary writing becomes new again when extraordinary musicians know what to do with it.

Twenty-five years later, Our Sinatra is very welcome back.

Our Sinatra: at the Marjorie S. Deane Little Theater, 10 West 64th Street, through November 29th. The regular performance schedule is Tuesday at 7:30PM, Saturday at 5PM and Sunday at 1:30PM.

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.

Privé Brings Ultra Exclusive Hospitality to Moss Club; amazing says H.H. Dr. Prince Mario-Max Schaumburg-Lippe and thanks Private Banking Marketing Powerhouse Anna Stone!

Privé’s invitation to the ultra exclusive Moss Club experience presents a polished vision of private hospitality shaped around access, considered travel, and memorable cultural detail.

Privé arrived with the kind of presence that signals a modern understanding of luxury. It was quiet, intentional, and built around the belief that the most meaningful experiences are rarely chosen from a standard menu. At Moss Club, the invitation carried the feeling of a private world opening for a select circle, guided by personal connection, thoughtful hosting, and the kind of access that gives an evening its lasting character.

The evening centered on Privé, a private hospitality platform presented as being built around access, considered travel, and experiences shaped around the individual. That phrasing set the tone for everything that followed. The concept was not about spectacle. It was about curation. It framed hospitality as something personal, something designed with discernment, and something that understands how much value lies in the small details guests remember after the night is over.

The setting carried a layered elegance. A richly appointed room, lined with books, dark millwork, warm wood, and scenic wallcovering, gave the gathering a private-club intimacy. The design felt residential in spirit, with a refined sense of ease. It created the right environment for conversation, photographs, introductions, and the subtle ceremony of being welcomed into a highly selective experience.

At the heart of the occasion was the sense of proximity that defines private hospitality at its best. Guests were not simply attending a dinner. They were stepping into a room shaped by relationships, hosted with care, and connected to a larger idea of access. The presence of an NFL player legend gave the evening an added cultural charge, connecting the world of professional sport to a hospitality experience designed for people who value privacy, quality, and meaningful entry into special places.

Moss Club became the natural stage for that blend of luxury and connection. Its appeal was in the balance between exclusivity and warmth. The room invited people to relax into the evening while still understanding they were part of something limited and carefully arranged. In that sense, Moss Club served as more than a venue. It became a statement about the future of elite hospitality, where membership, invitation, and experience are woven together with discretion.

The Details Worth Traveling For

Privé’s own message, visible through its elegant printed materials, placed emphasis on details worth traveling for. That phrase captured the spirit of the evening with unusual precision. It suggested a luxury culture in which the journey matters because the experience at the end of it has been shaped with uncommon attention.

The invitation materials spoke of Privé as a private hospitality platform built around access, considered travel, and experiences shaped around the individual rather than selected from a menu. That idea reflects a broader shift in luxury. The most sought-after guests increasingly want experiences that feel responsive to their tastes, their pace, and their sense of meaning. They want less repetition and more recognition.

At the table, that philosophy appeared in the form of a dinner titled The Extra Mile. The name itself felt fitting for an evening built on service, care, and uncommon access. It suggested an ethos of going beyond the expected, not through excess, but through refinement. The menu unfolded with a clear sense of hospitality rhythm, beginning with starters, moving through substantial mains, continuing into sides, and finishing with family style sweets.

The starters offered two distinct paths. A market salad brought Bibb lettuce, frisée, pea tendrils, and tarragon-Dijon vinaigrette into a fresh, composed opening. A miso Caesar brought romaine, pinenut sesame crumble, Parmesan, pink peppercorn, and miso Caesar dressing into a more savory direction. Both choices reflected a kitchen attentive to familiarity and modern detail.

For the main course, roast chicken appeared with sautéed greens, fingerling potatoes, and romesco. Rigatoni offered blistered tomato, summer squash, basil, and Parmigiano. These dishes gave the dinner an appealing balance of comfort and polish. They were recognizable, generous, and refined without feeling overly formal.

The side dishes extended that same mood. Smashed potatoes arrived with lemon labneh and pickled chilies, bringing brightness and texture to the table. Sautéed greens with lemon carried the meal forward with clarity and restraint. Together, they supported the main courses rather than competing with them, which is often the mark of a well-considered private dinner.

Dessert was presented as family style sweets, a phrase that softened the formality of the evening and invited a shared close. Pistachio cherry financier, cheesecake bites, chocolate strawberry cake, seasonal fruit tartlet, rainbow cookies, and blondie created a generous finish. The selection felt celebratory, familiar, and designed for lingering conversation.

The beverage program added another layer of specificity. The white wine was Rafael Palacios Louro 2024 from Galicia, Spain. The red was Elvio Cogno Bricco dei Merli Barbera d’Alba 2022 from Piedmont, Italy. The signature cocktail, also named The Extra Mile, brought together vodka, lime, grapefruit, and club soda. It was crisp in concept, direct in composition, and aligned with the evening’s polished approach.

At each place setting, the printed menu became part of the experience. Its typography, cream-toned paper, and careful structure echoed the larger mood of Privé. This was hospitality designed to be touched, read, photographed, and remembered. Even before the first course, the table communicated care.

The presence of a green name marker with gold lettering added another personal note. It suggested the culture of invitation, of assigned places, and of a room arranged for intentional connection. In the context of an ultra exclusive Moss Club gathering, such details mattered. They showed that the evening had been assembled rather than improvised.

Privé and the New Language of Access

Privé’s positioning reflects a luxury landscape increasingly defined by access rather than ownership alone. The desire is no longer simply to possess rare things. It is to enter rare rooms, meet interesting people, and experience places through a lens that feels personal. Privé’s language places it squarely within that world.

This approach has particular resonance when connected to sports legends and private clubs. Professional athletes, especially those whose careers have become part of cultural memory, bring more than fame to a room. They bring a sense of legacy, discipline, and shared recognition. When that presence is paired with hospitality, the result can feel both elevated and human.

The evening’s images reveal that balance clearly. A smiling photograph inside the club shows guests gathered closely, dressed with polish, surrounded by warm interiors and detailed design. The mood is social, relaxed, and celebratory. It is the kind of photograph that communicates private access without needing to overstate it.

The fashion also contributed to the tone. Tailoring, dark eveningwear, cream outerwear, black frames, and embellished detailing helped define the visual identity of the night. The clothing was refined, camera-ready, and appropriate to a private dining environment. It added to the sense that guests understood the occasion and met it with style.

One guest’s black ensemble, trimmed with pearl-like detailing, echoed the refined mood of the table and the room. Another guest’s cream jacket brought a clean, modern counterpoint. The NFL player legend’s dark suiting gave the image a classic evening presence. Together, the group reflected a polished social world where personal style is part of the hospitality experience.

The Moss Club setting reinforced that impression. The scenic wallcovering, the library shelving, the dark archway, and the warm glow of the room created an atmosphere of privacy. It felt suited to an evening that depends on intimacy, not scale. Such rooms are central to the appeal of invitation-only hospitality because they create a sense of belonging the moment guests step inside.

Privé’s materials extended that sense of belonging beyond the meal. The black presentation box, bearing the Privé name and the phrase Some details are worth traveling for, appeared alongside small keepsakes and printed cards. This kind of gifting matters in private hospitality because it gives the guest something tangible to carry home from an intangible experience.

The keepsakes appeared carefully packed, with deep red crinkle paper and small illustrated pieces visible through the packaging. Their presence suggested memory-making as part of the hospitality design. A private evening becomes more durable when it includes objects that recall the moment with subtlety and care.

The phrase Some details are worth traveling for appeared again as a kind of quiet thesis. It connected the dining room, the menu, the invitation, the company, and the club into one coherent idea. The finest hospitality is often remembered through particulars. A place card. A wine selection. A course shared at the right pace. A conversation across the table. A photograph in a beautifully appointed room.

The Ultra Exclusive Appeal of Moss Club

Moss Club’s appeal lies in its ability to host culture at close range. The room does not need to perform loudly because the experience is built around presence. For a private platform like Privé, that matters. The strongest luxury experiences allow the guest to feel both taken care of and naturally at ease.

The dinner title, The Extra Mile, also carried a fitting connection to the world of sport. It suggested effort, discipline, and the pursuit of a higher standard. In a room touched by the presence of an NFL player legend, that phrase gained another layer of relevance. It linked athletic excellence with hospitality excellence in a way that felt organic.

There is also a strong narrative in the relationship between Privé and Moss Club. Privé represents the architecture of access. Moss Club represents the destination. The NFL legend presence represents cultural magnetism. The dinner represents the intimate expression of the brand’s values. Together, these elements formed a complete private hospitality story.

What made the evening effective was the absence of unnecessary overstatement. The table was set with classic plates, polished flatware, glassware, and printed menus. The food was generous and clear. The drinks were carefully chosen. The materials were refined. The room was intimate. The people were central.

In luxury culture, such restraint can be powerful. Guests who move often through exclusive environments are rarely impressed by volume alone. They notice proportion, pacing, and whether the experience feels genuinely considered. Privé’s presentation at Moss Club appeared to understand that distinction.

The event also suggested a type of hospitality that sits between travel, dining, membership, and personal concierge culture. It does not belong to one category alone. It is experiential in structure, social in energy, and private in delivery. That hybrid quality is increasingly important for luxury audiences who expect access to be fluid across cities, rooms, events, and relationships.

The menu’s international wine selections added to that broader travel sensibility. Galicia and Piedmont brought European references to the table without turning the dinner into a formal tasting. The wines served the meal and supported the evening’s global hospitality language. They suggested discernment, not display.

The signature cocktail gave the night a branded point of connection. By naming the cocktail The Extra Mile, the evening created a detail guests could remember and repeat. Vodka, lime, grapefruit, and club soda made for a bright, clean profile, appropriate for a sophisticated dinner where conversation and flow matter.

The family style dessert course was especially well suited to the atmosphere. At exclusive gatherings, shared dessert can loosen the room in the best way. It encourages people to reach, taste, compare, and continue talking. It softens the close of the meal and extends the feeling of hospitality beyond the formal structure of courses.

Privé’s presence at Moss Club ultimately read as a statement about how modern luxury is being defined. It is becoming more personal, more discreet, and more anchored in experience. It values access, but access alone is not enough. It must be hosted with taste, arranged with care, and delivered in a way that feels specific to the people in the room.

An Evening Built Around Memory

The strongest private experiences are rarely remembered as a sequence of services. They are remembered as complete evenings. The image of the table. The feel of the printed menu. The conversation beside a glass of wine. The welcome into a room that feels removed from the ordinary pace of the city. Privé’s Moss Club gathering carried that complete quality.

The event also showed how luxury hospitality can be celebratory without becoming distant. The photographs show smiles, closeness, and warmth. They show people at ease in an elevated setting. That combination is essential. True private hospitality should never feel cold. It should feel attended to, personal, and quietly generous.

By connecting with an NFL player legend and presenting an ultra exclusive Moss Club invitation, Privé placed itself in a strong cultural lane. It embraced sport, travel, dining, design, and social access as part of one refined experience. It offered guests a sense of being included in something carefully held and distinctly personal.

The materials were especially effective because they clarified the brand’s values without excess language. Privé is presented as private, considered, individual, and built around access. Those ideas are easy to understand, and they match the evidence of the evening. The experience was not framed as a mass luxury product. It was framed as something tailored.

That distinction matters in the current luxury world. As more experiences become widely visible online, true exclusivity depends less on secrecy alone and more on thoughtful construction. A private dinner can be photographed, but its real value remains in the lived experience of being there. Privé’s Moss Club evening understood that balance.

The visual identity of the night was coherent from start to finish. The dark Privé box, the cream printed card, the elegant menu, the green and gold place marker, the warm wood table, and the intimate room all shared a refined language. None of the details felt accidental. Each supported the larger impression of a private platform attentive to how luxury is actually experienced.

The name The Extra Mile gave the evening a final sense of purpose. It suggested that exceptional hospitality lives in the willingness to go further, to think carefully, and to create something guests could not easily assemble for themselves. That is the promise at the center of Privé’s appeal.

For Moss Club, the gathering reinforced the strength of an exclusive setting that can hold cultural figures, stylish guests, and a composed dining experience with ease. For Privé, it demonstrated the power of building hospitality around individuals rather than templates. For the guests, it created a polished memory of access, taste, and connection.

In the end, Privé’s ultra exclusive Moss Club invitation offered a clear expression of modern private luxury. It was intimate, stylish, and carefully produced. It honored the value of access while giving equal attention to food, setting, service, and keepsake details. It showed that some experiences are memorable because every element has been considered, and because the people invited into the room feel the care behind the invitation.

Moving a piano in Christchurch looks different this year. Households, schools, and venues are asking for tighter timing, better protection, and clearer planning before a lift begins. That shift reflects higher transport costs, denser traffic around key suburbs, and greater care for valuable instruments during short and long moves. As a result, piano relocation now depends less on brute force and more on assessment, route control, and disciplined handling from pickup to placement.

Higher Standards Before the Move

One clear change is the demand for specialist crews that understand shape, weight, and balance before moving starts. Many residents now compare access planning, wrapping methods, and stair strategy before booking piano movers in Christchurch, because poor preparation can damage pedals, legs, casters, or nearby walls within minutes.

Clients also expect a more detailed site check than they did last year. A proper review now covers doorway width, floor grip, driveway slope, trailer height, and the final room layout. That extra detail helps avoid rushed lifting decisions once the piano is already in motion.

Protection Has Become More Important

A piano is not just heavy. It is also sensitive to knocks, pressure points, and moisture. That is why better wrapping has become a bigger part of the process this year. Thick moving blankets, secure strapping, and clean loading surfaces reduce cosmetic damage and lower the chance of internal movement during transport.

Weather planning matters more as well. Christchurch can shift from dry to wet conditions quickly, which raises the risk of surface marks and slippery entry paths. Crews now need to think about timing, cover, and vehicle positioning well before loading begins.

Different Pianos Need Different Handling

Upright pianos often seem simpler, yet they still create risks in narrow halls or on sharp turns. Grand pianos need even more planning because of their size, leg structure, and weight distribution. Digital models are lighter, though they still require careful packing to protect casing, keys, and electronic parts.

Access Challenges Are Driving Better Planning

Access has become a bigger issue across Christchurch homes and commercial sites. More moves involve compact driveways, tighter townhouses, and renovated interiors with less spare space. In those settings, the hardest part is often not the road journey. It is getting the instrument safely out of one building and into another.

That is why route mapping has become a practical step rather than an optional one. Teams now look at gate clearance, steps, landings, and turning space in advance. Where access is limited, a small mistake can slow the entire job and increase handling risk.

Timing and Coordination Matter More

Scheduling has also changed this year. Customers want narrower arrival windows and quicker completion, especially when a piano move is part of a larger house relocation. Schools and community spaces often need work around lessons, rehearsals, or events, which leaves less room for delays.

This pushes movers to coordinate transport and lifting more carefully. A well-run job now depends on accurate booking details, realistic time estimates, and clear communication about what will happen on site. That level of coordination helps prevent rushed unloading, which is where avoidable damage often occurs.

Experience Is Valued More Than Price Alone

Price still matters, but buyers are looking harder at method and experience. That is a sensible shift. A cheap quote can become expensive if the piano is scratched, dropped, or placed badly inside the new property. This year, many Christchurch customers appear more willing to pay for careful handling than to accept preventable risk.

That change also reflects the emotional value attached to these instruments. Some are family pieces. Others are used for teaching, worship, or performance. In each case, the move is about more than transport. It is about preserving function, finish, and trust.

Piano moving in Christchurch has changed because expectations have risen at every stage of the job. Better planning, stronger protection, smarter access checks, and tighter scheduling now shape a safe move far more than raw lifting effort. For residents and organisations alike, the lesson is clear: careful preparation reduces risk, saves time, and protects an instrument that often carries financial, practical, and personal value well beyond its size.

Over the years, T2C had the pleasure of covering Bob Mackie on several occasions, giving us our own glimpses—and photographs—of the man behind all that extraordinary glamour.

Bob Mackie, Marilyn Maye

There are costume designers who dress performers, and then there was Bob Mackie, who understood that sometimes a costume could become as famous as the person wearing it. Mackie, the legendary designer whose feathers, beads, rhinestones, sequins and wicked sense of theatricality helped define American glamour for more than half a century, died September 14 in Palm Springs, California. He was 87. His death from pneumonia was confirmed by his longtime design director, Joe McFate.

Bob Mackie and Marilyn Maye Photo By Genevieve Rafter Keddy

Cher may have been his most enduring canvas, but Mackie’s extraordinary list of women included Carol Burnett, Dolly Parton, Diana Ross, Tina Turner, Barbra Streisand, Bernadette Peters, Liza Minnelli, Mitzi Gaynor, Bette Midler and Ann-Margret. He understood something essential about stars: you weren’t simply dressing a body. You were helping create the image the audience would remember. For Dolly, that included the glorious butterfly gown she wore for the 1979 television special Dolly & Carol in Nashville, another perfect marriage of Mackie’s extravagance and a performer whose personality could actually carry it.

Bob Mackie and Cher

And remember we did.

Mackie created Cher’s daring, feathered sheer ensemble for the 1974 Met Gala and the enormous feathered headdress and midriff-baring black ensemble she wore to the 1986 Academy Awards—looks that helped change what a woman could wear on a red carpet. Decades before today’s stars routinely arrived at premieres dressed to become the next morning’s photograph, Mackie and Cher understood fashion as an event.

The Costumes by Bob Mackie

But Mackie could be every bit as brilliant when the point was laughter rather than seduction. His work throughout the 11-year run of The Carol Burnett Show demonstrated an entirely different side of his genius. His most famous comic creation remains the green velvet curtain dress Burnett wore as Starlett O’Hara in the legendary Gone With the Wind parody “Went with the Wind!”—complete with the curtain rod still running through the shoulders. The joke worked because Mackie didn’t design something merely ridiculous. He made it ridiculous and fabulous.

His relationship with Broadway stretched across nearly five decades. Mackie’s Broadway costume credits began with the 1971 revival of On the Town, followed by Lorelei in 1974, where he designed Carol Channing’s costumes, Debbie in 1976, Platinum in 1978, The Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public in 1994 and Moon Over Buffalo in 1995. He designed Carol Burnett’s costumes for the 1999 Broadway production of Stephen Sondheim’s Putting It Together and Liza Minnelli for Minnelli on Minnelli that same season. In 2009, he designed Bernadette Peters’ gowns for her special Broadway concert benefiting Broadway Barks and Broadway Cares.

The Cher Show photo by Joan Marcus

Then came The Cher Show. Opening at the Neil Simon Theatre on December 3, 2018, the musical told Cher’s life through three actresses portraying the star at different stages of her career. There was really only one person who could design the costumes. Mackie had not simply dressed Cher during that history. He was part of the history.

Bob Mackie:,Diana Ross. Original Design for a Mattel Doll. Fashion. Motown Superstar. Diva. 1990s, ca.1990s

In one of Broadway’s more delicious pieces of theatrical symmetry, Bob Mackie became a character in The Cher Show while simultaneously designing the clothes surrounding that character. Michael Berresse portrayed him onstage, while the real Mackie recreated some of the extraordinary looks that had helped construct Cher’s public image over the preceding half-century. The production contained hundreds of costumes, including painstaking recreations of some of Cher’s most recognizable Mackie creations.

Bob Mackie during the 2019 Drama Desk Awards at Steinway Hall on June 2, 2019 in New York City.

In 2019, Broadway finally gave him the prize that had somehow eluded him. Bob Mackie won the Tony Award for Best Costume Design of a Musical for The Cher Show. He also won the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for the production. Remarkably, despite a Broadway career dating to 1971, The Cher Show brought him his first Tony nomination—and his first win.

Bob Mackie during The 69th Annual Outer Critics Circle Awards Dinner at Sardi’s on May 23, 2019 in New York City.

There is something particularly satisfying about that award. Mackie had spent his career creating clothes for people who walked onto stages to receive trophies. This time, he was the one walking up to collect one.

Bob Mackie attends The 69th Annual Outer Critics Circle Awards Dinner at Sardi’s on May 23, 2019 in New York City.

Broadway was only one part of an enormous career. Mackie won nine Emmy Awards, received three Academy Award nominations and was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 2002. His film work included Oscar-nominated designs for Lady Sings the Blues, Funny Lady and Staying Alive. In 2019, the Council of Fashion Designers of America honored him with its Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement Award.

Bob Mackie and Ken Page

His influence never became trapped in the era that made him famous. Generations of younger performers and designers continued rediscovering Mackie’s work, and his designs have been worn or referenced by contemporary stars including Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift and Zendaya. What once scandalized red carpets eventually became the vocabulary of the red carpet itself.

Bob Mackie

That may be Mackie’s greatest legacy. He understood that glamour did not have to apologize for itself.

Bob Mackie

He was not afraid of too many feathers, too many beads, too much sparkle or a woman walking into a room fully aware that every eye was about to turn toward her. Yet beneath all that extravagance was extraordinary technical discipline. Those costumes had to move. They had to survive dancing, quick changes, television schedules and eight-performance Broadway weeks. Fantasy only looks effortless when someone has done an enormous amount of work.

Mackie’s life also contained profound personal loss. His only son, Robin, died in 1993 from an AIDS-related illness, and his longtime partner and fellow costume designer Ray Aghayan died in 2011. Mackie is survived by his former wife, Lulu Porter, his granddaughter Alyssa Townsend and great-granddaughters Kyla and Keira Townsend.

Bob Mackie spent his life making entrances possible.

Cher walking onto a stage seemingly wearing little more than strategically placed beads and absolute confidence. Carol Burnett descending a staircase with a curtain rod across her shoulders. Diana Ross shimmering beneath stage lights. Bernadette Peters wrapped in a gown that seemed designed specifically for the color of her hair. Broadway exploding into a parade of Cher’s life in The Cher Show.

Those images remain because Mackie understood that costume design isn’t decoration. At its best, it tells us who someone is before that person has said a word.

Bob Mackie made clothes that spoke. Most of them said essentially the same thing: Look at her. And we did.