Broadway’s Costume Man

Broadway’s Costume Man

Theater-lovers and aspiring designers, take note.  David Toser, who has Wisconsin roots, has been designing costumes for more than 50 years. And some of his costumes have been on stage at some of the most popular Broadway shows, including The Great White Hope (1968), Very Good Eddie (1975), and Whoopee (1979). He’s also designed the costumes for Tony Awards broadcast for the last 26 years, and “styles” the outfits for the “Memorial Day Celebration” and “A Capitol Fourth” celebrations on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Accordingly, in early May Toser will receive the 2013 TDF (Theatre Development Fund)/Irene Sharaff Award for lifetime…

David ToserTheater-lovers and aspiring designers, take note. 


David Toser, who has Wisconsin roots, has been designing costumes for more than 50 years. And some of his costumes have been on stage at some of the most popular Broadway shows, including The Great White Hope (1968), Very Good Eddie (1975), and Whoopee (1979).
 He’s also designed the costumes for Tony Awards broadcast for the last 26 years, and “styles” the outfits for the “Memorial Day Celebration” and “A Capitol Fourth” celebrations on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Accordingly, in early May Toser will receive the 2013 TDF (Theatre Development Fund)/Irene Sharaff Award for lifetime achievement. 

Friends of Fashion*, Mount Mary’s group that supports the preservation of its historic costume collection, has brought Toser back home to speak about his career and the costumes that filled it. And it’s all happening tonight at 5 p.m. on the Mount Mary campus.

Walk-ins are welcome, but you can still register here.

*In the interest of full disclosure, I spoke about Milwaukee Magazine’s October augmented reality issue at a Friends of Fashion event last October.

Toser photo courtesy of Mount Mary. Main image from A Great White Hope, courtesy of the National Endowment for the Arts. 

Claire Hanan worked at the magazine as an editor from 2012-2017. She edited the Culture section and wrote stories about all sorts of topics, including the arts, fashion, politics and more. In 2016, she was a finalist for best profile writing at the City and Regional Magazine Awards for her story "In A Flash." In 2014, she won the the Milwaukee Press gold award for best public service story for editing "Handle With Care," a service package about aging in Milwaukee. Before all this, she attended the University of Missouri's School of Journalism and New York University's Summer Publishing Institute.