Hudson shop provides costumes for theatrical production in NJ
HUDSON – This Halloween season, you can find everything you’re looking for at Costumes of Nashua, including your “Blue Suede Shoes.”
The costume shop worked in partnership with Tabi’s Characters in Los Angeles to provide 10 Elvis costumes for a production of “Honeymoon in Vegas, The Musical” at the Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey.
“We were thrilled because it kind of gave us a little more legitimacy,” said Michael Curtiss, online marketing and social media coordinator for Costumes of Nashua. “We’re not just a neighborhood costume shop that you go into; we’re a presence and a player worldwide now.”
The shop, which is at 76R Derry St., Suite 12, Hudson, houses more than 25,000 costumes and accessories. It was chosen to participate in the Playhouse’s show because of its selection of quality-made costumes, Curtiss said. He said the “Aloha” Elvis costume is one of the top-of-the-line costumes that’s provided by Tabi’s Characters and sold in the shop.
“What sets us apart in terms of what we can offer is that it is the top-of-the-line costume that Tabi’s offers,” Curtiss said. “It retails at about $1,500. When you look at it, it’s intricately studded with rhinestones and all kinds of really wonderful stuff.”
“Honeymoon in Vegas, The Musical” runs at the Paper Mill Playhouse through Sunday and features the Elvis costumes during a scene in the show with flying Elvises.
The process of costuming the actors took more than two months, Curtiss said.
“There’s a whole bunch of people and locations involved in this,” he said. “It started in New York, bumped into New Hampshire, where we are, and then went into L.A. After about 21?2 months, we made this come together so that when the show went up in September, the guys were ready, they were fitted and they had everything they needed.”
Curtiss said the costumes were a success for the show, and that the costume, called “The Rockstar” for copyright reasons, is available for purchase at Costumes of Nashua.
“When these guys come out, they are dazzling,” Curtiss said. “There’s also a cape you can get with it if you want. It’s got the eagle motif, and the audience goes, ‘Wow,’ because they’re all dressed the same and it’s a stunning visual.”
Although the Elvis costumes generated some exposure for Costumes of Nashua, Curtiss said the shop has been busy with customers looking to dress up as characters other than the King of Rock for Halloween.
“What the Elvis costumes did was kind of give us a little more visibility in terms of what it is we’re capable of doing,” he said. “Basically, our credo is, ‘We can do that, and if we can’t do that, it probably doesn’t exist.’ We do what we can to find what the customer wants.”
Some of the most popular costumes sought for Halloween this year have been Psy, of “Gangnam Style” fame and those embodying past decades, Curtiss said.
“Mary Poppins has been going out like nobody’s business,” he said. “We call it the “nanny” costume, and people have been buying just her hat like crazy this year, and the carpetbag.
A “retro stewardess,” Beatles-type costumes and Dr. Evil costumes have also been top sellers this year, Curtiss said.
“We have a pink Chanel-type suit that looks like the one Jackie Kennedy wore in the ’60s, complete with the pillbox hat, that’s hugely popular,” he said. “Again, if we don’t have it, we can probably find it.”
For more information about Costumes of Nashua, visit www.costumesofnashua.com.
For more information about “Honeymoon in Vegas, the Musical,” visit papermill.org.
Emily Hoyt can be reached at 594-6402 or ehoyt@nashuatelegraph.com.


