Just an interesting piece of WICKED information I found...
Wicked Pretty
Yes, more drama!
Thursday, January 19, 2006
Joe Dulude II and Idina Menzel prepare for a performance of WICKED
Joan Marcus
(NEW YORK) The Daily was pleased but perplexed last week, when M.A.C Cosmetics invited us along to see Spamalot. The Broadway musical could fill a Vuitton trunk with its Tony Awards, but how does Monty Python fit with fashion?
It turns out M.A.C is intimately involved with the theatre world, providing product and employing artists to paint faces on the Great White Way. You may have seen M.A.C. Pigment or Glimmer Shimmer under the lights at Hairspray, Movin’ Out, and Wicked. But can the tricks that turned Idina Menzel her famous shade of green also work on the runway?
The Daily tracked down Joe Dulude II, who designed makeup for Wicked and for catwalk shows like Imitation of Christ and Catherine Malandrino, to find out.
For those of us who haven’t been onstage since our high school production of Grease, can you explain the basic difference between theatrical makeup and “normal” makeup?
There’s not as much difference as you’d think―a lot of what used to be theatrical makeup, like the very heavy greasepaint stuff, it’s faded out. For nighttime looks, you can go heavier and more dramatic, and the boundary between regular makeup and theatrical makeup has gotten a lot closer.
What’s a theatrical makeup trick that works in real life?
Learning how to contour and highlight and change the appearance of someone’s face―that’s the biggest asset because you do it to such an extreme doing theatre makeup, so when you see someone who needs a little bit of cheekbone, you can make it work.
Do actors ever go party after a show with their stage makeup on?
Haha, I don’t know, but I’m designing another show, The Wedding Singer, based on the movie― it’s all ‘80s and they do have a lot of makeup, but for the ‘80s it actually looks pretty normal. Even the foundation is just regular M.A.C foundation.
Tell us how you made Idina Menzel turn green for Wicked…
It was a little bit of a process. Originally we airbrushed Idina and it looked good, but we had to brush her 8 times a week and it took a long time. Also, we’d be breathing in all these green particles―it wasn’t good, especially for her because she’d have to sing afterwards. So one day, we sat in the middle of the M.A.C pro store and I said, “Well, let’s try this M.A.C Chromacake, a very green color. I’d tried it once before but this time I added lots of water. It looked great and we did regular makeup on top of it, and the contouring―we used this color called Purple Haze for her highlighting.
What would normal people use the Chromacake for, is it an eye color?
More body painting or you know, specialty make up.
Tell us about the fashion shows you've worked on...
I designed some shows; I did like Diesel and House of Field, Imitation of Christ, Luella, Catherine Malandrino…
Is runway makeup closer to theatrical or real life makeup?
It depends on what look they’re going for―I did the Pat Field show, and it was really ‘80s, everyone needed to look like Donna Mills―black liner all the way around, fuschia blush and fuschia lipstick. Some friends of mine are designers; they showed in smaller spaces and those were fun because they would tell me the theme for the clothing and I would take that into the makeup – so like, “spring and butterflies” was a theme and I made butterfly wings on their eyes but it was colors like orange, pink, and blue on the eyelids with an iridescence over it and little black spots, and of course, lashes like little pieces coming out. I had the most fun designing tiny fashion shows—once I put upside down lashes on people that only curled down
Where does a makeup artist get their inspiration?
Well I was also a DJ and I love the ‘80s, so that’s like a big influence for me, the time period because of the colors, you can clash and be creative. I take a lot of my inspiration from different time periods—I was watching Discovery and they had a special on Killer Ants. The color of the ants was really, really dark red, almost black. It was so beautiful, I made it with lip gloss and M.A.C pigment. I mixed it together. I went to school for graphic design, I had color theory and that helped a lot.
What can we learn from a makeup artist about our own face?
Sometimes people need to stray from their routine. What happens is people get very used to wearing the same thing all the time. Like, people with neutral lips, when they wear lipstick, they think they look crazy. It could look beautiful but it’s almost like hair dying, you’re not used to it. Like, I love orange on the eyes but people get scared. Doing a sheer coat on your eyelid, it will help you get used to it so maybe then you can go for the next step. Experimenting colors, that’s a really important part of personal makeup—well, all makeup.
FARAN KRENTCIL
