He Left Fans in Stitches

According to those who were there, the place was alive with the same sunny optimism expressed in that battle cry from old MGM musicals starring Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney: “My uncle’s got a barn--let’s put on a show!”

Except in this case, the location was not a barn, but a rustic farmhouse in Bucks County, Pa. And the relentless optimist behind the show was not singing and dancing, but dying--of complications from AIDS.

Costume designer Howard Crabtree died on June 28, 1996, at age 41--mere days after completing final work on the extravagant costumes for his final creative effort, “Howard Crabtree’s When Pigs Fly.”

The autobiographical “adult fable” tells the story of a costume designer haunted by memories of a high school guidance counselor, Miss Roundhole, who told Crabtree he’d realize his dream of being in show biz only “when pigs fly!”

In the play, the character, named Howard, tortures himself with the question: Should he really have followed Miss Roundhole’s advice and gone for a career in watch repair--or should he follow his heart and be Dream Curly? Dream Curly, by the way, is a featured role in “Oklahoma!,” the musical. According to press notes, “in high school productions, it’s [a role] usually delegated to any boy able--or willing--to dance in a ‘dream ballet.’ ”

Eventually, through the sheer force of creativity, Howard overcomes his fears to put on a show, peopled with characters from his own fevered imagination, including a centaur with an identity crisis, a nearsighted Cupid, and Bette Davis slinging a life-sized Joan Crawford rag doll.

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During Crabtree’s last days, cast members made the two-hour trek from Manhattan to Crabtree’s home for final costume fittings. “Howard went from running the fittings, as he normally would have, to staying in his chair to do it, to the last ones, where he was literally doing it from his bed,” remembers Mark Waldrop, the show’s lyricist, sketch writer and director. Waldrop directed the original New York off-Broadway production, as well as a new incarnation of the show opening Saturday at the Coronet Theatre in Los Angeles.

“But I have to say, he’d be looking at a costume, saying: ‘Pin that up; no, it’s not right!’--and he would get out of bed and go over there and get down on his hands and knees, because he knew what was funny. He knew that extra half-inch was the difference between getting a laugh or not; it was that exacting.”

Crabtree’s parents came to the farm--”really sweet people from Excelsior, Kan.,” Waldrop says--and they were determined to help their ailing son. Crabtree’s dad, an enthusiastic tinkerer, helped build and paint the elaborate foundations needed for Crabtree’s wildly imaginative designs.

While members of the all-male cast occasionally portray women, Crabtree’s costumes, which often employ nifty mechanical tricks, go beyond drag into a land of pure fantasy. “There are some animal shapes in the show--a pig, a centaur--and Howard’s dad painted those. They were hanging on the clothesline behind the house--it looked like a slaughterhouse,” says Waldrop with a laugh.

“There was this one time when there were 15 pairs of foam rubber breasts out on the lawn, and his dad was out there, spray-painting them. It was very sweet and so supportive.”

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Crabtree, who began his career as a performer, did not live to see the premiere of the show, which opened in August 1996 at the Douglas Fairbanks Theatre and ran for two years, racking up prestigious awards including the Obie, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards for best musical and best costumes. He never got to read the New York Times review that called “Pigs” “an exceptionally cheerful, militantly gay musical revue that comes close to living up to its own billing as ‘the side-splitting musical extravaganza.’ ”

Still, those involved in the New York production, as well as the forces behind the Los Angeles show, say if you want to get to know Crabtree, all you have to do is see “When Pigs Fly.”

“If you have never met Howard, after seeing this show, you will definitely know who he is,” offers David Pevsner, an original New York cast member who is also in the L.A. show. Pevsner was among those who made the trip to Crabtree’s farm--among the costumes Pevsner wears are the centaur and a sequined fig leaf for a turn as Adam.

“He wasn’t really well enough to get out of bed, but they walked me over to the bed, and they introduced me to him, and he gave me a hug and said: ‘Welcome to the family,’ ” Pevsner recalls. “As things were winding up, there were lawyers there, and medical people and stuff, so he sort of got waylaid by that, and I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye.”

The oddball spirit of “Pigs” becomes evident on a visit to the Coronet to chat with Waldrop. “Just go up the stairs and knock on the green door with the pink pig on it!” says a cheerful ticket booth staffer. What are you gonna do? Follow the pig.

Michael Alden, L.A. producer of the show with Ian Praiser, plans to make sure audiences can follow the pig as well. “We’re slowly transforming the theater into a Howard Crabtree event,” he says. “We are putting big pigs in front, we’re going to be doing a lot of pink, and blue skies, and a lot of clouds.”

Waldrop calls Crabtree’s style “a unique combination of outrageousness and innocence.”

“And that is what I really insist on maintaining in these shows--the innocence,” Waldrop says. “It never gets too risque. It’s all delivered with a kind of open, happy, positive sense of fun.

“He was a humorist, really, whose medium was fabric and feathers and sequins and foam rubber. He could create anything he could visualize.”

Waldrop, 44, began a professional association with Crabtree in the late 1980s, when Waldrop was performing in a production of “La Cage Aux Folles” and Crabtree worked in the wardrobe department. “[Crabtree] never had any formal training as a costume designer, but he said that ‘Cage Aux Folles’ was like a graduate school--he turned all those costumes inside out and saw how they were sewn together, the tricks that were used in that show,” Waldrop says.

The two went on to produce an off-Broadway show together, a “critical disaster” with four men playing 20 characters. They tried another revue that didn’t quite gel. Undaunted, Crabtree wanted to launch right into more projects--but Waldrop became discouraged and bowed out.

In 1993, Crabtree linked up with other performers to create “Howard Crabtree’s Whoop-Dee-Doo!,” a Ziegfeld Follies spoof that played off-Broadway and in London, Boston and Atlanta, to critical acclaim. Waldrop contributed some material for that show but did not actively participate.

At that time, Waldrop acknowledges, “I was very leery about doing a ‘gay’ show. [In their earlier shows], though there was always a certain amount of men playing women, I also made sure men played, oh, insects and a lot of other things. The step that they took with ‘Whoop-Dee-Doo!’ was that they said: ‘It’s a gay, funny show. It was sort of like dropping the last veil, for me.

“But I had the experience of coming to see that show, and seeing material that I had written, and suddenly, it was all working--because they had that degree of honesty about it. That was a big lesson for me. So, when we got to ‘Pigs,’ we said, ‘OK, we’re just going to say it’s gay, but accessible to everyone.’

“I sort of feel that the gay community . . . [has] this sort of heightened sensibility about musicals, and a certain sense of humor, and it’s something that we can honestly bring to the table of society, and people can enjoy it--in the same sense that you could enjoy a klezmer band if you’re not Jewish, or the Alvin Ailey dance troupe if you’re not black.”

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Though his health took a frightening downward turn during “Whoop-Dee-Doo!,” Crabtree managed to perform in all the shows and rallied to sing on the original cast recording after the show closed. As he began to develop “Pigs” with Waldrop and composer Dick Gallagher, however, it became clear Crabtree could not portray himself onstage. In New York, he handpicked actor Michael West for the role, and in L.A., Christopher Carruthers assumes the part.

Since “Pigs” was written and composed by Waldrop and Gallagher, why is it “Howard Crabtree’s When Pigs Fly”? “We knew he wasn’t well, and it was very important to him to have that recognition of his name in the title.

It was the right thing to do. He won every design award they give in the New York theater. . . . He beat out people who had multimillion-dollar budgets to work with. It was a spectacular finale for him.”

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“HOWARD CRABTREE’S WHEN PIGS FLY,” Coronet Theatre, 366 N. La Cienega Blvd. Dates: Fridays, 7 and 10 p.m.; Saturdays, 5 and 9 p.m. Runs indefinitely. Prices: $37.50-$47.50. Phone: (310) 657-7377, (213) 365-3500.