The exhibit features over forty watercolor costume designs by Wittop for the 1969 production of Dear World. The musical based on the 1949 adaptation of Jean Giradoux's play, La Folle de Chaillot, starred Angela Lansbury and told the tale of three "madwomen" who sought to save Paris from money-hungry developers. The threesome are trapped in their memories of their youth during the late 1800s. Wittop's designs of their billowing costumes contrast with the economical slickness of those of the entrepreneurs.

The Freddy Wittop Collection is a remarkable theatrical archive which documents the dual careers of Freddy Wittop, dancer and costumes designer, with thousands of original Drawings, sketch-books, scrapbooks, photographs and programs as well as his private working library.

Freddy Wittop first gained fame as a designer for the Folies Bergère in Paris and achieved immediate success upon his arrival in New York in 1942. Internationally acclaimed for his broadway designs, Freddy Wittop was nominated six times for Outstanding Costume Design and received the prestigious Tony Award for Hello Dolly! in 1964.

To view more of Freddy Wittop's designs online, please go to the Paris Music Hall Collection in Selections From Hargrett