Corsets and Clown Suits defied description. Yes, it features Emmy Award winning performer Alex Borstein talking about her divorce and other intimate details of her life, but I would hesitate to call it a comedy special. It’s not necessarily a conversation, because the members of the audience do not continually chat with Borstein as she speaks her truth. If anything, Corsets and Clown Suits is proof that Borstein is a showman as she holds you in the palm of her hand but then makes you laugh your ass off with a clever song. Scott Ellis–also a director throughout the run of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel–harnesses Borstein’s ability to enchant, but he also uses his veteran stage history to make Corsets and Clown Suits a truly unforgettable experience.
Early on in the evening, Borstein begins talking about perception–of herself and how that perception shifted after her divorce was finalized. We automatically are at ease, because she isn’t stuck behind a microphone and she isn’t talking down to us. It reminded me of the immediate ease you felt when Jerrod Carmichael took the stage for Rothanial. Ellis echoed the same feeling.
“It’s so incredible when you see these actors–I hesitate to say comics–it’s really remarkable,” Ellis says. “When Alex starts delving in it really shows the depth of her talent.”
Ellis has worked with Borstein for several seasons of Maisel, but this is an entirely different animal. Borstein controls the conversation, and we feel the implicit trust between performer and director. It feels relaxed and earned. I needed to know what conversations Borstein had with Ellis when he came on board.
“I love Alex,” he says with a loving grin. “Love her, love her. During one of the shoot days of Maisel, we met during lunch, and she pitched us the idea. She talked through the whole thing, and she didn’t use a script of a piece of paper. We had this private run-through after I asked if she would just meet me, and she did it without costumes or lighting. It was so brilliant. I was bowled over, so I jumped right in.”
Corsets was filmed on the fictional stage of The Wolford. That set, designed by legendary production designer Bill Groom for Maisel‘s fourth and fifth season, was built as a functioning theater. It literally looks like a space you would find housing a Broadway show. Borstein wanted to perform Corsets on this stage, because of its familiar feeling.
“I do a lot of theater, and the first time I saw it, I literally said, ‘Are you kidding?,'” he says. “When I sat down with Bill [Groom], we started to process what the space would look like in a theatrical way. The way Alex tells stories is very theatrical, so it was easy to use that space. There are a lot of props, and we embrace the theater part of it. There aren’t a lot of tricks until the very end. You didn’t have to pretend you were in a theater–it’s all there.”
The final moments of Corsets features a huge Christmas tree being revealed after the curtain is dropped for only a few moments. I can’t imagine what it would feel like to see that magically appear before it begins to snow inside. Since Corsets features some, shall we say, bawdy and honest language, it feels like the presence of the tree is subverting this idea of the Christmas special.
“That was something that I wanted to add, and I wanted it to snow,” Ellis says. “I’m not sure if Alex had that in her plans, but I loved it since it’s so over-the-top. I wanted to surprise the audience, and, honestly, it just made me laugh. Bill and I had some conversations of how to store it and how quickly we had to get it up there. It’s very fast, and the tree is very big. Alex could’ve cut it, but I was so happy that it was still there. You have this perfect image of “White Christmas” and takes it in her own direction. Believe me, it wouldn’t have worked if the song didn’t work.”
Some may be surprised that there is so much music performed by Borstein, Eric Mills, and Salvador Rey. Ellis has directed incredible musicals like the revivals of She Loves Me, Kiss Me, Kate, and, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, so this man knows how to present a number to an audience. He places the camera out in the house when Borstein, Mills, and Rey perform together but then he brings us right back on stage when Borstein becomes vulnerable.
“If we were in a bar or a rehearsal hall, that would dictate the edit and where to place the viewer,” Ellis reveals. “Our brilliant lighting designer, Don Holder, was able to light it in a theatrical way like a musical comedy, so I kept embracing that. Pulling back allows you to breathe, and then you get pulled back in when she is telling her story. I thought it was important, so you could kick back whenever a number is playing. It was all about exploding it, backing up, and then zeroing back in on what Alex was saying.”
Ellis directs of Maisel‘s finest hours for this final season. Not only does Midge get arrested for piracy, but beloved maid, Zelda, gets married with the Weissmans and Maisels present. In the middle of this humble and simple ceremony, Abe and Rose realize they are losing a huge aspect of their house. When Abe tells Midge that she is about to lose her child care, Ellis moves the camera up towards Brosnahan’s face to get her honest reaction. It’s a lot of moving parts (a Maisel signature) that Ellis controls beautifully.
“It was a block-y sequence, and you can notice that the camera is moving a lot in that section. It comes across and then it will pull back, so we were trying to find ways to keep that alive. We wanted to really lean into all these discoveries in that scene, because they keep coming and coming–with a simple, solid wedding going on at the same time. As a core group, they are all theater people, so they know how to play. That day, I bought Caroline flowers with a note thanking her for getting on her knees so many times and getting up Zelda’s skirt.”
There is a strength in the scenes between Midge and Joel even after they are separated and divorced. They challenge each other, keep each other in check, and still love one another. This season, we see Joel’s sacrifice for his wife, and “The Pirate Queen” begins with one of the most satisfying flash forwards to Midge visiting Joel in prison.
“We rehearsed it like a play. That whole shot in the prison didn’t work at first. Rachel [Brosnahan] had heavier makeup on at first, and I am not sure if she was comfortable in it. We shot for a big chunk of the day in a different location, but we talked about it afterwards and it felt like we should try something else. Rachel knew in her gut that we should change something. We went back and reshot that scene in a different prison. It was great, and Rachel was right. When I looked at both scenes, I could see that they were more comfortable in the second go-around. I give her such great credit.”
Corsets and Clown Suits and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel are both streaming now on Prime Video.
