Entertainment

Calif.-based studio suits up for Broadway’s ‘Magic/Bird’

Both the Indiana State and Michigan State logos needed to be recreated for the play.

Both the Indiana State and Michigan State logos needed to be recreated for the play. (Sports Studio.)

Thanks to the success of “Lombardi,” sports plays are slowly finding a home on the stages of Broadway.

The latest sports-related performance will be “Magic/Bird” which is currently in previews and will officially open on April 11. Based on the competitive, yet friendly, relationship between the two basketball legends, “Magic/Bird” takes viewers from the the duo’s college days in the 1970s, through their NBA rivalry in the ’80s and the twilight of their careers in the ’90s.

In order to replicate the authenticity of the time Magic Johnson and Larry Bird spent in the national spotlight, it is imperative that fans are treated to the most accurate depiction of the stars, right down to the jerseys and uniforms they wore while playing.

Sports Studio, a California-based company that specializes in sports-specific wardrobe for entertainment, was contracted to handle the costuming for “Magic/Bird.” The company previously worked on “Lombardi” and its background in dealing with the NBA, MLB and NFL made it a perfect fit for “Magic/Bird.”

“We did Lombardi last year so we are familiar with the requirements,” Sports Studio CEO Mark Koesterer told The Post. “For us [theater] is no different than on-camera. Maybe it’s a little smaller than some of the projects, but in terms of replicating and being authentic and the accuracy and protecting out licensed partners brands, in this case Michigan State, Indiana State as well as the Lakers, Celtics and NBA in general.”

Sports Studio calls the “Magic/Bird” project a “period piece.” Aside from dealing with the upcoming play, Sports Studio has done the wardrobes for movies such as “Miracle”, “61”, “The Express” and “We Are Marshall.” Koesterer outlined the differences in approach when dealing with older, vintage uniforms.

The challenge is two-fold. One is in the creative side, getting accurate pictures, artwork when no one had any digital designs in some of these period pieces,” Koesterer said. “In this case the Michigan State and Indiana State logos did not exist digitally so we had to look at pictures and recreate them. Then there would be the fabric. In this case with Bird/Magic is pretty straightforward, [the fabric] is the standard polyester double-knit fabric that was used in the day and mesh practice jerseys which are pretty traditional products for us.”

In order to recreate the most accurate depiction of the uniforms, Koesterer and Sports Studio worked with costumer Paul Tazwell and his associate Kara Harmon. The duo worked together on the Broadway play Memphis and this was one of their first endeavors into sports theater, where accuracy is key.

“With the uniforms it took a lot of cross-referencing to make sure everything was accurate,” Harmon told The Post. “When you are recreating real players and things that actually happened it’s really important that it’s accurate.”

Harmon spent countless hours researching and trading information to reach the level of accuracy that “Magic/Bird” will need in order to be successful.

“This has been the only project that I have been working on for many, many hours every day,” Harmon said. “I’m not a sports person by any means so luckily I wasn’t really distracted on those sports pages, I could just go directly to what I was looking for. I learned a lot in doing this.”

Harmon and Sports Studio worked closely with the NBA (Sports Studio has a license with the league) as well as the sports information directors for both Indiana State and Michigan State Universities. The amount of time they have spent on perfecting the project left a lasting impact.

“For some reason I have been looking at pictures of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird for three months now and I recognized Magic Johnson when he came on TV at dinner and I shouted ‘Oh my God! There he is!’” Harmon said. “I feel like I know them because I have been looking at pictures from their careers and lives for so long…suddenly I am obsessed with these two people.”

However, the project was not always easy. Koesterer mentioned that recreating the iconic 1992 Dream Team warm u, which Bird and Johnson wore during the gold medal ceremony in Barcelona, was a bit tricky. Michael Jordan famously used an American flag to cover the Reebok logo on the jacket, as Nike endorsed him at the time.

“The biggest challenge in Magic/Bird was the 1992 Dream Team jackets, the jackets the guys wore on the podium when they won the Gold Medal,” Koesterer said. “No one in the NBA or at Reebok had any design on that jacket so we had to go totally on pictures and recreate it painstakingly.”

Despite the hours Harmon, Koesterer and Sports Studio have put into the project, the finished product has them excited.

“We’re very excited to be part of a prestigious Broadway play that is about sports. We take very seriously the responsibility to recreate those uniforms and making sure they are as authentic as possible,” Koesterer said. “We hope that the producers and, more importantly, the fans that go to see this play appreciate the legitimacy of the wardrobe.”

“Magic/Bird” opens on Broadway on April 11, starring Kevin Daniels as Magic Johnson and Tug Coker as Larry Bird.