COSTUMES: How to make someone's pants fall down on cue?

[Fairyjen]

   We are doing the revival of 'Annie Get Your Gun'. The president of Frances Pants fall down on cue when Annie shoots them off. Does anyone know anyway to do this affect?

   He is in the middle of the stage and not up against the set so we can't have someone behind a set pulling them down.

   I did Pajama game a looooong time ago where this happens as well and I can't remember how we did it then.

[LCSM]

I've never done the play so I don't know if this is practical, but you could tie a string to his pants and run it up through his shirt sleeves and loop it around one of his fingers. Then he could simply slip the sting off on cue.

Let us know what you end up doing.

[Celeste_SM]

Our guy did it with oversize pants, a fists-on-waist pose, and timely sucking-it-in and pulling his fists away a bit. Worked every time.

[madiobrien]

I recently did Pajama Game, we did oversize pants, without any zipper or elastic and they would only stay on if they were held.  so when he let go they dropped another thing is you could put weights in the top of the pants so they fall, but you need to worry about the sound when they dropped on stage. Looking back i wish I would've tried the weights.

it was touch and go for most shows, but the actor was really good at making them fall or acting like they did after he pulled them down, is pretty much just trial and error.

[geoffsm]

I start rehearsal for Annie Get Your Gun on Saturday.  I'm not sure what our plan is yet, but I'd be interested in hearing some ideas, too-just as a back up in case we get stuck.

[KMC]

I've thought about this since I read the original post and I've was trying to come up with some clever and sexy solution.  I thought about snaps, velcro, and magnets, among other things.

The more I think about it though, I think the simplest possible idea is best.  The more you complicate this type of effect, the more margin you have for error - and this effect not going off right will make everyone look rather silly.  The loose pants idea sounds best to me.

I'd be tempted to try loose pants with something to weight down the waist.  Something like a padded chain sewn inside the belt.  This would give plenty of weight and the padding would prevent a *thud* when it hits the ground.

[PSMKay]

I'd be tempted to try loose pants with something to weight down the waist.  Something like a padded chain sewn inside the belt.  This would give plenty of weight and the padding would prevent a *thud* when it hits the ground.

A handful of keys or coins in someone's pants pocket would not be unrealistic.  I know it's a rare event that my pants don't give off some sort of clunk or jingle when they fall down.  (That may be too much information for y'all, but hey, it's all in the name of comedy.)