Carrie Coon’s Costume Corner: Reversal(s) of Fortune

Another week, another opportunity to marvel at Kasia Walicka Maimone’s costume design work on The Gilded Age. We are back to talk exclusively about Carrie Coon’s costumes in her role as the beautiful and socially ambitious nouveau riche matron Bertha Russell. Not that the many other costumes aren’t fascinating and worthy of conversation, but Bertha’s gowns are more adventurous, more exuberant, more statement-making, more everything. Also, this week’s other main plot is about the death of the Reverend Mr. Luke Forte, aka Mr. Ada Brook, and I’m tearing up just thinking about how heartbreaking every moment of Robert Sean Leonard’s and Cynthia Nixon’s soulful performances are. Musing about moiré and beading is the antidote I need.

(A quick editorial note regarding the title of this week’s column – it’s a fun little Easter egg for fellow fans of the 1987 film of the same title, which features an extremely memorable young Christine Baranski as Claus von Bülow’s hyper-supportive (and casually anti-semitic!) girlfriend. Fun facts: the film is based on an absolutely bonkers true story, partly takes place in Newport, and its real-life leads are played by Jeremy Irons and Glenn Close (with Ron Silver as Alan Dershowitz). Reversal of Fortune is rentable on many streaming services.)

In “Wonders Never Cease,” Bertha seems to strike two significant blows in the Opera Wars, but she has yet to deliver the coup de grâce to Mrs. Astor’s (Donna Murphy) Academy of Music. We’re going to have to wait for next week’s season finale to learn whether the Metropolitan Opera will make it, after all. For those who don’t fret about spoilers regarding actual late 19th-century history, some recent photos of the Gilded Age cast out for an evening on the town may shed some light!