TLDR: Warsaw Cori and Tanto's design got changed big way halfway through stage rehershals and here's how i figured it out
I am seething
We were potentially robbed of the Queen of the Night inspired Warsaw Cori and Tanto
Like
The widow's peak, the ears doing the buns, the long blue hair giving the veil vibe, the very pale and plain but eye-heavy make up
Coincidence? I think not
Cori seems be be pretty much the same but with bit less of a hair-veil and potentially some facial hair
And that's it, those 3 photos from Dec 13, 2003 rehershal are all i have of them like that, the next time they appear in rehershal photos in costume is on Dec 22 where they look like this:
And then finally like this around/at the premiere:
I have no idea if that early look was actually Queen of the Night inspired, although it is very possible given that it is confirmed that at least one Warsaw costume is movie inspired, and that recording of "The Magic Flute" came out in 2003 so right as they were working on Warsaw, plus like it very much looks like it
I think either it's a very heavy case of "just trust the process" with the wigs and makeup just being halfway done on the 13th and then mostly finished within the next week (which makes sense given it was just a few weeks before the premiere)
Or Queen of the Night/smth of the sort was their initial concept but they changed it around that time, had it done by the next week and those wigs were just a placeholder or a leftover from the initial design
Which could be the case as in those 2 group photos there's also a completly wigless Skimble (cut out when I zoomed in on the twins), and I have undated wigmaker's shop photos where they are working on Skimble wigs and what very much could be psychic twins wigs given the use of the blue fur (as opposed to the blue hair in both those Queen-esque and other characters' wigs)
So yeah, I have no idea what actually happend here
My only theory, if it was in fact a change, is that either London said "change it", or that someone realized it would make them look just like the rest of the cast aka "normal". And in their final design their thing is that they look way more cat than everyone else and it heavily differents them from the rest, at least visually, so maybe there's smth to this
Now i wish there was a version of Warsaw where that Queen of the Night vibe prevailed, or at least just a few more photos from those early stage rehersals
UPDATE a day later
I just realized it must have been a change of concept or smth because of how the costume cration process went. It was clothes - wigs - makeup, and it's confirmed in the Warsaw book by the makeup designer. This photo very much proves it
The characters whose make up is fully done, like Victoria, Fraszka, Turbo Ptyś and Munk (Vic and Fraszka even got their falsies on) have their wigs also fully done (although Munk's isn't fully styled)
Those whose wigs are about halfway done like Jelly, Bomba and Etcetera, have their makeup either halfway done or barely started
And Cori and Tanto very clearly got their make up fully ready, it's as crisp as any of the others' who have their's fully done and I am pretty sure Tanto got false eyelashes on. Which tells me that their wigs in this photo are either fully done or generally done but not fully styled
And coming back to the wigless Skimble (on the very right of this ^ photo) and the wigmaker's shop photos, it tells me they were probably taken around the same time. And judging by this photo, his wigs are about halfway done (they're mostly missing the long strands on the sides)
But the blue, definetly most likely psychic twins wigs, look to be started just now, when they very much should already be (mostly) finished. And sure, there were few character's (most notably pink Jenny) who's makeup was fully done when their wigs were still worked on, but it was "oh they're missing a few pieces in the back", not "their wig looks like a completly different one"
Which tells me that most likely something happened during those early to mid Dec rehershals, someone changed their mind or smth and they decided to fully rework the psychic twins' wigs and make up. Idk maybe the director liked the concept on paper and actors but not on stage, maybe London was asked to confim the finished design and they were like "nope, change it". Who knows, not me
All in all, i am ever so slightly salty about this change cuz it was a pretty cool design, but i do love a lot the one they ended up with and i think it works well on stage so no hard feelings there
Maybe if i'm lucky i'll stumble upon some more photos from that Queen-esque look time cuz yeah, it's really cool and i wish i had more of it