In his second and, tragically, his last show, When Pigs Fly (now playing at the Coronet Theatre in Los Angeles), Howard introduces us to his alter ego, a ldd who shows up at his high school's "Dress As Your Favorite Character from Fiction Day" as Dream Curly from Oklahoma/ Not butch baritone Curly but Dream Curly, the ballet-dancing Curly of the musical's dream sequences, all done up in fluffy pink fur chaps.
Dream Howard wants to be in show business -- something that will happen, his guidance counselor tells him, when pigs fly. All those onetime little boys in the audience know what Howard was talking about.
Before his AIDS-related death in 1996, brilliant Broadway costumer Howard Crabtree created the season's gayest hit, When Pigs Fly
From his early cabaret work to his last and greatest show, Howard Crabtree's When Pigs Fly, Crabtree created unique costumes that he himself referred to as "Disney on drugs."
Crabtree died of AIDS complications on June 28, before finishing work on When Pigs Fly, a musical revue in which five actors play everything from showgirls to centaurs, virtually suspending the laws of gravity with their spirited, gay-themed high jinks.
"Collaboratively speaking, we fell in love with each other," says Waldrop, who later wrote and directed When Pigs Fly. "I provided words that put Howard's vision into a context - and his imagination allowed me to go places I never could have gone on my own." Crabtree's influence also went deeper.