One of Broadway’s most talented costume designers, Martin Pakledinaz, lost his battle with cancer and passed away early on July 8, 2012 at the age of 58. His most recent Broadway show, Nice Work If You Can Get It, opened on April 24, 2012, and earned him a Tony Award nomination. He won the 2002 Tony for Best Costume Design Of A Musical for his work on The Pajama Game; and the 2000 Tony for his designs for Kiss Me Kate (for which he also won a Drama Desk Award),
Other recent credits include revivals of Man And Boy, Master Class, Normal Heart, Lend Me A Tenor, Gypsy, Wonderful Town, and Grease, while he was also nominated for Tony Awards for his work on The Life, Golden Child, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Blithe Spirit, and Anything Goes, among others. In 1999 he was awarded an OBIE for his work on Moliere’s The Misanthrope at CSC in NYC.
He also designed for dance, with such outstanding productions as Mark Morris’ The Hard Nut and opera, including Iphigenie en Tauride at The Metropolitan Opera, and The Seattle Opera’s Ring Cycle with director Stephen Wadsworth, for which he won an EDDY Award from Entertainment Design Magazine in 2002, the same year he was nominated for an Olivier Award for the London production of Kiss Me Kate. He also taught at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.
Pakledinaz is survived by six brothers, one sister, nine nieces and nephews, and a godson, Robert Gabriel Hill-Guarino. Private funeral services will be held in Michigan. A community memorial will be announced in the late fall.
Donations may be made to The Martin Pakledinaz Scholarship, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, 721 Broadway, 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10003.