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Wrench's costume refers to her nature as a repair truck, with her apron being a nod to a welder's protective apron, as well as a nurse's apron. Her design ties her very closely to Electra, keeping his colour palette of red, blue and silver.

London[]

Wrench L84 Carole Amphlett 1

Original Wrench, Carole Amphlett, London 1984

Wrench Jo18 Kate Alexander

Kate Alexander as Wrench, London 2001

London Wrench originally had a recurring theme of stripes, blue with silver, silver with black. Her wig began as red with black sides, but gained blue accents, then eventually yellow in the centre, red, then black sides. This wig is the only use of yellow in the Electrics' costumes. At one point in the 1992 overhaul of the London production, Wrench was given the crane hat in line with the Broadway descended productions, however the extra height caused problems with the London set and choreography and the helmet was never implemented.

In 1999, Wrench's London design was significantly overhauled to bring her more in line with the Las Vegas design, which in itself was a development from the Broadway concept. She lost the blue elements of her costume, the padded sloping shoulders and the blue and silver legs. In their place she gained silver diagonal patterned leggings, a round red collar and cage sleeves that reference an element of railway architecture. Unlike the Vegas design, Wrench kept the black/red/yellow flame styled wig.

Broadway[]

Wrench Design 1

Broadway Costume Design

Wrench Design 2

Broadway Design Headdress

When the show transferred to Broadway, the costume budget was drastically increased, which allowed for far more technical costumes to be built. Wrench is a prime example of this, as she developed from soft, quilted shapes to heavy duty hardware. Her costume design elaborated on her dual nature - she is both a repair truck, as indicated by the crane on her head and the flat bed of her shoulders, as well as a medic as indicated by the red crosses on her forehead and arm band. She also gained the Santa Fe logo on her chest, in line with the other Components. Her hat represents the crane, essential lifting apparatus for a repair truck. For the sake of practicality, the space between her head and the crane is not empty air, but painted to resemble blue sky and clouds. Often the tip of the crane includes a red light.

Bochum[]

Wrench b11 Lauren Mayer 1

Wrench's 2011 Wig, Bochum

The Bochum production has kept close to the original design, apart from experimenting with giving Wrench a wig in 2011, rather than her crane hat. This wig was a faux-mohawk giving her a similar style to both Electra and Joule. The blue sides of the hair were swept up into spikes, and the centre was red and white and brought up and forward in much the same shape as her crane hat. However this wig was replaced by the original hat a couple of years later.

Wig: Like Krupp, Wrench doesn't wear a wig, but a crane-like helmet. It's mainly white, with the top part being red, matching her general colour scheme. The front has a built-in LED light, which can be seen especially well in AC/DC. On the front of the helmet, she wears a big red cross, again to refer to her position as the repair-truck. The helmet is not gendered, since Wrench is not fixed as a female character, but sometimes male, too. Around 2010 for a short time her helmet was replaced by a wig, making her look more similar to the female Volta and Joule, rather than Krupp and Purse. It was blue on the sides and red-white striped inside. The sides where styled up into spikes, while the inside was styled into a mohawk, similar to Joule's and Electra's hair. The wig didn't last long- soon it was changed back into the helmet. Because of it's shape, Wrench is the only character, for which the actresses have the type of microphone, that goes around the head.

Make-Up: Wrench has white facepaint, onto which her glittery red, white and blue makeup is applied. The shapes are very angled and sharp. Her lips mostly are red and white, again, to match the first aid cross, sometimes blue or even white. Her contouring is red at the moment, but has been blue in the past, too. She wears extremely long, oftentimes glittery, lashes.

2018 Updates[]

During the 2018 30th anniversary changes, Wrench received only a slight change - the inside of her crane hat, usually painted blue and white to resemble the sky, was covered in black as well as the red on her bib, and the accents of her gloves and elbow pads. As with all characters in the update, her makeup diminished into a more "natural" look. Wrench lost the white base to her makeup, the unique shaping of her eye changing to the shape of the coaches maintaining the white and blue and her cheeks now contoured with a line of harsh red blush.

Las Vegas[]

Electra Components US03 1

US Tour Wrench, with the cage shoulders introduced in Las Vegas.

Wrench also had a re-design in Las Vegas, the only character other than the coaches to do so. Her costume alteration was more subtle than the Showgirl Coaches, she lost the hard, wide shoulders, replaced with a round red collar and cage sleeves. Her apron also halved in length, covering her crotch rather than reaching to her knees. The Santa Fe logo moved from her chest to the centre of her belt, and the top of her apron echoed the lower panels. This version of the costume was used for the US/UK Tours. For the 2012 UK Tour, Wrench lost the entirety of her front apron, having only a short flap at the back.

Parsons-Meares Costume Bible[]

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