We need morning suit top hats that are sat upon and squashed. Think that making one for each performance might be best. Any advice?

I would suspect that making one for each night would probably be the cheapest and safest (nothing worse than hire item getting broken)

you're going to have to make it surely? Hire company would go spare you squishing their properties.

The cheapest I have seen them is about ?7 from costume hire/theatrical supplies shops/websites and and the like. From a distance these are OK but are pretty nasty close to as they are just felt stuck on plastic or card. So if you struggle making them this may be an option.

Moss Bros are kindly supplying us with four grey toppers from their discard pile just for the price of carriage.

Oh, well done June. That's excellent news. It proves that you never know until you try, doesn't it?

Reminds me of when we tried to do Little Shop of Horrors on a budget and didn't know where to find a 1950's dentist chair - so we thought to phone every dentist in town until one said "oh, we've got one in the basement. If you want to pick it up it's yours - do you need anything else?" which was great!!