Chanhassen Dinner Theatres will resurrect its ever-popular 50s musical classic, FOREVER PLAID, opening Tuesday, January 10, in the Fireside Theatre.
FOREVER PLAID is currently in rehearsals and features the same cast as Chanhassen’s current holiday hit, Plaid Tidings, the holiday edition of FOREVER PLAID. Plaid Tidings will wrap up after Chanhassen Dinner Theatres’ New Year’s Eve gala on December 31.
FOREVER PLAID was written by Stuart Ross who conceived, wrote, directed and staged the original production of FOREVER PLAID (original musical arrangements by James Raitt). Ross grew up on the music of the Four Aces, the Four Lads, and other real-life forebears of the four Plaids. As a young boy, Ross would while away the hours in his parents’ diner in upper Westchester, eagerly awaiting the weekly arrival of the “jukebox man,” who changed the records and every week gave Stuart a cache of discarded 45s. Little did the “jukebox man” know he was planting the seeds of FOREVER PLAID, the production now known as history’s most popular Off-Broadway musical. It opened Off-Broadway in the summer of 1990 and is now performed globally.
People love the Plaids and can’t seem to get enough of them. Chanhassen Dinner Theatres produced FOREVER PLAID for the first time in February of 1999. The production was an overwhelming success and became Chanhassen’s second longest-running hit (behind I Do! I Do!) running continuously through the fall of 2003 and breaking only for holiday shows.
This is the story of “the Plaids.” Frankie, Smudge, Sparky and Jinx met in high school (1956) when they joined the audio-visual club. Discovering they shared a love for music and entertaining, they met frequently and dreamed of becoming like their idols – The Four Aces, The Four Lads, The Four Freshmen, The Hi-Lo’s and The Crew Cuts. In every spare moment they rehearsed in the basement and it was here that they became FOREVER PLAID. As their sound developed, they sang at family functions, fundraisers, grand openings of supermarkets and proms, completely devoting themselves to singing at nights and on weekends. And then, their big break came. They landed their first gig at the Airport Hotel Lounge on February 9, 1964. On this night, they were instantly killed en route, victims of a collision with a bus full of parochial schoolgirls on their way to see the Beatles on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” And now, providentially, the Plaids are granted one night back on Earth to perform the concert they never got to do in real life – complete with their beautiful plaid tuxedoes.
Audience musical favorites include such songs as “Three Coins in A Fountain,” “Heart and Soul,” “Perfidia,” “Love Is A Many Splendored Thing,” “Lady of Spain,” “Matilda” and dozens more. All tunes are sung in luscious 4-part harmonies accompanied by exaggerated and very funny synchronized precision dance movements. The humor and antics of the Plaids are hilarious and the music is nostalgic, taking you right back to a kinder, gentler time in history.
When people think of the 1950s, they think of rock ‘n’ roll, greasers, hot rods, Elvis and teenage rebellion. But there was a flip side to this era – the side of harmony, innocence and the sincerity of dreams. It was a time when most parents and kids listened and danced to the same music; when families gathered in front of the television to watch their favorite variety shows, like Ed Sullivan. It was a time when every family worked to fulfill the American dream.
Before the musical taste of the country changed, and rock ‘n’ roll stole the heartbeat of music across the globe, four guy groups wearing dinner jackets and bow ties harmonized their way across the airwaves and jukeboxes of the U.S. They would stand at their microphones, crooning multitudes of chaperoned prom-goers into dreamy romance. Each vocal arrangement soared to stratospheric heights of harmony; every move was drilled to precision. And “the Plaids” follow suit.
