Taking place in Florida Rep’s ArtStage Studio Theatre through October 27 is the heavenly 1950s revue, “Forever Plaid.”
“Some buddies that were on their way to a big gig and had a tragic accident in the story, but get to come back in the afterlife and give us a concert,” Rep Marketing Director Deb Jonsson summarized. “So it’s ’50s tunes, but each of the characters has their own little quirky personality, so there’s a lot of comedy in it. There’s fantastic singing, beautiful harmonies, a barbershop quartet quality. Lots of fun. Our audiences are loving it.”
The show’s play list includes such hit numbers as “Three Coins in the Fountain,” “Undecided,” “Moments to Remember,” “Heart and Soul,” “Shangri-La,” “Rags to Riches,” “Love is a Many Splendored Thing” and the 1945 Benny Goodman swinging jazz hit “Gotta Be This or That.”
“There’s a lot of fun songs, and in between, there’s a lot of banter,” Jonsson added. “Literally, there’s three minutes and 11 seconds where they do an entire Ed Sullivan Show, so it’s a lot of fun, really funny and there’s a little bit of audience participation, as well.”
“Forever Plaid” stars Stephen Christopher Anthony as Sparky, Christopher Bailey as Jinx, Caleb Funk as Smudge and Steven Martella as Francis.
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“Forever Plaid’ is on stage now through October 27.
Ironically, the four singers are killed when their car is broadsided by a school bus carrying Catholic school girls to see the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show.
“The smash hit musical joyride is a loving, goofy retro story about second chances,” says Florida Rep’s synopsis of the show.
Among the musical genres represented in the show are swing, boogie-woogie, Latin and Calypso music.
The musical was produced Off Broadway in 1989.
Written by Stuart Ross, it is now performed internationally.
It was produced as a motion picture in 2009.