Shows F

FOREVER PLAID The Heavenly Musical Hit in a prologue & 1 Act Written and Originally Directed & Choreographed by Stuart Ross : Musical continuity supervision and arrangements by James Raitt Steve McGraw's Theatre Off Broadway 20 May, 1990 Forever Plaid celebrates the delightfully goofy reincarnation of four male singers killed in a car crash on the way to their first big concert and now, miraculously, revived for a plaid-fabulous time for audiences everywhere. Singing in the closest of harmony, squabbling boyishly over the smallest intonations, the Plaids are guaranteed smash with a series of well-loved songs and right-on patter that keep audiences laughing when they aren't humming along to some of the great nostalgic pop hits of the '50s. SYNOPSIS Prologue: Once upon the time, on February 9th 1964, a semi professional harmony group was on its way to its first big gig at the airport Hilton cocktail bar, Fusill-Lounge. While driving in a cherry-red 1954 Mercury convertible, the group was rehearsing their finale, "Love Is a Many Splendor'd Thing." They were just getting to their favourite E flat diminished seventh chord when they were slammed broadside by a school bus filled with eager Catholic teens from out of Harrisburg. The teenagers were on their way to witness the Beatles make their U.S. television debut on the Ed Sullivan show, and miraculously escaped uninjured. The harmony group, however, was killed instantly. Act The setting is simple: four microphones, a piano and the bass. From the back of the house we hear heavenly voices chanting. Four men carrying candles and dressed in white dinner jackets walk through the audience, singing, "Deus Ex Plaid." Francis, the leader and most confident member of the group, leads them through the audience, "Holy Canoli! We're finally back on earth." While they're still technically dead they have their voices, and bodies, and dinner jackets. They talk to the audience trying to figure out what year it is. More than 20 years! To fight the tension caused by 20-plus years in limbo, they decide to sing. Sparky pipes in, "We could make the biggest comeback since Lazarus!" "And now, for the first time on this or any other planet. Forever Plaid!" They sing, "Three Coins in the Fountain." As the song ends, Sparky addresses the audience, "We're Forever Plaid, and we're dead." He explains to the audience that, though they never got to do the show when they were a live, the stars have conspired with the expanding holes in the ozone layer to do the show now. They introduce themselves to the audience, in addition to Francis - who likes to be called Frankie - and Sparky, there's Smudge and Jinx. They also introduce the band. They finish the song and manage a sort of a segue into, "This or That/Undecided." They decide they've never sounded so good in life. Unfortunately, they never managed to pick up their new plaid tuxedoes so they show a tuxedo catalogue and ask the audience to, "think Plaid." Smudge dedicates the next song to anyone who's ever been to a prom. They decide that the choreography for the next number is too complicated using real microphones. So they use what they used in rehearsal in the stock room of Smudge's family's plumbing supply company: plumbers' helpers (sink plungers). Jinx tells the audience, "we always wanted to be in l-ll-ll (He can't say "love")" They explain that they were just too busy, what with Jinx' speech therapy and Audio-Visual Club. They sing, "No Not Much." At the end of the

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