[NEohioPAL] Review of "Forever Plaid" at GLTG

[Bob Abelman]

'Forever Plaid' shows its stripes in Geauga Lyric's pitchy production

 

Bob Abelman

News-Herald, Chagrin Valley Times, Solon Times, Geauga Times Courier

Member, International Association of Theatre Critics 

 

This review will appear in the News-Herald on 9/20/13

 

 

Boy bands have been popular since the barbershop quartets of the late-19th century and were all the rage when the Backstreet Boys, 'N Sync, and New Edition emerged in the 1990s.  But their true heyday - and the focus of Stuart Ross' musical revue "Forever Plaid" - occurred in the late-1950s with the preponderance of four-part harmony doo-wop groups.

 

In "Forever Plaid," we meet group members Frankie, Jinx, Sparky and Smudge who, in 1964 and not long out of high school, were killed in a car accident on the way to their first big gig at an airport lounge.   They appear before us - resurrected in matching dinner jackets and cummerbunds by mysterious cosmic forces - to perform the show they never got to do. 

 

The play's original off-Broadway incarnation was a fast-paced musical parody of clean-cut 1950's pop culture, as the boys posture with broad iconic choreography while singing pitch-perfect renditions of "Heart and Soul," "Three Coins in the Fountain," "Rags to Riches" and others.  As with all jukebox musicals of this ilk, including"The Marvelous Wonderettes" and "The Bikinis," era-specific Top-40 tunes are recycled, mixed with a flimsy skeletal storyline, and targeted at audiences old enough to have heard those songs on 45 rpm vinyl records. 

 

In this Geauga Lyric Theater Guild production under Lisa-Marie French's direction and choreography, the boys - played by Paul Josell, John Kolar, Tom Majercik, Sr., and Tony Piotrkowski - inexplicably arrive on earth in older men's bodies, without a sense of parody, and often unable to find the harmonies the songs require.  

 

Each of these four fellows has a fine singing voice, which is well supported by a tight three-piece on-stage band under Dave Thomas' direction.  But their voices are not built for this type of singing and strain at the high notes while sacrificing the low ones.  This takes much of the pleasure out of hearing tunes designed to showcase harmonic blending at its best. Here, we are offered rather pitchy renditions.

 

What the boys lack in vocal dexterity and purity they more than make up for in personality and charm.  They are particularly adept at bringing to the surface the warmth that resides in the between-song banter.  Rather than spoofing the 50's boy band era, this production paints the boys as not-quite-ready-for-primetime amateurs who lack the goods but are full of good intentions.  

 

This impression is reinforced by the tacky lounge set the cosmos has chosen for their return-engagement performance space, complete with distracting, unnecessary video displays that surround the stage.

 

The boys as hardworking wannabes is a concept that works well, to a point.  That point comes 15 minutes into the production, when it is time for the cosmos to intervene so that the foursome can mystically hit their harmonies, nail their precise period choreography, and triumphantly return to whence they came.  The universe needs to turn it up a notch.

 

This does not happen.  As a result, the climactic final number - "Love is a Many Splendored Thing" - is anything but climactic or splendid.  

 

"Forever Plaid" by the GLTG is a pleasant but unsatisfying evening's entertainment.   It leaves you wondering why the cosmos couldn't have selected a boy band more deserving of a second chance than The Plaids?  Were The Edsels - a one-hit-wonder group that recorded "Lama Rama Ding Dong" - busy that evening?   

 

"Forever Plaid" continues through September 29 at the Geauga Theater in Chardon.  For tickets, which range from $10 to $18, call 440-286-2255 or visit www.geuagatheater.org.
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