Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 28, 1995 TAG: 9507280039
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KEVIN KITTREDGE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The play about four 1950s-style do-wop singers killed on the way to their first gig combines tight harmonies and funny dialogue, said artistic director Jere Lee Hodgin. It opened off Broadway in New York a few years ago, and has since been staged at Chicago's Wisdom Bridge and at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C.
"It's been extremely successful," Hodgin said.
The Roanoke show is a joint venture of four theaters - Mill Mountain, The Barter in Abingdon, the Wayside Theatre of Middletown and the Charlotte Repertory Theatre.
All contributed in some way to this production, directed by Drew Geraci, who has directed the show in other venues and has worked with playwright Stuart Ross on staging "Forever Plaid" virtually since its birth, Hodgin said.
The play will feature four actors - who were auditioned in New York - a piano player and a bass player.
The group in "Forever Plaid," whose members all wear plaid tuxedos, is styled along the lines of such '50s acts as the Four Lads, the Crew Cuts, the Mills Brothers and the Four Freshman, Hodgin said.
The Plaids are killed, appropriately enough, by a bus full of Catholic school girls on their way to see The Beatles perform on the Ed Sullivan Show. None of the girls is hurt.
Somehow or other, The Plaids are allowed back on Earth just long enough to complete their lounge gig at the Airport Hilton.
The group's repertoire includes a number of Beatles songs done in "do-wop" fashion.
"It's all extremely tongue in cheek and definitely funny," Hodgin said.
Those who were alive and fully conscious in the 1950s may appreciate renditions of "Falling Star, "Three Coins in a Fountain," "Perfidia," "Heart and Soul" and "Chain Gang."
Those who weren't will stIll enjoy the show, Hodgin believes. "It doesn't take itself that seriously."
He said younger people have flocked to see the play in other locales.
"Forever Plaid" comes to Roanoke following a run at the Wayside Theatre. It closes the Mill Mountain calendar - next season will officially begin on Mill Mountain Theater's main stage in December with "She Loves Me," a romantic musical that has won multiple awards in London.
"FOREVER PLAID": Previews Wednesday and Thursday at Mill Mountain Theatre, opens Friday and runs through Aug. 27. Tickets are $10 for previews and $16-20 for other performances. Call 342-5740 for reservations and curtain times.
by CNB