'Plaid Tidings'

Off-Broadstreet Theatre offers a Christmas-themed sequel to 'Forever Plaid'

Tuesday, December 9, 2008 12:10 PM EST

By Stuart Duncan

   I suppose it was inevitable, given the huge success of Forever Plaid, that some day we would have a sequel. And here it is. The four friends — Frankie, Sparky, Jinx and Smudge — enjoyed singing and met once a week to practice in the basement of Smudge’s dad’s plumbing store. They’re the same four who were about to get a big break when their car was side-swiped by a school bus, loaded with parochial girls on their way to The Ed Sullivan Show. The girls were fine, but the four lads were killed.

   And we remember that they were permitted to return to Earth for a single performance — the one they never got to give that fateful night. Well, they’re back, in the bodies of Jim Petro, Christopher Tolomeo, Timothy Walton and Tom Orr. They’ve wandered into the Off-Broadstreet Theatre in Hopewell, thoroughly bewildered as to exactly why they have been allowed to return. They begin by singing some of the material that they had practiced but didn’t use in their first outing (and some that they did). Songs such as “Strangers in Paradise,” “Besame Mucho,” “Hey There” and “Fever.”

   But they finally figure it out: it’s the Christmas season and they have been given the opportunity to bring a little joy into some pale lives. So we get Christmas in every form known to even the tiniest elf , with Michele Ferdinand on the piano and keyboard and Steve Pasierb on bass — “Christmas Calypso,” “Let It Snow,” “We Wish You A Merry Christmas,” “It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas,” “I’ll Be Home For Christmas.” You get the idea.

   One minor problem: a truly successful sequel needs to build on the original, take the artistic step further. There’s not much of that. There are clever lyrics, warm melodies all over the stage, pretty harmonies, but an artistic step further? No. Not much. You probably won’t care. By the time you think about steps forward, you will have laughed at an audience member trying to keep up with the bell-ringing, been wiped out by a two-minute, 11-second reprise of The Ed Sullivan Show and gotten more than a little misty-eyed as the Christmas tunes barrel by.

   And when the four lads (by now four old, familiar friends) softly sing, “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas,” you will feel all warm and you probably will do as the audience did on opening weekend — you’ll stand up to applaud.

Plaid Tidings continues at The Off-Broadstreet Theatre, 5 S. Greenwood Ave., Hopewell, through Dec. 31. Performances: Fri.-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2:30 p.m. Doors open one hour early for desserts and beverages; (609) 466-2766; www.off-broadstreet.com