Chagrin Valley Little Theatre

Forever Plaid by Stuart Ross

Performance Dates & Tickets

About the Play

Just one moment… that one perfect chord… that's all anyone can ask for.

Directed by Pamela LaForce
Conducted by David Markle

One evening in 1964, The Plaids, a quartet of high-school buddies who sang 1950s male harmony in the vein of 'The Four Freshmen' and 'The Four Aces', were on their way to their first big performance at a local hotel, when their car was struck by a bus-load of school girls on their way to see The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show. The quartet's lives and musical careers were put to a swift and ironically metaphorical end. Now, they've been sent back to earth to do the show that they never got to perform!

Stuart Ross's Forever Plaid was an off-Broadway hit in 1990, which has since become an international sensation. Chagrin Valley Little Theatre's production features Chad Duwe as "Jinx" (the nervous tenor), Trey Gilpin as "Sparky" (the goofball baritone), Brandon Hood as "Frankie" (the spirited leader), and Steven R. Tiderman as "Smudge" (the meek but earnest bass).

About the Music

Forever Plaid is a veritable juke-box of iconic 1950s pop harmony! The show features James Raitt's beautiful arrangements of:

• "Three Coins in the Fountain" (an Academy Award-winning song) by Jule Styne with lyrics by Sammy Cahn for the film of the same name.
• "Undecided" by Sid Robins and Charlie Shavers
• "Gotta Be This or That" by Sunny Skylar
• "Moments to Remember" by Robert Allen, lyrics by Al Stillman
• "Crazy 'Bout Ya, Baby" by Rudi Maugeri, lyrics by Pat Barrett
• "No, Not Much" by Robert Allen, lyrics by Jimmy Arnold
• "Sixteen Tons" by Merle Travis or George S. Davis (depending on who you believe!)
• "Chain Gang" by Sam Cooke
• "Perfidia" by Alberto Domínguez
• "Cry" by Churchill Kohlman
• "Heart and Soul" by Hoagy Carmichael, lyrics by Frank Loesser
• "Lady of Spain" by Robert Hargreaves, Tolchard Evans, Stanley J. Damerell, and Henry Tilsley
• "Scotland the Brave" - traditional
• "Shangri-La" by Matty Malneck and Robert Maxwell, lyrics by Carl Sigman
• "Rags to Riches" by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross
• "Love is a Many-Splendored Thing" by Sammy Fain, lyrics by Paul Francis Webster