Four fictional young men die in a car accident and get the chance to come back to perform the concert they never did in life. That is the idea behind Forever Plaid, written by Stuart Ross and directed by Sandy Baetzhold, on stage through Oct. 7 at the CAT in Carmel.
Carmel Community Players (CCP) Business Manager and Forever Plaid Producer Rich Phipps spoke to The Reporter about this one-act musical comedy.
“It’s a story of four young men in the 1960s who were in high school together and who were on their way to give their first big concert,” Phipps said. “They were slammed broadside by a busload of girls who were on their way to see the Beatles debut on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964. It was figuratively out with the old and in with the new – out with the music and in with the Beatles and the rock ‘n roll era. The show itself consists of the concert that they never got to give in life. They are given the chance through some astral-physical stuff – holes in the ozone layer and so forth – to come back and do the show they never got to perform in life.”
This 90-minute one-act show is filled with songs from the ‘50s and ‘60s, with piano and drums as accompaniment. One of the highlights of the show is referred to as “The entire Ed Sullivan Show in three minutes and 11 seconds.”
For the men in this play, much like the characters themselves, this is a reunion with a “forever” element.
“All four of us have played these roles in the past,” Phipps said. “Three of us performed in the 2001 version at CCP and the fourth, Derek Gowan, performed at the Belfry in 2004. For all four of us it is a recreation of past experiences with the show. Like the characters, we come back again to give this show. There is a sense of ‘forever’ with the cast and those of us who have done it many times. The three of us who performed in 2001 also had the chance to repeat the performances across central Indiana for 10 consecutive years. We performed at various fund-raising venues, churches and night clubs. We kept going because it is a small cast and is relatively easy to take on the road.”
Carmel Community Players are in search of a new permanent home for their productions. Everything is set for the 2018-19 season, but next season is still in flux. Of their five-show season, including Forever Plaid, four will stage at the CAT in Carmel. One will stage in Fishers.
You can get tickets at CarmelPlayers.org or by calling (317) 815-9387.
Cast & Crew
- Darrin Gowan as Sparky
- Syd Loomis as Jinx
- Rich Phipps as Frankie
- Howard Baetzhold as Smudge
- Dick Leap, drummer
- Sandy Baetzhold, pianist