Sunday, February 1, 1998

SMT's spirited play more than musical revue

By LAURA STEWART
NEWS-JOURNAL FINE ARTS WRITER

DAYTONA BEACH — In one way, William Theisen was born to direct and choreograph "Forever Plaid," the Seaside Music Theater comedy that opens Friday at the Ormond Beach Performing Arts Center.

He came along "just as the `Forever Plaid' era was ending, in 1960," Theisen said. And back in his early days in Milwaukee, his mother might have snapped her fingers and hummed some of its most hummable tunes -- "Three Coins In The Fountain," "Moments To Remember," "Catch A Falling Star" -- because they're so catchy, and so familiar.

"They were all over the radio -- they were pop classics, not rock 'n' roll," he said. The show's imaginary foursome, the earnest Forever Plaid, "were hitting their stride just as everything was changing -- they died in 1964, the year the Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan show."

Of course, they didn't really die -- their car tragically hit by a school bus filled with Catholic teens -- because Forever Plaid never really existed. What did exist, and what the show celebrates both nostalgically and wackily, was the era when four guys singing in close harmony a la the Lettermen, the Four Aces and the Crew Cuts -- his favorite to listen to, Theisen said -- could save earnings from their gigs and order a set of matching plaid jackets.

But, on the way to pick up their jackets and hit the Big Time, Forever Plaid meets up with the school bus of girls on the way to the Ed Sullivan show. The band then ends up in a sort of limbo, still itching to do their breakthrough gig, shoulder rolls and swiveling hips and all. "It may sound a little odd, but the show's premise is really comical; it's handled in a light way. It's very, very funny," he said.

"For older audiences, `Forever Plaid' is an homage to the groups of the late '50s and early '60s, so it's nostalgic. And the younger audiences, people under 30, just fall on the floor laughing at how very sincere the singers were," said Theisen, at 37 right between the two age groups.

So to brush up on songs that were fuzzily familiar, to learn about the age of drive-ins, sock hops, buzz cuts, folk music and dreamy adolescence, he began watching archival tapes of old TV variety shows. There were hours of pre-Beatles Ed Sullivan -- 20 or so from big-city public libraries -- and Stuart Ross productions of "Forever Plaid," from the late 1980s.

In the end, he was not only born to direct and choreograph the show, Theisen said. He was born and raised and educated for the job with Seaside's Plaids -- Matt Clemens, Brian Bowman, Greg Mills and Christopher Briggs, backed by an on-stage combo directed by Terry Tichenor. "Everybody is in a set that's basically a lounge, circa 1960. The musicians are all onstage, with a definite story line and dialogue so it's more than just a musical revue.

"The Plaids come back for their show. It begins with them in their white dinner jackets, and talk about what has happened," he said. "They joke: "Frankie (Clemens) says about the pianist, `We don't really know him; he came with the room.' They're in between worlds, definitely. But by the end they feel they have accomplished what they wanted to do."

But do they ever get those plaid jackets, and become Forever Plaid? Theisen laughed, paused, and answered -- sort of. "They had saved up from gigs they went on, and were on the way to pick them up that very night. Should I tell.. ."

"Forever Plaid" will be at the Ormond Beach Performing Arts Center, 399 N. Yonge St., Ormond Beach, from Feb. 6 to 22. Show times are 8 p.m. Feb. 6-7, 10-14, 17-21, and 2 p.m. Feb. 8, 15 and 22. Tickets are $18/$20 for adults, $10 for youth younger than 18, $12 for college students. For tickets, call SMT's box office, (904) 252-6200.