{"id":244050,"date":"2010-12-13T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-12-13T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/musical-theatre-review-going-plaid-for-the-holidays\/"},"modified":"2010-12-13T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2010-12-13T08:00:00","slug":"musical-theatre-review-going-plaid-for-the-holidays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/musical-theatre-review-going-plaid-for-the-holidays\/","title":{"rendered":"Musical Theatre Review: Going \u2018Plaid\u2019 for the holidays"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Charlene Baldridge | SDUN Arts Writer<\/p>\n

\"Musical<\/a>
(l to r) Jason Heil, Leo Daignault, David Brannen and Michael Winther in \u2018Plaid Tidings - A Special Holiday Edition of Forever Plaid,\u2019 plays at The Old Globe until Dec. 26, 2010. (Photo by Henry DiRocco)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As they say during the 90-minute musical show, \u201cThere\u2019s no place like \u2018Plaid\u2019 for the holidays.\u201d That statement, made in song by four close-harmony guys, is borne out as they bring about a bit of seasonal charm in \u201cPlaid Tidings,\u201d the 2002 sequel to \u201cPlaid\u201d creator Stuart Ross\u2019s phenomenal hit, \u201cForever Plaid.\u201d<\/p>\n

The four youthful characters, who so endeared themselves to theatergoers in the past, are allowed to return to earth a second time, not knowing why. They\u2019ve been given another chance to achieve what they didn\u2019t in life\u2014this time in a holiday show titled \u201cPlaid Tidings,\u201d which plays locally through Dec. 26 at Balboa Park\u2019s Old Globe Theatre.<\/p>\n

Landing amid lightning strikes, Jinx (Leo Daignault), Smudge (Jason Heil), Sparky (David Brannen) and Frankie (Michael Winther) find themselves in the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre at the Old Globe. One of the quartet says, \u201cLook. We\u2019re back in San Diego, at the Old Globe. Is it my imagination or do they (audience members) look kinder?\u201d Another replies, \u201cNo. Not kinder. Just older.\u201d Well, the \u201cboys\u201d are older, too, this time around, gently lending the show a feeling that though things have changed, we\u2019re still safe with these dear, funny men, all of whom are inept on purpose still upset the \u201charmonal\u201d balance of the world, especially now that we are held hostage by awful holiday recordings.<\/p>\n

As before, high tenor Jinx is inept with the microphone and prone to nosebleeds; Smudge, the bass, is a rather pompous word lover and blind as a bat without his glasses. To say that Daignault, Heil, Brannen and Winther all sing like angels all the time and that the blend is always perfect would be hyperbole (I saw the evening show Sunday, Dec. 5, at the end of a long opening week); however, all do a superb job of establishing character and lightness and their specialty is still making onlookers feel \u201ccomforted, warm, and runny inside.\u201d Music director is Don LeMaster, with Steven Withers on piano and Tom Christensen on bass. Daignault is the dance captain, with Heil turning in some amusing terpsichorean moves.<\/p>\n

Favorite skits resurrected from \u201cForever Plaid\u201d include the Perry Como segment and the quicksilver \u201cEd Sullivan Show\u201d replete with Topo Gigio. Ross adds an extremely funny cell phone gag, with the guys running all over trying to discover the source of the (to us) familiar ring tone, then not knowing what a cell phone is.<\/p>\n

Along the way to Plaid fulfillment, the audience sings along on \u201cMatilda,\u201d and hears such numbers as \u201cKingston Market,\u201d \u201cMoment\u2019s to Remember,\u201d \u201cKiss of Fire\u201d and \u201cBesame Mucho,\u201d while also enjoying beloved seasonal works such as \u201cThe Dreidel Song,\u201d \u201cJoy to the World,\u201d and \u201cI\u2019ll Be Home for Christmas.\u201d Departing audience members remarked to one another how much fun they\u2019d had.<\/p>\n

SIDE NOTES:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cForever Plaid\u201d <\/strong>made its Old Globe premiere in 1991. The show had been playing in New York supper clubs for a year when former managing director Tom Hall saw it and decided to produce it at the Old Globe Theatre. \u201cForever Plaid\u201d was such a hit, Hall brought the show back the following year. Several years later it played an extended run at the Theatre in Old Town. \u201cPlaid Tidings\u201d premiered at Pasadena Playhouse in 2001.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlaid Tidings\u201d <\/strong>continues at 7 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays and 2 p.m. Saturdays through Sundays through Dec. 26, $35-$67, Old Globe Theatre, 1363 Old Globe Way, Balboa Park, San Diego, theoldglobe.org or (619) 23-GLOBE.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Charlene Baldridge | SDUN Arts Writer As they say during the 90-minute musical show, \u201cThere\u2019s no place like \u2018Plaid\u2019 for the holidays.\u201d That statement, made in song by four close-harmony guys, is borne out as they bring about a bit of seasonal charm in \u201cPlaid Tidings,\u201d the 2002 sequel to \u201cPlaid\u201d creator Stuart Ross\u2019s […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":731,"featured_media":244051,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Musical Theatre Review: Going \u2018Plaid\u2019 for the holidays","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-244050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/731"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244050\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}