'Plaid Tidings' brings Christmas Cheer

By Meghan D'Souza

Old Creamery - Plaids are back.

Well, not plaids. That is so last season. I mean the Plaids, the late 1950's quartet from Stuart Ross's musical Forever Plaid. They're back onstage in Plaid Tidings where we learn along with them that they have been sent from heaven to bring Christmas cheer and accomplish a dream they did not get to achieve before their untimely death. It is time for them to put on a Christmas show.

Sparky (Joe Lehman), Jinx (Ryan Gaffney), Frankie (T.J. Besler) and Smudge (Vaughn Irving) took to the stage with so much energy, I was exhausted. Donned in their green plaid tuxedos, they wooed us ladies with "Sha-Boom (Life Could be a Dream)" using long-handled toilet plungers as microphones and percussion. Frankie’s body was taken over by the divine as he hip hop danced his way through "Twaz the Nite B4 Xmas." Blind without his glasses, Irving tap danced his way offstage. And right off the stage. The men sang familiar tunes, both Christmas carols and late '50s songs, and danced for two hours with only intermission to give them a moment to breathe. Never once did they break character or did we wish the musical would hurry up and end.

Sure, they used slapstick to get us laughing, but these gentlemen made it work. They also bounced jokes off each other well and kept the play flowing nicely, transitioning smoothly from grand humor to quiet nostalgia. They were so nostalgic, I even found myself longing for the days of Perry Como’s Christmas shows.

The set was cleverly executed. For the first half of the play, the men were framed by two walls that were decorated with plaid curtains. As Smudge reminisced about their younger days, he told us of their dream to perform on a television Christmas show. He revealed a miniature set, explaining that the friends gathered around it to sing Christmas carols during sad times in their lives. Once the men realized they had been placed back on earth to perform a Christmas show, that very set appeared before us. The stage looked like a living room decorated for Christmas, complete with gifts, garland and lights for the second half of the play.

The nostalgia really hit when the foursome rolled out a television designed to look like those from the late 1950s. A recording of Perry Como’s Christmas show appeared and the quartet sang back up to Como’s "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." This came after a remarkable high-energy performance capturing the highlights of The Ed Sullivan show. With Jinx playing the accordian, the other three fellows flew on and off the stage appearing as The Rockettes, The Vienna Boy Choir, a plate spinner, a juggler, The Chipmunks and many more notable icons from the days of yore in a quick amount of time.

I was not ready to think about Christmas before this, but the men are so energetic, so whimsical, so talented and fun that they pulled me out of my bah-humbug funk. I busted out a few belly laughs and the audience gave them a standing ovation for good reason. The show runs through December 19 at the Old Creamery Theatre. Go here for more information.