Jersey Boys — a "docu-musical" about the Four Seasons — took Broadway by storm and came close to selling out every night at Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center when the national tour stopped here earlier this year. Now, TBPAC hosts a five-week run of Forever Plaid. Set in the 1950s, the musical comedy focuses on the fictional story of four eager young singers, The Plaids, who are killed in a car crash on the way to their first major gig. With the magic of theater, however, The Plaids are temporarily revived and given the chance to make a posthumous return to Earth to perform the show that never came to pass.
It's a modest show — with only four actors, a piano, a bass, mics and little else — but Forever Plaid has managed to receive some rather good press, and TBPAC isn't the only venue that's jumped on the bandwagon; another production has been running at Show Palace Dinner Theatre since early June.
Forever Plaid at TBPAC, July 11-Aug. 17, 7:30 p.m. Wed.-Fri., 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sat., 4 p.m. Sun., with special shows 2 p.m. Wed., July 16 and 23, Jaeb Theater, 1010 N. MacInnes Place, downtown Tampa, $31.50, 813-229-7827, tbpac.org; and Forever Plaid at Show Palace Dinner Theatre, through July 27, 11:30 a.m. seating/1:30 p.m. show Wed., Thurs. and Sat., 6 p.m. seating/8 p.m. show Fri.-Sat., 1 p.m. seating/3 p.m. show Sun., 16128 U.S. 19, Hudson, $44 dinner and show, $32.95 show only, adults/$26.45, $21.45 children under 12, 727-863-7949, showpalace.net.
This article appears in Jul 9-15, 2008.