Mad About ‘Plaid’

Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2000 | 9:23 a.m.

What: "Forever Plaid."

When: Tuesdays through Sundays, 7:30 and 10 p.m. Dark Mondays.

Where: Bugsy's Celebrity Theatre at the Flamingo Hilton hotel-casino.

Cost: $21.95; $24.95 after Feb. 29.

Information: Call 733-333.

When Stuart Ross wrote "Forever Plaid" more than 10 years ago he didn't realize he was creating a franchise musical that would be playing simultaneously in dozens of cities around the world.

Norway, Japan, Germany and Canada are among the nations that have opened their hearts to the simple story of hope and innocence, told through harmonies sung by four young men who died in a car accident at the onset of their careers and who come back as spirits to fulfill their destinies.

There are ongoing productions in Las Vegas (at the Flamingo Hilton), Los Angeles (four), Boston, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., Atlantic City, Kansas City, Denver, Tampa and Chicago, to name only a few.

It is one of the most popular productions in America for regional and community theaters.

Ross, who owns six of the companies putting on the play, is working on adapting it so that high schools can do it, expanding the cast from four to 18 so that more students can be involved.

He plans to write a "Forever Plaid" Christmas show and is seriously listening to those who would like him to write a pre-quel or a sequel.

Ross, the choreographer and director as well as the writer of the play, soon will go to Sydney, Australia, where he will open another production on March 23.

Judged by its international popularity, the American play doesn't lose any of its impact when performed for different cultures. "The translation didn't lose an iota in Japan. It played brilliantly," Ross said recently during a phone interview from his Los Angeles residence.

London, however, was a little trickier. They don't really speak English -- well, American English -- there. "They don't have a word for 'plaid,' " Ross said.

Plaid is "tartan" in Great Britain, and "Forever Tartan" somehow doesn't pack the same nuance as "Forever Plaid."

However, after the play was adapted to its British audience it received rave reviews, which have become commonplace for the show that began its sixth year at the Flamingo on Feb. 8. "Vegas is a rough town, but not as rough as everyone assumes," Ross said.

He praised the hard-working cast and crew who manage to keep the show fresh and alive during two performances each evening six nights a week, Tuesday through Sunday, at Bugsy's Celebrity Theatre.

The theater is named after mobster Bugsy Siegel, who is credited with being the founder of the Flamingo. The dapper-dressing mob hit man would not have been caught dead in plaid, but that's another story.

Ross was inspired to write a play using songs from the '50s in the early '80s when he pulled out some old records he had stashed away. "I looked at the record covers and saw romantic covers of women, candlelight and wine, singers who were complete nerds.

"They were fun to hear and I wondered what it would be like to hear them live. That was the basis, the beginning of the show," said Ross, a highly acclaimed writer, director and choreographer who co-authored the Tony-nominated Broadway musical "Starmites."

He worked on a script for several years and finally debuted a 2 1/2-hour version on Valentine's Day 1987. It kicked around for several years in regional theaters in upstate New York before opening off-Broadway in New York in May, 1990.

"I had done it in late-night cabarets for a while," Ross said. "Then in New York we started out at the edgiest clubs, at hip comedy clubs. What we were doing was considered subversive."

Ross said he continued to rewrite the show, cutting it down to 90 minutes and following principles of standard musicals, making it more mainstream. "In the beginning I thought if the show ran a few weeks I would be very happy and go on with my life," he said.

Instead the show has all but become his life.

'Plaid' song selections

These are classic tunes featured in "Forever Plaid":

While for some "Forever Plaid" may be nostalgic -- filled with 90 minutes of songs such as "Chain Gang," "Catch a Falling Star," "Sixteen Tons" and "Three Coins in a Fountain -- Ross did not intend it be a walk down memory lane.

He wanted a play that everyone could relate to, even those not familiar with the music. "It's a story about dreams living on even after you're dead," Ross said. "The most important thing is that you have the dream. There are a lot of quasi-serious undertones besides funny, campy business."

He describes the basic plot as a "fish-out-of-water story about romance and innocence." There's a bit in the play where a character remembers, as a child, being enthralled with old singles that played in a jukebox. "The story about the jukebox was true," Ross said. "The songs were very sweet songs, novelty songs."

Although the show has been a hit everywhere from San Diego to Tulsa to Baltimore, it was a hard sell to get it produced in Las Vegas. "It took years to get anyone to agree to do it in Vegas. Nobody wanted to do it. There are no women in the show. It isn't glitzy," Ross said.

Then Richard Martini, who produces the Rockettes show at the Flamingo, saw the Bugsy theater as a possible venue for "Forever Plaid" and struck a deal with Ross. "It worked wonderfully," Ross said.

After approximately 3,100 performances, "Forever Plaid" -- musical continuity and arrangements by James Raitt -- continues to draw enthusiastic audiences here.

The show has worked so well that some people can't get enough of it. "A few years ago I got letter from a fan who had seen it 368 times," Ross said.

"Forever Plaid" may be poised to follow in the footsteps of another popular musical -- "The Fantasticks," which has been performed more than 11,000 times during a 40-year career off-Broadway.

And for that, Ross is forever grateful.