Talented cast lifts Steel Beam's 'Plaid Tidings'

Hollywood film sequels are so common that most audiences don't give them a second thought — be they good or bad. Yet sequels of stage musicals are more of an artistically dubious proposition. Just look at “Forever Plaid: Plaid Tidings” now at Steel Beam Theatre in St. Charles to see why.

Instead of creating a new scenario or advancing character development (as Andrew Lloyd Webber did with “Phantom of the Opera” sequel “Love Never Dies”), “Forever Plaid” creator Stuart Ross is satisfied with his 2006 musical “Plaid Tidings” merely being a holiday retread of his original 1990 show. So there aren't too many new surprises in “Plaid Tidings.” Once again, a harmonizing quartet of awkward guys known as “The Plaids” are sent back to earth to perform, even though they were all killed in a 1964 car collision with a school bus full of Beatles fans.

Many of the quirky touches of “Forever Plaid” are blatantly recycled in “Plaid Tidings.” There are reruns of the condensed “Ed Sullivan Show” sequence, a number where toilet plungers stand in for microphones and the comedy bit where all the Plaids' dreamed-up vinyl records are presented one by one.

As for any kind of dramatic tension, Ross initially has the Plaids puzzling over why they've taken human form again. They're nearly done with Act I before the Plaids realize that they've been given a chance to fulfill their dream of making a holiday TV special.

The original “Forever Plaid” is best viewed as a trip down memory lane for folks of a certain age, and “Plaid Tidings” offers up more of the same with its mix of pre-1964 pop songs, comic banter, amateur performing antics and newly integrated holiday song favorites.

Casting is crucial to make “Plaid Tidings” enjoyable, and director/choreographer Kevin Wiczer has assembled an endearing quartet to deliver the humor and the harmony in spades for Steel Beam.

Jonathan Stombres gets plenty of laughs as the nosebleed-prone high tenor Jinx, with his bulging blue eyes greatly assisting his many opportunities for physical humor.

Tony Calzaretta energetically throws himself into the role of second tenor and Plaid ringleader Frankie — even acquitting himself nicely in Ross' ill-advised “street smart” rap number “‘Twuz the Nite B4.”

David Pfenninger offers strong vocal support as the more levelheaded Sparky, while Terry A. Christianson shows off a flair for humor as the nervous and bespectacled Smudge. Christianson's skilled comic timing almost makes up for the fact that he doesn't quite have the resonant low notes of a true bass.

Steel Beam Theatre puts its best foot forward to make “Plaid Tidings” as fun as possible. Yet the cast can't quite gloss over that this sequel is little more than reheated leftovers spruced up for the holidays.