3 commentsLewisville — The four actors in the area's latest revival of Forever Plaid could do the show blindfolded with cloth that's solid, stripped, polka-dotted, or some ungodly pattern mixture.
Eric Domuret, K. Doug Miller, Mark Mullino and Jacob Villarreal—who play Jinx, Sparky, Frankie and Smudge, respectively, for Flower Mound Performing Arts Theatre—have collectively Plaided up more times than the number of stitches it takes to make a plaid jacket.
But here's the thing: Despite their familiarity with the material (not to mention ours), they don't phone it in. These four voices work splendidly as a harmony group and the production, directed by Mullino, never lacks for entertainment value. It's the right mix of funny and corny all the way through.
To recap the story: the members of a harmony group in 1963 were on their way to a concert when their vehicle was hit by a bus of Catholic school girls. They died, and have been in limbo for years and have to do their final concert before they can enter the pearly gates. And with the success of this audience-pleasing revue, looks like they're going to be doing that final show until they outlast the farewell tours by Cher, the Eagles and Kiss.
So they croon out dream-soaked standards like "Three Coins in a Fountain" and "Love is a Many Splendorded Thing" and throw in the occasional commercial ("Mercury") for a live studio audience. There's some audience participation (it's painless). They're accompanied here on stand-up bass by Peggy Honea and a teased-up-haired, gum-smacking floozy as the union pianist (a hilarious Vonda K. Bowling).
Having covered theater in North Texas for more than a decade, I've seen more productions of this show than I care to remember. As much as I recognize that it's well put together (the book is by Stuart Ross) and that with spot-on harmony voices it can be a delight, I usually dread seeing it again. In that sense, it's in the same category as Annie and Steel Magnolias. (But of course, theaters don't program their seasons with critics in mind; and they shouldn't.) That said, FMPAT's revival (which they've done with this same cast before) is tops.
Perhaps the best reason to see it is for the group's new home in the Medical Center of Lewisville's Grand Theater. Don't let the name-branding venue title fool you. It's not an auditorium in a hospital where the ill can be entertained (although the laughter from this show would surely be good medicine). It's a lovely arts complex in downtown Lewisville that opened at the beginning of 2011. This was my first visit.
The main proscenium theater is about 300 seats, which is an appropriate size for many of the mid-size and small arts groups in town that don't have a home. The black box space, where Forever Plaid happens, is a perfect size for such a theater. The seats are comfortable and the stage is reasonably roomy, much better than FMPAT's former cramped space in Parker Square. Oh, and the parking is free.
At a time when large performing arts complexes are stirring controversy before and as they're being built—from the Arts Center of North Texas (formerly known as Arts of Collin County) to the City Performance Hall, the third building at the AT&T Performing Arts Center—Lewisville has flown under the radar with a venue that takes into account realistic audience sizes and comfort level.
As the Plaids would say: Boss! 
