Now and Forever
Daniel Reichard joins original cast members Larry Raben, Stan Chandler, and David Engel for the upcoming film version of the musical Forever Plaid.
and Daniel Reichard in Forever Plaid
(© Neil Peter Jampolis)
But the cameras and television monitors, boom microphones, and celebrity audience members -- Melissa Manchester, Kate Linder, Traci Bingham, Rose Marie and JoAnne Worley -- remind you that you're on a Hollywood soundstage watching the filming of Forever Plaid: The Movie. The much-loved off-Broadway musical was filmed in front of an enthusiastic audience earlier this month in Los Angeles for a limited theatrical release (and later DVD release) for Spring 2009. But Stuart Ross, the show's creator and film's director, wanted to make sure the big screen treatment will stay true to the work's innocent roots, down to recreating the intimate nightclub atmosphere.
The story follows a 1960s quartet of close harmony singers who, on their way to their first real gig, are wiped out by a bus full of Catholic schoolgirls (who are, ironically, on their way to see the Beatles). Forty years later, the group is brought back to earth for one night to perform the show they never got a chance to perform in life.
The film stars three of the show's four original cast members, Larry Raben as Sparky, David Engel as Smudge, and Stan Chandler as Jinx, along with Jersey Boys star Daniel Reichard as Frankie (a role originally played by Guy Strohman), while David Hyde Pierce will provide the narration.
(© Joseph Marzullo/Retna)
For Reichard, a newcomer to the project, taking on the role of Frankie has been as demanding as it has been rewarding. "I've had virtually no rehearsal for it," he says, "and I had to learn the show by myself. I would have a pair of headphones on and I would drill myself. It's been so fun because all that time when I was studying, I would listen to their work and I felt like I knew them. And we have become very fast friends. But a lot of this film is about these three guys and what they created."
Chandler says the stage-to-screen transition has created some unexpected challenges. "The intimacy of the play lends itself to the scaling back for the camera because that's how we started, in a small cabaret space in Manhattan," he notes. "But, it is kind of weird to have that camera on a jib arm come swooping into your face and pull back and do all those old TV show kind of things. So you find yourself making slightly different kinds of choices, because you don't want to look right in the camera."