Off stage
Film version of ‘Forever Plaid’ headed to theaters
HOLLYWOOD — A movie version of “Forever Plaid” will be shown simultaneously via satellite feed at 500 theaters in the United States and Canada on Thursday, commemorating the 20th anniversary of the popular off-Broadway musical. Locally, it will be seen at the Regal Elmwood and the Regal Transit.
Audiences also will see a feed of a live stage show featuring Hollywood and Broadway stars and will have the opportunity to join in a nationwide sing-along.
The stage show will be part of the package when the movie is released on DVD. A CD is planned as well.
Tickets for the theater showings cost $18. There are no plans for a wider theatrical release.
“This production has created some interesting challenges,” said producer Benni Korzen. “No one has done this before; we are guinea pigs. It’s not just a movie, it’s a live event. We have to make sure our technical crew pushes the right buttons. . . . The sing-along and all of that is something we’re all now trying to wrap our hands around.”
Why the decision to present the show this way instead of producing a traditional movie adaptation for general release? “We were really stymied — we thought, ‘We can’t go out with 2,000 prints, nor is it an art movie — it’s something in between.’ Fathom was looking for something that was not the standard movie-musical release.” Korzen is predicting about 45 percent capacity audiences at the participating theaters.
Will feeding “Forever Plaid” into 500 movie houses cut into the audience for the many stage productions of the ubiquitous musical?
Korzen doesn’t think so. “Remember when TV came about and some people said: ‘That will kill the movie business’?” He said some preliminary research for the project revealed that many “Forever Plaid” audience members had seen the show multiple times: “There’s something there that brought people back in.”
“Co-existence is very much possible here; it depends on how much the audience enjoys this.”•
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