‘Plaid Tidings’ is a holiday delight

Considerable festive energy bedecks “Plaid Tidings” in its limited engagement at the Pasadena Playhouse. Writer-director Stuart Ross’ updated holiday edition of his phenomenally successful “Forever Plaid” revue is enormously entertaining feel-good fare.

The essential, glorified theme-park premise is unchanged: four prematurely deceased Eisenhower-era crooners achieving their dream gig for one performance only. “Plaid Tidings,” however, significantly expands upon the original model, its self-contained ethos of sunny homage augmented with flashes of pathos and larger point.

It opens in Latin, which baffles ringleader Frankie (John-Michael Flate), clownish Sparky (Larry Raben), timid Jinx (Paul Binotto) and worrywart Smudge (David Engel), as does the question of what elicited their return. Their immediate response is a spine-tingling reading of “Stranger in Paradise” that sets forth the evening’s tone of full-throated Four Freshmen frenzy.

This quest for harmonic convergence shapes Act 1. Act 2 climaxes with the holiday television special that might have transpired, had fate and a busload of Catholic schoolgirls not intervened.

Ross’ staging is assured, the choreography richly detailed and the extended sequences little tours de force. Highlights include a shrewd Plaid back story recap to “Holiday for Strings,” their live backup vocals for a video-projected Perry Como and an uproarious history of the Ed Sullivan Show crammed into three minutes.

The designs of Neil Peter Jampolis (set), Debra Stein (costumes), Jane Reisman (lighting) and Frederick W. Boot (sound) merge sendup and sentiment to glossy effect. Musical director David Snyder is superb at the keyboard, and John Smith supplies bass underpinnings.

Most critically, the inspired quartet invests James Raitt, Brad Ellis and Raymond Berg’s vivid arrangements with celestial vocal cohesion and exceptional interactivity.

Raben’s lilting baritone and ace timing form an invaluable pivot point. Engel is as ever prodigiously talented, delivering a heart-piercing “Merry Christmas” and stopping the show cold with his Bill Irwin-meets-Gene Kelly version of “Let It Snow.”

Flate’s winning, amber-voiced Frankie is supreme in his Act 2 expose of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” Binotto’s Jinx combines a straight-faced approach recalling the young Eddie Bracken with a soaring tenor of classical potential.

In a season abounding with quality holiday offerings, “Plaid Tidings” perches high atop the theatrical tree, and faithful friends of the franchise should secure reservations now.

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‘Plaid Tidings’

Where: Pasadena Playhouse, 39 S. El Molino Ave., Pasadena

When: Tuesdays-Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 2 and 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 and 7 p.m.; no performance Dec. 24-25

Ends: Dec. 29

Price: $40-$50

Contact: (626) 356-7529

Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes