Cabrillo Music Theatre to present spoof

'Forever Plaid' starts March 24 in T.O. Cabrillo Music Theatre will bring "Forever Plaid" back to Thousand Oaks for a return engagement from March 24 to April 2 in the Fred Kavli Theatre at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, 2100 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd.

Show times are 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, with 2 p.m. matinees on Saturday and Sunday.

Tickets range from $20 to $49 and are available at the Civic Arts Plaza box office by calling (805) 449-2787.

The production stars George Miserlis, Kevin McMahon, Robert J. Townsend and Steve Gunderson singing in the soft harmonies of the Four Freshmen. The Plaids will perform many late '50s and '60s hits, from "Three Coins in a Fountain" to "Love Is a Many Splendored Thing."

The group bring back the days when white cover groups with no soul would try to ape R&B and other ethnic styles into pop.

Their takes on ersatz R&B (a medley of "16 Tons" and "Chain Gang") and the island music popularized by Harry Belafonte ("The Plaids to Calypso!") are "hilarious," according to producer Kevin Traxler.

"Forever Plaid" is a spoof of '60s four-guy harmonizing groups. The audience will hear the ghosts of the Four Lads, Four Tops, Four Aces, the Ink Spots, Mills Brothers and Crewcuts.

The story is about the Forever Plaid group, killed in a car crash while driving a two-tone Mercury convertible in 1964 by a bus of Catholic girls from Our Lady of Harrisburg on their way to see the "Ed Sullivan Show." The group returns from Harmony Heaven 42 years later, making "the greatest comeback since Lazarus."