Idaho Mountain Express: As It Turns Out, Nothing Is Forever

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

As It Turns Out, Nothing Is Forever

By JENNIFER LIEBRUM
Express Staff Writer

Wally Huffman (Frankie), Robert Newman (Smudge), Paul Stoops (Jinx) and John Mauldin (Sparky) take the stage for the last time Friday night. Photo by Willy Cook

The 14-year-run of the musical "Forever Plaid" came to an end this weekend with a packed house at Sun Valley Resort's Boiler Room.

The critically acclaimed review is an affectionate revival of the close-harmony "guy groups" that reached their height of popularity in the 1950s. In the story, a quartet of high school chums' dreams of recording an album ended in a collision with a bus filled with Catholic schoolgirls on their way to see The Beatles debut on the Ed Sullivan Show. The play begins with the Plaids returning from the afterlife for their final shot at musical glory.

The end of the show marks a retirement of sorts for Wally Huffman, the former Sun Valley Resort general manager who moonlighted as Frankie in the show. He will now being doing less of the day-to-day operations for the resort and more long-term development projects as well as trying to take the Plaids on the road.

The show has had several casts over the years, but the latest incarnation has been that of Huffman, John Mauldin as Sparky, Robert Newman as Smudge and Paul Stoops as Jinx. The four harmonize with songs like "Sixteen Tons" and "Love is a Many Splendored Thing."

Express photographer Roland Lane captured the behind-the-scenes moments of the last dress rehearsal for the show last Thursday, and Willy Cook was on hand for the action on closing night Friday.

Huffman said before the last performance, "None of us wants to do our last show, but we've probably done our run."

viagra deutschland
viagra portugal
viagra italia

About Comments

Comments with content that seeks to incite or inflame may be removed.

Comments that are in ALL CAPS may be removed.

Comments that are off-topic or that include profanity or personal attacks, libelous or other inappropriate material may be removed from the site. Entries that are unsigned or contain signatures by someone other than the actual author may be removed. We will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or any other policies governing this site. Use of this system denotes full acceptance of these conditions. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.

The comments below are from the readers of mtexpress.com and in no way represent the views of Express Publishing, Inc.

You may flag individual comments. You may also report an inappropriate or offensive comment by clicking here.

Flagging Comments: Flagging a comment tells a site administrator that a comment is inappropriate. You can find the flag option by pointing the mouse over the comment and clicking the 'Flag' link.

Flagging a comment is only counted once per person, and you won't need to do it multiple times.

Proper Flagging Guidelines: Every site has a different commenting policy - be sure to review the policy for this site before flagging comments. In general these types of comments should be flagged: