THE PEOPLE VS. MONA [Jay CDJAY 1408]
The thought of a down-home, countrified, country-fried "musical mystery screwball comedy" doesn't exactly set me racing for the door (other than the exit door). Something called The People vs. Mona did not sound all too promising when I was assigned (i.e. forced) to review the production which played way off Broadway back in the summer of 2007. The combination of good-natured corn mixed with unadulterated cornpone quickly won me over, though; while this ain't what I'd expect to be my type of show, the authors soon had me figuratively tappin' my toes at Tippo. Tippo being the small Georgia town where the action, such as it is, takes place.

Mona came and went, with an extension or two as I recall, and that was that. But the folks at the York Theatre decided to do a one-night-only concert — outfitted with three bonafide Broadway stars, no less — in March 2008. Jay Records, which has a longstanding relationship with the York, duly recorded it, and now we have The People vs. Mona on CD. And happily so; this is a rollicking little musical which should prove vastly appealing to the stock and amateur crowd.

The show has its roots in Pump Boys and Dinettes, the long-running 1981 hit. Jim Wann, the main composer of that enterprise, wrote music and lyrics for The People vs. Mona, collaborating with his wife Patricia Miller on the book. The piece is a cascade of laughs; down-home corn, yes, but funny. This is very much reflected in Wann's happy and freewheeling score. Mona, the nominal lead, is sung effectively well by Natalie Toro, but most of the fun comes from the two battling attorneys in this murder mystery, Christiane Noll (who is presently singing her way to audience's hearts in the first-rate new revival of Ragtime) and Marc Kudisch (who seems to be everywhere nowadays). Joining them as the presiding judge — and the presiding gospel singer — is the estimable Lillias White, who is presently turning up the decibels at Fela! Also on hand is Ron Raines, quite funny as a parking meter cop who sings flat, very flat; Marcie Henderson, repeating her performance from the 2007 production as street beggar "Blind Willy" Carter; and — also from 2007 — an eccentric comedian named Omri Schein. Mr. Schein was side-splittingly good on stage, and he comes across quite well on CD in his three roles of a hapless coroner who does autopsies on dead people (only), an aged local lawyer (who the authors have die at an inopportune moment), and especially as Pafsanjani Patel, the desk clerk at the Santa Claus Motel (where everyone signs in under an assumed name).

So let us report that the CD of The People vs. Mona will give you a good time, unexpected as that might be. And let us simultaneously recommend it to producers and directors looking for unassuming, small-scale musical crowd-pleasers that aren't overexposed. Continued...