‘The People vs. Mona’ Wins on Appeal

“The People vs. Mona” is a 15-minute “Prairie Home Companion” sketch that got away from its makers and became an 85-minute affair. Benign to a fault, it’s a courtroom musical set in Tippo, Miss., where folks are friendly and the local funeral parlor (via the ushers) hands out free fans, to help you cope with the 103-degree heat.

The show’s likely to appeal to everyone who enjoyed “Pump Boys and Dinettes”--composer-lyricist Jim Wann’s best-known and most profitable musical-ette--but wished it had a plot.

This one has a plot.

It hinges on the question: Did Mona Mae Katt, the tramp’s tramp of Tippo, kill her cheating rat of a husband? Defense attorney Jim Summerford (Scott Waara) has in Mona (Kelli Maguire) a guilty-seeming harlot with a motive. The ambitious prosecutor, Mavis Frye (Maggie Hollinbeck), Summerford’s fiancee, appears headed for another conviction. Yet everyone in Tippo, from the coroner (Joe Joyce) to a local journalist (Michele Mais) to bass-playing, ultra-helpful Officer Bell (Ritt Henn) harbors reasons to want Mona’s husband dead. The judge (William Thomas Jr.) harbors a desire merely to return to the golf course.

Now at the Pasadena Playhouse, the skillfully mounted world premiere of “The People vs. Mona” asks a question of its own. Can savvy, eager-to-please performers, most playing more than one role as well as more than one instrument, ladle enough sauce on the white bread to make it tasty?

For many, it’ll be a yes. Certainly, this isn’t the kind of project destined to cost the Playhouse any subscribers. It couldn’t offend anyone if it tried. Still, “The People vs. Mona” rides only so far on the charm and versatility of its ensemble.

In show-biz terms, Tippo, Miss., lies just around the bend from the diner setting of “Pump Boys” (1981). Wann’s a rangy and often engaging songwriter, trafficking easily in various complementary genres. I’ve only seen “Pump Boys” once, but with a good cast it’s a smart-dumb show, easy to take. Prior to “Pump Boys,” Wann co-wrote “Diamond Studs: The Life of Jesse James, a Saloon Musical.” That off-Broadway hit, like the later “Pump Boys,” revealed a decent sense of craft. Wann doesn’t have a firmly distinct musical-theater personality, but he can turn out some nice, hard-driving, easygoing strains of bluegrass mixed with country, rhythm and blues and rural swing.

“The People vs. Mona,” alas, is the weakest of the “Studs”/”Pump Boys”/”Mona” trio. Mona herself gets lost in her own story. The jokes earn a few chuckles, and the clunkers spend down those earnings. For every charming conceit (a bongo-playing stenographer, or Henn accompanying himself on bass on the witness stand) there’s a lame instance of audience participation. None of it’s terrible; a lot of it’s pleasant. You wait for the thing to kick into a higher gear.

Director Paul Lazarus respects the material’s concert-musical parameters, and nudges it along in style. Waara, such fun in the Broadway revival of “The Most Happy Fella,” makes for ingratiating company here. Everyone does, though Maguire’s Mona is disappointing; she lacks wit, a spark.

It’s not really there in the book, either (credited to Ernest Chambers, Patricia Miller and songwriter Wann). When it isn’t reminding you of an attenuated “Prairie Home Companion” segment, “The People vs. Mona” resembles a murder-mystery dinner-theater whodunit, albeit one with better-than-average tunes.

* “The People vs. Mona,” Pasadena Playhouse, 39 El Molino Ave., Pasadena. Tuesdays-Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 5 and 9 p.m.; Sundays, 2 and 7 p.m. Ends April 16. $15-$42.50. (800) 233-3123. Running time: 1 hour, 25 minutes.

Ritt Henn: Clerk, Officer Bell

Maggie Hollinbeck: Mavis Frye

Joe Joyce: Bailiff, Theodore Bloodweather, Euple R. Pugh, Rupel Patel

Kelli Maguire: Mona Mae Katt

Michele Mais: Court Recorder, Tish Thomas, Rev. Rosetta Purify

William Thomas Jr.: Judge Horton O. Riggs, Blind Willy Carter

Scott Waara: Jim Summerford

Music and lyrics by Jim Wann. Book by Ernest Chambers, Patricia Miller and Jim Wann, based on original material by Donald Maass. Directed by Paul Lazarus. Set by Lawrence Miller. Costumes by Nancy Konrardy. Lighting by Michael Gilliam. Sound by Tim Metzger. Musical arranger Pete Snell. Musical supervision and vocal arrangements by Brad Ellis. Production stage manager Cari Norton.