For the last column of the year, 'tis the season to get back to theatre scores ... of all kinds of music, original cast or not, from New York or across the pond ...

GUTENBERG! THE MUSICAL!
ORIGINAL OFF-BROADWAY CAST
PS Classics

Supremely silly, skewering the excesses and conventions of stories set to music, this mock backer's audition for a ludicrous musical about the invention of the printing press in Germany is wild and wacky. We're presented with two writers of limited skill and sense and unlimited zeal presenting their work: narrating the action and playing and singing all the roles, male and female. It works surprisingly well on disc (in person, quite a bit of the effect is based on appreciating the indefatigability: the super-quick changing of characters, identified by names on baseball caps which must be organized and ready to grab). As things get more and more ludicrous, as cliché piles upon cliché and credulity is stretched, the writers' high energy is unaffected.

Originally performed in earlier developmental stages by its witty drenched-in-musical-theatre-excess writers, Scott Brown and Anthony King, at Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York, the recording features its later New York run's dynamic duo, Jeremy Shamos and Christopher Fitzgerald. In their misguided "love is blind" absorption in their work, the two characters are quite "unintentionally" entertaining as they explain every little nuance, their self-aggrandizement and pleasure in having learned theatrical traditions causing them to assume that the backers don't know the vocabulary and can't fill in the blanks. They are more loveable than annoying in their innocence and misguided devotion to their self-created drek. As they enact their dopey musical from start to stumble to finale, with the utmost earnestness and amateur overkill, its flaws become all the more apparent.

Especially apparent on recording is the fact that the kind of one-joke "how bad can it get?" idea gets variety due to the ever-changing musical styles, played to the max on piano by T. O. Sterrett. Whether done dutifully because a gig is a gig is a gig, or because he shares the writers' devotion, the pianist's game no-holds-barred accompaniment is a hoot. With titles like the lament, "I Can't Read" and "(Might as Well) Go to Hell" and the relentlessly perky "Biscuits!," which attempts to raise the spirits as so much yeast would make biscuits rise, there's much to amuse. And there is, of course, a love story of sorts, too.

This is the musical parody for those who love and hate musicals. The album ends with a valentine to itself: a "Megamix" that recycles a bunch of the key themes and ideas, sliced and diced for your pleasure. The liner notes by Scott Brown are in the same affectionate, theatre-geeky style of the whole project. There's also a plot synopsis of all the main events, real-life history of the printing press and German citizens of the time be darned. There's lots of creativity within this spoof.

THE PEOPLE VS. MONA
YORK THEATRE CONCERT CAST
JAY Records

The directive for enjoying the cast recording of the small Southern town courtroom comedy The People Vs. Mona is perhaps to surrender to the insanity. I wish there were a little more eccentricity, that some characters were played more broadly, and that more of the music stood up more richly on its own as songs. Due to its loopiness and the cast's energy and reactions, its nutty nonsense is difficult to fully capture on recording. But there's quite a bit to amuse and some country-fried musical pleasure.

The cast here is from a one-night concert in 2008 at Manhattan's haven for musicals new and old, The York Theatre, although it retained three cast members from its 2007 run: zingy Marcie Henderson as an entertainer and a blind man who has a nose for truth; comic chameleon Omri Schein in several small roles; and the divine loopy energy of Ritt Henn (also playing bass guitar in the onstage trio and responsible for the lively orchestrations), who makes the most of a few brief bits as the court clerk. Henn captures the essence of the particular brand of humor/playing the insanity with glee. The exit music is another opportunity for him to make side comments and riff with his bandmates. Some familiar musical theatre names take over the other (larger) roles.

The music and lyrics by Jim Wann, probably best known to theatre folks as the main writer of Pump Boys and Dinettes and one of its original performers, has spiffy, splashy moments, often with a country flavor. However, to label People Vs. Mona as a country-western musical would be way over-generalizing, especially here with the drawl and twang not heavy. It shines when material and cast embrace the affection for small-town life where everybody knows everybody and their foibles and history.

Marc Kudisch is the good-old-boy defense lawyer with the bad record on wins (zero), greeting the audience and providing some backstory. He's cheery and bright and likeable but it isn't until quite a ways into the show that he really lets loose. He seems toned down—suave and likeable where clueless and hapless might be more the order of the day. Christiane Noll's voice is always a pleasing one to hear but could use more venom, or at least spice, as the tougher legal eagle. The titular Mona, accused of a murder, is played with some carefree spunk and appealing goodwill by Natalie Toro, though she has her most effective moment leading a wistful number, "Lockdown Blues." Lillias White as both the sassy, self-satisfied judge and a gospel singer enlivens the proceedings with super-high octane wailing and irrepressible personality. Especially fun in the quirky character department is Ron Raines. He's wonderfully over-the-top as the policeman who's more interested in his work as a local theatre singer, answering—no, performing—on the stand in a way-too-big, grand, booming voice. It is, simply, hilarious.

Some of the small bits on this album are more fun that the big numbers, like the mini-alma mater to the two-bit law school ("the only one I could get into") one flight above a restaurant and the playful "one more time!" encores to the answer to the question of whether the prosecution rests. There are snippets of interwoven dialogue, co-written by Wann and Patricia Miller, that help make the nonsense make more sense, and all the sung and spoken words are included in a booklet.

I've listened a few times and smiled more than I laughed out loud (except for Raines' testimony and the Henn bits), so I'm not sure how well this will hold up over time. However, it's a cute ensemble piece that works well onstage and should be an attraction to regional theatres looking for something playful off the beaten track, with a wink and a smile.

BLUEBIRD
CONCEPT CAST RECORDING
Escape Records

From a British point of view, here's a World War II musical with the evocation of the boys on the front/gals back home emotion, romance and idealism and a dose of "war is hell" reality check. In the air, thickly, are hope and fear, not to mention bomb-dropping aircraft. Bluebird has been workshopped with student casts but has yet to see a full professional production. This "concept recording" employs the talents of British musical theatre performers with credits in many of the long-running mega-musicals. They give their all to the music, lyrics and dialogue, by Gareth Peter (sometimes billed by his full name, Gareth Peter Dicks; he's also in the ensemble).

This show has much to offer and is performed with integrity, though musically it owes more to some Brit-pop musicals of the latter decades of the 20th century than any 1940s feel. That is a shame. There's potential in a couple of quick pastiche numbers early on, but then we get into a few anthem-like pieces that come down hard and heavy and are plodding. The leading female character's husband has joined the military which gives her a (perhaps understandably) solipsistic number wherein she (strong-voiced Sarah Lark) tries to convince him to change his mind while he plays the selfless, self-sacrificing patriot in his singing: very black and white when it seems both might be more torn and conflicted. Later, when the wife becomes attracted to another man, we get the tormented cry about simultaneously caring about "Two Men" ("two men, one heart ...") relentlessly pounded into our ears. Elsewhere, the songwriter shows he can be far more effective and subtle and tender rather than resort to breast-beating and repeating. The lullaby-like "Goodnight, Dear Soldiers" is moving in its simplicity and beauty and while the title song is on the gooey side, it is really quite dear and effective. The piece is also no stranger to melodrama. Besides some tendencies for the emotions to overboil and let the singing turn into stridency or shouting, there are swaths of satisfying singing and characterizations. The sentimental aspects are justified by the established caring between people and their underlying innocence.

With the included dialogue especially effective in establishing his seductive but lonely character of that maybe "other man," Ramin Karimloo comes off most impressively with more varied vocal qualities, but there is attractive and powerful singing on many tracks. The cumulative effect kicks in after midpoint and one is pulled into the story despite its tendencies to sound out of period musically with a few slips of anachronistic-sounding word choices. Lyrics and dialogue are included in a booklet with nice visual touches that accent the times and tone. The tagline for the show, describing it as being about "ordinary people in extraordinary times" may be part of the problem: the plain language of some letters and interactive moments, of the "I miss you" or "I must go" variety are just too non-specific to give us a fleshed-out view of the people. With some of the other pluses and the universality of the story in a world that is so often filled with headlines about prolonged wars, there's quite a bit that's gripping and heart-ripping here. This Bluebird may indeed soar.

After a holiday break, we'll return for our annual Top Ten lists of the year's cast albums and vocal CDs

- Rob Lester

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