HONKY-TONK KILLIN' GETS A RIGHT TUNEFUL TRIAL

By FRANK SCHECK

Rating:

July 23, 2007 -- THERE are down-home plea sures aplenty in the modest but engaging "The People vs. Mona," by Jim Wann ("Pump Boys and Dinettes") and his wife, Patricia Miller.

Billed as a "musical mystery screwball comedy" about the owner of a small-town Georgia honky-tonk accused of murdering her husband on their wedding night, it serves up a tuneful score and plenty of laughs.

The defendant is Mona Mae Katt (Mariand Torres), whose shattered guitar was the murder weapon. And then there's her wedding dress, also found on the scene - stained not with blood but with the Yoo-hoo the victim was enjoying just before he died.

Poor Mona. Her lawyer is the hapless Jim (Richard Binder), who's literally never won a case. Perhaps he's inhibited by his legal opponent, prosecutor and mayoral hopeful Mavis (Karen Culp), who also happens to be his long-term fiancée.

The Southern corn-pone jokes aren't exactly sophisticated, but they work anyway, thanks mostly to the high spirits of the cast. They're all terrific, particularly the strong-voiced cabaret singer Natalie Douglas as the judge and David Jon Wilson as a cop whose proudest accomplishment is having played Curly in a production of "Oklahoma!"

Best of all is Omri Schein, hilarious in a number of small roles, including a snappish coroner and the Indian owner of the local hotel.

The jaunty score, performed by three onstage musicians who double as court officers - one of them provides musical swearing-ins of the witnesses - has a strong country feel but also displays plenty of musical variety. And it's consistently inventive, down to the "ribbits" that punctuate one of the numbers.

Theatergoers, given fans courtesy of "Murchesson's Funeral Home" ("We put the 'fun' back in funeral"), are invited to loudly comment on the action.

The night I saw it, they didn't need to be coaxed.