Just as certain titles are inherently commercial, others tempt the critics' firepower. Imagine: " 'Monica! The Musical' -- it blows."
Yet the title of "Monica! The Musical" -- music by Adam Blau, book and lyrics by Daniel J. Blau and Tracie Potochnik -- is misleading: It's a bloated parody of Bill Clinton and his yen for women. While it climaxes with the late-Act I arrival of dirt-dumb Monica Lewinsky (Christine DiGiallonardo), the show is nominally her story.
It is instead the thinly told tale of the 43rd president (Duke Lafoon) and his dark, pathological wife, Hillary (Megan Lawrence) -- a woman who, aside from being a closeted lesbian, plots like Brain in the cartoon "Pinky and the Brain" to take over the world. Each step on the future president's journey is musicalized, from Bill in Arkansas ("I Got Dreams") to the Clintons at an antiwar rally ("We're Freaky-Deaky [and We're Falling in Love]"). Improbably, a crooning Tom Jones (Ray McLeod) meets Bill Clinton during his Oxford years and instructs him on wooing women. Equally odd, the White House press corps sings "We Spin" -- like we didn't know.
A free-loving hippie in Act I, Vernon Jordan (Rashad Naylor) nudges Clinton toward more philandering in Act II. A Birkenstock-wearing beau for Hillary in Act I, Janet Reno (Kristie Dale Sanders) still loves her from afar in Act II but is overshadowed by George Stephanopoulos (Josh Walden), who spins the media, and Betty Currie (Frenchie Davis), who protects Bill from those eager to see him -- like moony interns. Ken Starr (Charlie Pollock) embodies evil.
Casey Hushion's shaky direction is bedeviled by the venue's ill-placed columns, which nearly rob the show of its sole good quality -- performances. Lafoon is quintessentially Clintonesque, biting his lower lip and nailing that half gravel, half honey-dipped voice. Lawrence, in Swifty Lazar-ish glasses, hits her comic marks expertly. Walden plays Stephanopoulos as pissy and swishy; his voice and fantastic dance moves are unmatchable. Davis needs more to do.
As for the book and score, I'll pass: The tunes are slight and sophomoric, lyrics rarely manage to fit the melody, and the book, one-liner laden, is sketchy. "Monica" doesn't blow so much as stain.