A MASTERPIECE OF MUSICAL MISCHIEF

In 1911, the Louvre was the largest building in the world, containing more than a thousand rooms, spread out over 45 acres and housing over a quarter million works of art.  As it had a security force of just over a hundred guards, it is not surprising that someone was able to steal the Mona Lisa right off the wall where she had been hanging for over a hundred years, nor is it really surprising that no one noticed the thief for over 26 hours.

And maybe it’s not surprising that a musical would be inspired by the episode, but it might be surprising how utterly charming and completely delightful the end product would be.

Then again, maybe it’s not all that surprising considering the talent that went into its creation: music by six-time Grammy-nominated composer David Arkenstone, book and lyrics by Steven Vlasak, who has developed projects across the entertainment spectrum, and Broadway wiz Wayne Moore on hand to share his wisdom (and music and lyrics) where it needed to be shared.

Mona Lisa Missing! The Musical is an elegant show with a little bit of My Fair Lady, a little bit of Cabaret, and more high points than you’ll find in the Himalayas.

Set in Paris, when the “City of Lights” was at its brightest, MLM kicks off in the best way a musical can – with the whole company in a big splashy number (“La Belle Époque”) followed by the enticing fragrance of romance in the air.

Andre (Christopher Strand), the proprietor of the small Parisian café Le Char Noir, seeks to infect all of his customers with a healthy dose of his own joie de vivre. He is ably assisted in this by Mistinguett (Alison Sinclair), his star performer, who can-cans about the stage like a category 5 hurricane only with much better legs.

But one of his patrons seems insensible to the enchantments surrounding him, as well as Mistinguett dancing in his lap. Karl Decker (Chad Anderson) is an American reporter weighed down by his guilt for contributing to the yellow journalism of the Hearst newspapers that resulted in the Spanish-American War.

Decker remains unassailable to all the allures that come his way, until he encounters Lisa (Jordan Mullins) an angelic Italian art student with an understated aura of sensuality that could have Michelangelo’s David bounding from his pedestal while flinging his fig leaf off. At Lisa’s invitation, Decker joins her the next day in a visit to the Louvre, marked by a lovely duet, “The Two Cent Tour.” While admiring the Mona Lisa, they bump into a fellow countryman of Lisa’s and a neighbor, Vincenzo Peruggia (Ross Brooks), unaware that he is in the process of stealing the Mona Lisa.

When France and the world realize that the most famous painting in history has been stolen then the game’s afoot. Louis, the Prefect of Police (Michael Gabiano at his steely-eyed best), like a Gallic bloodhound, follows the trails of the “unusual suspects” such as Pablo Picasso (Olivia Rotunno) and the flamboyant Argentine art dealer Eduardo Valfierno (Valerian Ruminski) with a reputation for acquiring “difficult” pieces.

While the search for the missing masterpiece begins to heat up, so does the romance between Decker, the reporter and the idealistic artist Lisa, with the ballad “(This Might Be) A Love Song” that nicely captures that odd timid hopefulness and excited hesitancy of a new love nearing fruition.

Arkenstone, Moore, and Vlasak skillfully manage to achieve that undulation of production’s show numbers that is the hallmark of successful musicals, that billowing vacillation of tunes and tempos where, at the fall of the final curtain, an audience feels like they’ve been on a harmonious roller-coaster ride.

The show bounds from high-kicking set pieces like “Qui, Qui We Can Can” to a sizzling torch song in “Kissed by Mistinguett” (another show stopper by Sinclair), to the energetic “The Right Track” that races to the eleven o’ clock number “The Bells of Notre Dame” that gathers the cast on stage to rejoice in a well-earned happy ending.

The musical diversity displayed in Mona Lisa Missing! engages from start to finish. There is nothing that withers a soul quicker in a theatre than a big, flashy musical featuring 22 songs that all happen to be Xerox copies of the same tune.

Mona Lisa Missing! is also blessed with a cast that is capable of wearing the larger-than-life persona of this play, and does so with panache. Anderson and Mullins enthrall the audience with the sincerity of their budding love. Strand, is a bang-up bonhomie as Andre, who is intent on fashioning a family from all the lushes, hustlers, and “basse vie” who make up the clientele of his bar. Strand also manages to direct the whole enterprise as well, a task that he handles with noteworthy aplomb. Sinclair is pulling double duty as well. In addition to nearly stealing the show, she has simultaneously provided the production with choreography that wins points for being sharp, crisp, and eye-catching.

What is immediately discernible in the performances of this ensemble occupying the Eastwood Stage is that these folks love this show and are giving it their all. This includes those performers I haven’t previously mentioned, such as Ross Brooks, Glory Chase, Cameron Lopez, and Michael Taber.

A tip of the hat must go to the band, Kana Yamato, Ryan Whyman, Carlyn Kessler, Bob Crosby and Daniel Chase who filled the venue like the philharmonic, and Christine Vlasak, whose splendid costumes lift the production as a whole to an entirely different level.

Mona Lisa Missing! was one of the first shows I attended at the 2025 Hollywood Fringe, and for me it validated the old theatrical saw, “The challenges you accept equal the artistry you achieve.” Hands down, one of the best shows of HFF25.

photos by Brian Jung

Mona Lisa Missing! The Musical!
Eastwood Performing Arts Center, 1089 N. Oxford Ave.
part of Hollywood Fringe
for more show info, visit Fringe and Mona Lisa Missing!