‘A Mob Story’ makes it rain with free cash in downtown Las Vegas

Wait. Yes they can.

Hundreds of dollars — actual USDs — fall from the sky in the new musical at Plaza Showroom.

The amount varies. Sometimes it’s $500; other times it might be just $100. But the scene fits neatly into the production’s story of organized crime, as told by reformed Colombo crime family “capo” and show co-producer Michael Franzese.

“Michael was telling me of when they were laundering money, stealing from IRS by not paying gasoline tax on off-shore distribution, they would take money in helicopters he owned fly it from New Jersey to New York and filter to wherever it would go,” the show’s co-producer and director Jeff Kutash says. “They’d have $250,000, $350,000 at a time on these trips, at a time when Michael was making $8 million-$10 million net, per week.”

The helicopters often circled the Statue of Liberty. “So Michael said, ‘Let’s drop $20,000-$30,000 from the sky!’ And people would go crazy, picking up the bills,” Kutash said.

When Franzese told him that story, the veteran Vegas producer said, “Why don’t we just do that in the show?” Franzese responded, “Let’s do it!”

At a lower scale, naturally.

This cash-drop routine is becoming a downtown tradition. The Las Vegas Lights soccer team dumped some cash on the crowd at Cashman Field Saturday night.

In “A Mob Story,” a helicopter circles the stage on projection panels, then cash drops from boxes high above the middle of the showroom. This scene debuted during the show’s first preview on Wednesday night. Happiness was reported; injuries were not.

“Of course,” Kutash says, “everyone needs to beat me to the floor to collect the money.” Spoken like a veteran Vegas producer.

John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on Twitter, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.