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Nunsense
Reviewed by Neal Weaver
Crown City Theatre
Extended through February 28
RECOMMENDED
If you’re looking for a fun holiday show that’s free of both sentimentality and Christmas propaganda, the folks at Crown City Theatre have obligingly provided one.
Nunsense — Dan Goggin’s old chestnut and eternal crowd-pleaser — has been deftly directed with wit and skill by Kristin Towers Rowles. The production features a cast of five women, all blessed with strong voices, the skill to use them — and terrific comic chops.
The show purports to be a fund-raiser for the convent of the Little Sisters of Hoboken. The Little Sisters have experienced more than their share of catastrophes. Their first assignment was at a French leper colony, which sent them scurrying back to New Jersey. More recently the convent’s cook, Sister Julia, prepared a stew that proved lethal to 52 of the sisters, and the survivors had to provide a proper burial for them. They managed to bury 48, but the money ran out before the remaining four could be interred, so their remains are still reposing in the convent freezer. Not surprisingly, this disturbs the Board of Public Health. As a result, the sisters are now producing this show in the auditorium of Mt. St. Helen’s School to raise funds to bury the deep-frozen corpses.
The theme of their show seems to be that it’s fun to be a nun, but things do not go smoothly. Every one of the sisters has a strong streak of ham in her makeup, and an ill-concealed longing to be in the spotlight. The Mother Superior, Sr. Mary Regina (Michelle Holmes) tries to keep things decorous and dignified, but the odds are against her. And she falls from grace herself when she naively sniffs a bottle of Rush found in the girls’ locker-room (“I suppose it’s for people who are in a hurry”), then finds herself overcome by unaccustomed lust and proceeds to get down and dirty.
Sister Mary Hubert (Renee Cohen) the mistress of novices, is Mother Superior’s right-hand woman, but she also longs to shine onstage and gets her chance in a show-stopping mock gospel number called Holier Than Thou. Sister Robert Anne (Lisa Dyson) is disgruntled because, despite her longing to be a star, she’s relegated to the thankless job of understudy. So she shoe-horns her comic impressions of everybody, from Pocahontus to Margaret Hamilton and Katharine Hepburn, into the program.
Sister Mary Amnesia (the deliciously funny Kelley Dorney) lost her memory as a result of being hit on the head by a falling crucifix — but she still longs to be a country-western singer. And the novice Sister Mary Leo (Shayna Gabrielle) somehow thinks she can launch a career as a prima ballerina while living in the convent. She wears glitter make-up and dances her morning prayer. Emulating Pavlova’s Dying Swan, she also creates a fluttery piece called The Dying Nun, designed to capture the dire consequences of Sister Julia’s notorious stew.
Goggin’s score wittily parodies a welter of musical styles, from gospel belting to the Andrews Sisters, and manages to include more pop-cultural references than Forbidden Broadway.
Choreographer Lisaun Whittingham, assisted by Michael Marchak, cleverly puts to use the over-familiar clichés of musical theatre, while musical director, arranger and accompanist William A. Reilly employs the fine voices of the cast to great advantage.
Crown City Theatre, 11031 Camarillo Street (on the campus of St. Matthew’s Church), North Hollywood. Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m., Sun., 3 p.m. Extended through February 28th. (818) 605-5685 or www.crowncitytheatre.com. Running time: 2 hours with one intermission.
