Theater Review—

‘Nunsense: The Mega Musical,’ At Full Volume,

For Richter’s Season Opener

By Julie Stern

DANBURY — Over the years this reviewer has seen Dan Goggin’s creation Nunsense in countless manifestations including the original, Nunsense II, Country and Western Nunsense, Nunsense goes to Vegas, Nunsense Boulevard (they go to Hollywood), Meshuggenah Nunsense (they share a cruise ship with Hadassah), and Nunsense Amen (performed by five guys in drag).

Always, the shtick entails the incongruous vision of nuns in those forbidding pre-Vatican II habits, cavorting about the stage performing burlesque routines. The sight is particularly delectable to middle aged adults who were traumatized by their early years in old fashioned parochial school.

The back story of the show is always the sisters’ desperate need to raise money, and the routines they go through are for that purpose. Originally, the trouble began when the convent cook for the Little Sisters of Hoboken inadvertently put poisonous mushrooms in the soup, and killed off 54 of the sisters, leaving only the five who happened to be out playing Bingo.

Lacking the cash to bury all the dead, they were forced to store some of the corpses in the kitchen freezer. With the threat of a visit from the health inspector hanging over their heads, they are using the venue of Mount Saint Helen’s School to stage their fundraiser.

Traditionally the show is performed with a cast of five: Reverend Mother Mary Regina; Sister Hubert, in charge of the novices; Sister Robert Anne, a former juvenile delinquent and car thief who services the convent vehicles; Sister Mary Amnesia, who has no memory; and Sister Mary Leo, a novice who dreams of a career as a dancer.

For their 2012 season opener,  Musicals at Richter has chosen to present Nunsense the Mega-Musical. In keeping with their tradition of large ensemble casts, they have added seven additional sisters, plus a priest and an altar boy. This adds volume to the performance and allows for Richter’s typical spirited choreography, as well as some rich sound in the musical numbers. However I think this may dilute the characterizations of the five central figures.

Nevertheless, Janice Gabriel does a wonderful job with the sisterly hoodlum, Sister Robert Anne, who wants so badly to play a larger part in the production. Jody Bayer is very funny as Sister Amnesia, both when wandering in the audience to administer a snap quiz to unsuspecting miscreants, and when she does the ventriloquist routine with little Sister Marie-Annette.

Cat Heidel, as Reverend Mother, has a hilarious encounter with an illegal substance found in the girls’ locker room, and Carly Phypers is supremely graceful as young sister Mary Leo.

In this day and age when the Vatican is attempting to stifle American nuns over their avowed dedication to issues of social justice, the Little Sisters of Hoboken hark back to a quaint and simpler time.

(Performances continue weekends until June 30 at Richter Arts Center in Danbury.

See the Enjoy Calendar for curtain, ticket, and other details.)