Cabaret Is Doing Everything Right With The Vegas Episode

Of Nunsense; Hopefully It Will Help The Theater

By Julie Stern

BRIDGEPORT — For those unfamiliar with Dan Goggin’s Nunsense genre, the whole thing began when the Little Sisters of Hoboken were thrust into the limelight when an unfortunate incident with poisonous mushrooms created an emergency need to raise enough money to bury the 52 nuns stored in the convent freezer. As in the old Hollywood musicals, the solution “let’s put on a show” not only solved the immediate problem, but provided joyous entertainment to the audience as well.

Ironically, now as Bridgeport’s Downtown Cabaret Theater is facing a real emergency every bit as dire as the Hoboken Convent of Mount St Helen’s (because an abrupt cut-off of corporate backing has forced them to cancel their 2005 schedule), Dan Goggin himself has come to help, bringing with him the complete cast and costumes of the latest spin-off of the original: Nunsensations! The Nunsense Vegas Revue.

Having just finished a tour in northern New England, Mr Goggin is putting the show on at the Cabaret, in order to express his support, and to do what he can to help raise enough money to keep the theater going until the financial backing arrives to enable  DCT to go on with its own program.

The conceit behind this particular episode of Nunsense is that Angelo Contralto, a member of the Hoboken Contralto family, has offered to donate a large sum of money to the convent school if Reverend Mother and her group of nuns would demonstrate their talents and put on a show to help out his “friend” who owns a small casino in “Sin City.” Thus it is that Reverend Mother, accompanied by Sisters Mary Hubert, Robert Anne, Mary Paul Amnesia, Mary Leo, and the foul mouthed puppet, Sister Marie-Annette, are about to appear onstage at the Pump Room Lounge on the third floor of the Mystic Motor Lodge.

As with the other Nunsense vehicles, the result is pure campy nonsense, done with plenty of verve and talent. Like good burlesque, it mingles corny jokes with comic routines, singing and dancing, and glittery costumes (in this case the spangles are confined to a whole bunch of feathers and fancy hats – and a few other unexpected props).

There’s the “Holy Rollers Game,” where audience members are invited to spin the levers on a giant slot machine. If they get three matching virtues, they’ll win a car. If not, well, one consolation prize promises to solve all future parking problems: a Clergy parking sticker.

A take-off on Vegas extravaganzas features the Cirque Du Blimp, in which Reverend Mother’s headgear is the centerpiece for a tableaux of the wreck of the Hindenburg.

Reverend Mother (Bonnie Lee) also does a wonderful job recalling her early career in show business, when, before she became a nun, she was a burlesque dancer “The Fifth From the Right.”

Sister Robert Anne (Deborah Del Mastro) sounds a lot like Ethel Merman when she belts out “Why Sing A Ballad” and so forth.   The 26 numbers, ranging from “Life is a Game of Chance” and “What Plays in Vegas (Stays in Vegas)” to “What’s Black and White With Her Money on Red?” and “Take the Money and Run.”

It’s definitely a good idea to take your money and run to Bridgeport, both to catch this jolly show, and, at the same time, do your bit to support DCT and help keep this venerable institution alive, well, and kicking.

(Nunsensations: The Nunsense Vegas Revue will continue on weekends until October 16 at Downtown Cabaret Theatre, 263 Golden Hill Street in Bridgeport.

Call 203-576-1636 or visit www.DTCab.com for more information.)