Nunsense

Nunsense
Music	Dan Goggin
Lyrics	Dan Goggin
Book	Dan Goggin
Productions	1985 Off-Broadway Productions worldwide

Nunsense (1985) is a musical comedy with a book, music, and lyrics by Dan Goggin. Originating as a line of greeting cards, Goggin expanded the concept into a cabaret that ran for 38 weeks, and eventually into a full-length musical. The original off-Broadway production opened December 12, 1985, running for 3,672 performances and becoming the second-longest-running Off-Broadway show in history. The show has since been adapted for television, starring Rue McClanahan, and has spawned six sequels and three spin-offs.

History

The Nunsense concept originated as a line of greeting cards featuring a nun offering tart quips with a clerical slant. The cards caught on so quickly that Goggin decided to expand the concept into a cabaret show called The Nunsense Story, which opened for a four-day run at Manhattan's Duplex and remained for 38 weeks, encouraging its creator to expand it into a full-length theater production.

The original production of Nunsense, directed by Goggin, opened on December 12, 1985 at the off-Broadway Cherry Lane Theatre, moving to the Douglas Fairbanks Theater for the majority of its ten year run. It ran for 3,672 performances, becoming the second-longest running off-Broadway show in history (after The Fantasticks). By the time it closed, it had become an international phenomenon translated into at least 26 languages with more than 8,000 productions worldwide.[1] It has grossed over $500 million worldwide,[2] and more than 25,000 women have played in Nunsense productions worldwide, including Edie Adams, Maxine Audley, Kaye Ballard, Honor Blackman, Pat Carroll, Peggy Cass, Phyllis Diller, Sally Struthers, Louise Gold, Maggie Fitzhugh and JoAnne Worley.[3]

The five-woman production won four Outer Critics Circle Awards, including best off-Broadway musical, best book and best music. A 1985 London cast recording was made, as well as a 1986 recording with the off-Broadway cast. The show opened on London's West End at the Fortune Theatre in March 1987.

Goggin adapted both Nunsense and Nunsense 2 for television productions with Rue McClanahan as the Mother Superior. Also starring in this version were Terri White as Sister Mary Hubert, Semina DeLaurentis as Sister Mary Amnesia, Christine Anderson as Sister Robert Anne and Christine Toy as Sister Mary Leo. The show and its sequels are popular choices of community theatre and summer stock troupes. In 2004, the "20th Anniversary All-Star Tour" of the show starred Kaye Ballard as Sister Mary Regina, Georgia Engel as Sister Mary Leo, Mimi Hines as Sister Mary Amnesia, Darlene Love as Sister Mary Hubert, and Lee Meriwether as Sister Robert Anne.

Synopsis

Five of the 19 surviving Little Sisters of Hoboken, a one-time missionary order that ran a leper colony on an island south of France, discover that their cook, Sister Julia, Child of God, accidentally killed the other fifty-two residents of the convent with her tainted vichyssoise while they were off playing bingo with a group of Maryknolls. Upon discovering the disaster, Mother Superior had a vision in which she was told to start a greeting card company to raise funds for the burials. The greeting cards were an enormous success and, thinking there was plenty of money, the Reverend Mother bought a VCR and camcorder for the convent, leaving her with no money in the kitty to pay for the last four burials. With the deceased nuns on ice in the deep freeze, they decide to stage a variety show in the Mount Saint Helen's School auditorium to raise the necessary amount. Participating in the project are Mother Superior Mary Regina, a former circus performer who can not resist the spotlight; her competitive but dignified rival, second-in-command Sister Mary Hubert; Sister Robert Anne, a streetwise nun from Brooklyn; Sister Mary Leo, a novice who is determined to be the world's first ballerina nun; and wacky, childlike Sister Mary Amnesia, who lost her memory when a crucifix fell on her head. The entertainment that they present includes solo star turns, madcap dance routines, and an audience quiz.

Naturally, VCRs and camcorders are now no longer such current or expensive devices, so modern presentations of the show tend to substitute newer or more generic terms such as "home entertainment system" or a "plasma TV".

Songs

Act I "Welcome"—Sister Mary Regina "Nunsense is Habit-Forming"—Company "A Difficult Transition"—Company "The Quiz"—Sister Mary Amnesia "Benedicite"—Sister Mary Leo "The Biggest Ain't the Best"—Sisters Hubert and Leo "Playing Second Fiddle"—Sister Robert Anne "So You Want To Be a Nun"—Sister Mary Amnesia "Turn Up the Spotlight"—Sister Mary Regina "Lilacs"—Sisters Regina, Hubert, Leo and Amnesia "A Word from Reverend Mother"—Sister Mary Amnesia "Tackle That Temptation With a Time Step"—Sister Hubert and Company

Act II "Robert to The Rescue"—Sister Robert Anne "Growing Up Catholic"—Sister Robert Anne with Hubert, Leo and Amnesia "We've Got To Clean Out the Freezer"—Company "Just a Coupl'a Sisters"—Sisters Regina and Hubert "The Dying Nun Ballet"—Sister Mary Leo w/Robert Anne "Baking with the BVM"—Sisters Regina, Hubert & Amnesia "I Just Want To Be a Star"—Sister Robert Anne "The Drive In"—Sisters Robert Anne, Amnesia and Leo "The Movie"—Company "I Could've Gone to Nashville"—Sister Mary Amnesia "Gloria in Excelsis Deo"—Sister Mary Regina and Company "Holier Than Thou"—Sister Mary Hubert and Company "Nunsense Is Habit-Forming (Reprise)"—Company

Sequels

The show's astounding success prompted six sequels. The first, Nunsense 2: The Second Coming, takes place six weeks after the sisters have staged their first benefit. This time the grateful nuns are presenting a show to thank all the people who supported them in their freshman outing, but chaos erupts when two Franciscans come to claim Sister Mary Amnesia—who has won the Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes—as one of their own, and the nuns learn a talent scout is in the audience to see them strut their stuff. An audience-participation bingo game is only one of the show's many highlights.

The second, Sister Amnesia's Country Western Nunsense Jamboree, is presented as a stop on the promotional tour for the nun's new album, I Could've Gone to Nashville, released after she regained her memory and discovered she really was Sister Mary Paul, a former country singer. In this edition the audience participates in a rousing auction.

The third, Nuncrackers: The Nunsense Christmas Musical, a behind-the-scenes look at a holiday television special taped by the sisters for Public-access television cable TV in their convent basement studio, culminates in a wild spoof of Tchaikovsky’s classic ballet.

In the fourth, Meshuggah-Nuns!, the sisters are on a "Faiths of All Nations" cruise when the on-board cast of Fiddler on the Roof gets seasick, prompting the ship’s captain to ask them to put on a show.

The fifth edition, Nunsensations: The Nunsense Vegas Revue takes the sisters to the Nevada gambling mecca when a parishioner offers them $10,000 to perform in a club. After being convinced "what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas", the Reverend Mother agrees, and before long the nuns are clad in feathers and sequins and wowing the crowd at the Pump Room in the Mystique Motor Lodge.

The sixth, and newest edition, Nunset Boulevard, premiered in November 2009, at Minnesota's Chanhassen Dinner Theatres[4]. The Little Sisters of Hoboken have been invited to sing at the Hollywood Bowl. They are thrilled at the prospect until they arrive and realize they're booked into the Hollywood Bowl-erama - a bowling alley with a cabaret lounge - and not the famed "Bowl" they’d anticipated. In trying to present their all new variety show, the sisters have to contend with announcements from the bowling alley public address system as well as the activity on the lanes. Someone gets wind of the fact that a movie producer is across the street auditioning for roles in a new movie musical. The sisters race off to audition during their show's intermission!

Besides the original production, cast recordings of the first two sequels and a London production were released.[5]

Spin-offs

In addition to the above sequels are three spin-off shows.

Nunsense A-Men, the original show with all the characters portrayed by men in drag, was staged in Brazil as Novicas Rebeldes before transferring to New York City in 1998. It was premiered in Buenos Aires as "Suspiros de monja", in 2000.[6]

A new version named Nunsense: The Mega-Musical Version is a remake of the original featuring additional songs, lines, and characters.

Sister Robert Anne's Cabaret Class opened at the Playhouse on the Green in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and was an enormous hit. Deborah Del Mastro starred as Sister Robert Anne, with musical direction by Leo P. Carusone. The "One-Nun-sense Musical" featured songs introduced by Sister Robert Anne from the many previous "Nunsense" shows, but also included two new songs from "Nunset Boulevard." Approaching the audience as a class of students interested in creating their own cabaret act, the premise allowed for lots of audience interaction, and as in all the "Nunsense" shows, lots of humor.

References

• Guide to Musical Theatre website synopsis and information
• Information about recordings, cast and songs
• Official website

External links

• Official site
• Nunsense at the Internet Movie Database
• Nunsense 2: The Sequel at the Internet Movie Database
• New York Times review
• Article about the 20th Anniversary All-star Tour