"Nunsense"

Essay by chautinhtriCollege, UndergraduateA+, August 2006

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"Nunsense" is a musical comedy, which is inspired from Dan Gogin's book by Pamela-Putnam, Whittaker and Lisa Woodcock. The show is shown from March 31 through April 8 at the Marilyn Nelson Theater in Highland Village. "Nunsense," with its irreverent look at some singing, dancing sisters of the cloth, has delighted audiences for decades now with no end in sight.

"Nunsense" is a loosely structured musical, involving five nuns from the Mount Saint Helen's School in Hoboken, New Jersey, who are organizing a fund-raiser. They are in desperate need of funds, as 52 of their order have died from accidental food poisoning and the remaining nuns have only managed to bury 48 of them. The Mother Superior, Sister Mary Amnesia (Debra Spiegel), is somewhat to blame, as she authorized buying a VCR prior to the burial of the last 4 dead nuns. Some audiences laugh out loud because of this wacky theme of the show.

The show consists of a series of sketches, songs and dances. Each nun is, of course, a very distinct type. The Mother Superior is the most proper of the bunch -- until, that is, she gets accidentally stoned at the end of Act I. Sister Mary Hubert (Gana Crenshaw), the second-in-command, is constantly challenging the Mother Superior's authority and urging the other nuns to pursue their outside interests. The Mother Superior, Sister Mary Regina (Karen Tipton), and her second-in-command, Sister Mary Hubert (Gana Crenshaw), are the show's Abbott and Costello, constantly trying to upstage and out perform the other. Sister Robert Anne (Linda Myers) is the most determined theatrical wannabee, and dancer Sister Mary Leo (Annie Wallace) cannot stop

Dinh 2

reaching for the heavens, almost always en pointe. Let us talk about this young actress who just...