THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, December 11, 1995 TAG: 9512090050
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E5 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Theater Review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, THEATER CRITIC
LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines
THERE'S A BLUE nun, or two, in the freezer and the Little Sisters of Hoboken, sometimes known as the ``Little Hobos,'' are staging a variety show to raise money to pay for the funerals. After all, they have to clean out the freezer sooner or later.
It has been almost 30 years since Vatican II liberalized the lives of Catholic sisters. Still, comedies such as ``Nunsense'' and ``Sister Mary Ignatius Explains it All for You'' capitalize successfully on the fact that the public still likes to cling to the stuffy medieval garb portrayed in the entertainment world. The cast of ``Nunsense'' get laughs in habits that they wouldn't get in everyday clothes.
The Actors' Theater, which has chosen this somewhat dated and repetitious musical as the opener for its third season, is surely willing to take the laughs wherever they can get them. In this sassy and charmingly irreverent outing, the laughs are there.
There are shameless puns on everything regarding ``nuns'' and ``habits.'' (The publicity claims that there is ``nun better.'') There are vaudeville turns for each of the five hard-working, talented actresses: Mary Christine Danner, Laurel Held, June Montgomery, Anne Morton and Alyson Shedd. They work as a team and they get a good deal out of this one-joke parade.
The order, according to the program notes, was on the way from England to establish a motherhouse in Cleveland when they got off the plane in Newark by mistake. Settling in Hoboken, they were almost wiped out when the cook, Sister Julia ``Child of God,'' served up some tainted vichyssoise. There wasn't enough money for all the funerals, so some nuns remain in the freezer until Mother Superior can raise funds.
Among other schemes, they are selling a cookbook that features recipes for ``Mary Magdalene tarts,'' ``barbecued ribs St. Joan'' and ```Host Toasties.''
Any skittishness about the show being sacrilegious can be put aside by any but the most narrow minded. These nuns are lovable beings out for a worldly, but naive, outing. They are warm and usually funny.
There's singing, ballet and ventriloquism. The cast has the spirit and seems to know that they're borrowing more from ``Saturday Night Live'' than from ``The Sound of Music.''
The Actors' Theater has moved from the Virginia Beach Center for the Arts to Kempsville Playhouse (in the Virginia Beach Recreation Center). The Kempsville facility is not an easy space to fill. It's particularly troublesome if it should rain on the tin roof during a performance. It has, however, been a center for some fine local theater and will surely be given a new chance by the diligent Actors' group (which also plans to tour this show to locations in Chesapeake).
The present production, directed by Susan Browney-Moyer, seems less intimate than it might because it has been staged more for a proscenium stage than for the thrust-staging suggested by the theater. For moments at a time, the nuns seem a long way away. With seating space on three sides, the show should be moved up to join the audience.
Mischievous musical direction has been contributed by Kevin Long.
The company has announced a particularly ambitious season to include the comedy ``Social Security'' (opening Jan. 26), Moliere's ``The Miser'' in April, Paul Rudnick's witty comedy ``Jeffrey'' (coming off a movie hit) in May and Willy Russell's dramatic musical ``Blood Brothers'' in June. Locations for the latter three productions are yet to be named.
This is a company that has established its credentials with its first two seasons and deserves to be found again.
``Nunsense,'' while getting a little aged, still has enough laughs for an evening. The company is hoping that the show's theme song, ``Nunsense is Habit-Forming,'' will become prophetic. ILLUSTRATION: THEATER REVIEW
What: ``Nunsense,'' book, music and lyrics by Dan Goggin
Where: Presented by the Actors' Theater at Kempsville Playhouse
(Virginia Beach Recreation Center), 800 Monmouth Lane, Virginia
Beach
Who: Directed by Susan Browney-Moyer, featuring Mary Christine
Danner, Laurel Held, June Montgomery, Anne Morton and Alyson Shedd
When: Today and Saturday at 8, Sunday at 2; Also, Dec. 15, 16 at
8 Dec. 17 at 2 and continuing on tour through Jan. 21.
Tickets: $15 for adults, children under 12, $5; students, seniors
and military, $10
Call: 557-0397
by CNB