Let’s set up the terms of this review.
The musical comedy Nunsense, which premiered in 1985, ran for ten years, becoming one of the longest-running shows in off-Broadway history. Translated into 26 languages, it has raked in over $500 million.
In my opinion, calling the material thin would be an understatement.
Also in my opinion, the performers in the production that’s currently playing the Metro Theatre are a lot better than the material.
My goal is to figure out how these ideas converge.
In Dan Goggin’s book — he also wrote the music and lyrics — the premise is that a small group of nuns from the Little Sisters of Hoboken convent are putting on a variety show to raise money so they can bury the remaining dead from an accidental poisoning that wiped out most of the nuns in their order. The fatal vichyssoise was whipped up by the convent’s cook, Sister Julia, Child of God. They all have names like that.
But here’s the thing: Nunsense is billed as a musical comedy, but really, it’s more of a musical revue. Because this is a lighthearted show with very little plot, there’s virtually no dramatic tension: we know from the get-go that the Little Sisters will find the money somehow. This narrative blankness is matched by a lack of ideas. The surviving nuns carp at each other a bit in the early going before — inevitably — coming together as a team, but that’s as deep as it gets.
So what we’re left with is a series of — we hope — engaging musical numbers delivered by — we hope — amusingly eccentric characters.
Intermittently, our prayers are answered in this production. Meghan Anderssen’s performance as Sister Mary Amnesia is the prime example of success. Mary Amnesia, who lost her memory when a falling crucifix hit her in the head, gets some of the show’s best material: hauling out a rod-puppet named Sister May Annette, Mary Amnesia sings a duet with herself, for instance. But it’s also Anderssen’s chops that make this characterization a standout. There’s an audience quiz in Act 1, for example, that can only work if it’s fueled by charm and, in her innocent joy, Anderssen’s Mary Amnesia supercharges that quiz. Anderssen also sings in a clear soprano, she has an impressively wide range, and she is a wicked tap dancer. Wicked.
Playing the Mother Superior, the always-solid Jennifer Suratos rocks out in “Turn Up the Spotlight”. Paula Higgins brings an appropriately sardonic touch to would-be Mother Superior, Sister Mary Hubert. Everybody, including Mary Cleaver (Sister Robert Anne) and Jaclyn Sim (Sister Mary Leo) can really sing.
So what am I whinging about?
In Act 1, the long set-up sucks. It includes a muddled — and tasteless — backstory about the leper colony where the Little Sisters of Hoboken once served. And, when we get to the heart of the show, most of the numbers, which should be the main attraction, are forgettable — musically because they’re undistinguished, and structurally because they’re not advancing anything interesting in terms of story, theme, or character. And those songs are repetitive: far too many of them are variations on the increasingly threadbare idea that “I’m a nun but I want to be a star.” Because there’s so little else going on, switching up musical genres, which Nunsense does, provides virtually no compensatory relief.
One example of uselessness: in Sister Mary Leo’s big number, “Benedicite”, she sings about how she dances her morning prayers. Performer Sim does a perfectly fine job with this song but, in terms of the number itself, who cares?
How can I square my complaints with the musical’s history of success? Simply put, popularity is no guarantee of excellence or even pretty-goodness.
There’s also a more generous explanation. Nunsense combines a slight and therefor broadly tolerable, level of naughtiness with underlying innocence. Nunsense capitalizes on the vulnerability of performance and the universally recognizable need for validation.
I don’t think Nunsense is great at doing any of this, but I think I can begin to see the basis for its appeal. And I appreciate this production.
NUNSENSE Book, music, and lyrics by Dan Goggin. Directed by Shel Piercey. Produced by Boone Dog Productions in association with Metro Theatre. At the Metro Theatre on February 28. Continues until March 21. Tickets and information.
PHOTO CREDIT: (Photo of Mary Cleaver, Jaclyn Sim, Jennifer Suratos, Meghan Anderssen, and Paula Higgins by Mark Halliday.)
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