BWW Reviews: NUNSENSE At the Hilton - Watch Nuns Cavort While You Have A Drink

In a very un-churchlike setting - the Las Vegas Hilton's Shimmer Cabaret, another venue where you can watch the show while drinking - Nunsense opened a six-month run, playing Wednesdays through Sundays at 4 pm.

There are probably few people who don't know the story of this 25 year-old musical: The Little Sisters of Hoboken put on a show because they have to raise money to bury the last four of the 52 Sisters their cook accidentally poisoned with some bad vichyssoise. In this version, the money was there but, as we're told repeatedly in what I suppose is an attempt to make the book modern but, instead, serves only to make her greedy and shallow, the Reverend Mother used it to buy a flat-screen TV. Until that money is raised the four Sisters are reposing in the convent's freezer.

Most unusually for a book show in a Las Vegas hotel, the cast of Nunsense is made up of local talent, very well-cast by Baskow and Associates. Until I saw them, I didn't know there was such Broadway-caliber talent here.

The show? Well, it is 25 years old. Producers Sutart Disdky, Adam Ditsky ad Jay Harvey, along with director-choreographer Nancy Gregory have made it as lively and fun as possible. (Except the set is kind of bizarre - glitter and shimmer take the place of staiNed Glass and there is a bar with stools on the stage. Why?)

And, the sound in the theater is way off. Of course, it is a showroom, not a theater. But it was extremely loud and uncomfortable. When I mentioned that to the show's PR person, he said I was the only one to say so. Thus, I said no more. Then, at dinner, two others in our group commented on it. The sound desperately needs to be modulated.

At any rate the cast is amazing, about the best one could expect in any production anywhere. So what if the Mother Superior (Diane Ellis) has a on-and-off Irish brogue? She's a wonderful leader of the group. Her charges are Janien Valentine (who almost steals the show as Sister Amnesia), Michelle Johnson, Robin Berry Vincent, Natalie Carson and Kathryn Arianoff.

Tickets, priced from $19 to $69 (with several packages and seating choices) are available by calling 800-222-5361 or online at the https://hilton-web.vegas.com/lvhilton/Nunsense.html Las Vegas Hilton.

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