Review: NUNSENSE At The Barnstormers Theatre

Everything is pure fun in the production of Nunsense currently playing at the Barnstormers Theater in Tamworth as it enters its 93rd season.

This production of Dan Goggin’s endearing comedy is a friendly, lighthearted, and rapidly paced entertaining show.  Director, Sarah Rozene, has adapted the play to fit the compact stage at the Playhouse even using a few gags as they use the set for their next production of Arsenic and Old Lace as its backdrop. 

The storyline of the show is comically absurd. A total of 52 nuns in the order died after eating a lethal batch of vichyssoise prepared by their cook, Sister Julia, Child of God. Most of the victims have been buried, but because Mother Superior spent some of the burial money on a wide screen television for the convent, there are four remaining sisters being kept in the freezer waiting to be interred. Thus, the sisters put on a variety show to raise additional funds for their burials.

A troupe of five very talent actors, portray five exuberant nuns who take the audience through a free-wheeling romp of comedy skits, jokes, musical numbers, an audience quiz and, even, a few ballets, jazz, and tap-dancing numbers.

At the helm is Mother Superior, (Alexandra de Suze) who runs the convent with a tight fist after joining the order instead of pursuing a career as a tight rope walker. She’s clearly the ringleader of the nunnery extravaganza. De Suze is hilarious when she accidentally experiences a poppers induced high and she’s especially engaging in “Turn Up the Spotlight.” There’s a nice special duet with Sister Mary Hubert in "Just a Coupl'a Sisters"

Second in command, and begrudgingly so, is Sister Mary Hubert (Aimee Doherty) who dreams of getting top billing at the convent. She sings of the joys of being in second place in her number, “The Biggest Ain’t The Best.” She laments, “Don’t demand the spotlight, let the spotlight come to you.” Doherty shines magically in a show stopping, “Holier Than Thou,” reminiscent of a spiritual revival at the end of the show.

Sister Robert Anne (Cheryl Mullings) is a street wise kid from Brooklyn longing for her moment in the spotlight while being relegated only as an understudy in the variety show. She points out the understudy’s curse as Bibi Osterwald took on the task for Broadway’s Hello Dolly with the never-missed-a-performance star, Carol Channing.  Mullings is a vocal powerhouse in “I Just Want to Be a Star,” and sets comic relief with her zinging one liners, comic asides, and wild impersonations created by a twist or two of the veil from her habit garb.

Sister Mary Leo (Darien Crago) was born to dance and does so throughout the show. She is determined not to have her dreams of dancing shattered by a few holy vows to become a nun. She displays her talent for ballet in both “Benedicite” a look at life in the convent and in “The Dying Nun Ballet” a humorous recreation of the sisters’ demise from Sister Julia Child’s cooking. She does an especially delicious tap dance solo, proving her credentials serving as the dance captain for the troupe. 

And a cracker jack performance is a show highlight with Sister Mary Amnesia (Sarah Corey), that’s her temporary name because after being hit in the head by a falling crucifix, she can’t remember her real name. She’s an improvising genius in her pop quiz interaction with the audience and is outrageously funny in her number, "So You Want To Be a Nun." And in a number that helps her to recall her name, she’s a country singing star in "I Could've Gone to Nashville.” (Calling her a Loretta Lynn sound alike is an understatement.)

The quintet performs great ensemble work giving each member their moment in the spotlight. They have unbridled fun in "Nunsense is Habit-Forming," is a look at the life of being a nun, “Lilacs,” a thought-provoking tune reflecting on memories from their early years, and in a nod to the Food Network, the troupe performs "Baking with the BVM." (That’s the Blessed Virgin Mary, for those that don’t know.)

Though you don’t have to be Catholic, either practicing or recovering, to enjoy the show, it does stir up some provoking memories of sisters in our lives for those of us who are. Know that members of any other religious or non-religious sects will be charmed easily by these tightly knit performers. 

Alexander Davis leads the troupe through some engaging choreography, and Michael Ursua heads up a lively orchestra. Lighting designer, Kevin Dunn might want to correct a few awkward darks spots that occurred in the opening night performance. Costume designer, Patty Hatch Hibbert, created convincing “habits” though she placed wooden rulers hanging from the nuns’ belt buckles at the same spot where I remembered the sisters of my youth lugging heavily weighted rosary beads. 

Among the moments of shear hilarity, I couldn’t help but recall some of the nuns that taught me in elementary school. There were a few rogue characters who weren’t always pleasant, but most were some of the kindest women I have ever met. I only wish they were as funny as the cast of Nunsense at the Barnstormers. 

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