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Nunsense (1985) is a musical theatre comedy with a book, music, and lyrics by Dan Goggin. Originating as a line of greeting cards, Goggin expanded the concept into a cabaret show that ran for 38 weeks, and eventually into a full-length musical. The original Off-Broadway production opened December 12, 1985, running for 3,672 performances and becoming the second-longest-running Off-Broadway show in history. The show has since been adapted for television, starring Rue McClanahan, and has spawned six and three spin-offs.
The original production of Nunsense, directed by Goggin, opened on December 12, 1985 at the Off-Broadway Cherry Lane Theatre, moving to the Douglas Fairbanks Theater for the majority of its ten-year run. It ran for 3,672 performances, becoming the second-longest running Off-Broadway show in history (after The Fantasticks). By the time it closed, it had become an international phenomenon translated into at least 26 languages with more than 8,000 productions worldwide. Nunsense A-Men cdbaby.com, accessed November 18, 2016 It has grossed over $500 million worldwide,[2] travellady.com and more than 25,000 women have played in Nunsense productions worldwide, including Edie Adams, Maxine Audley, Kaye Ballard, Honor Blackman, Pat Carroll, Peggy Cass, Phyllis Diller, Sally Struthers, Louise Gold, Maggie Fitzhugh and JoAnne Worley. " 'Nunsense' is Delight" bucsgameday.com The five-woman production won four Outer Critics Circle Awards, including best Off-Broadway musical, best book and best music. A 1985 London cast recording was made, as well as a 1986 recording with the off-Broadway cast. The show opened on London's West End at the Fortune Theatre in March 1987.
Goggin adapted both Nunsense and Nunsense 2 for television productions with Rue McClanahan as the mother superior. Also starring in this version were Terri White as Sister Mary Hubert, Semina DeLaurentis as Sister Mary Amnesia, Christine Anderson as Sister Robert Anne and Christine Toy as Sister Mary Leo. The show and its sequels are popular choices of community theater and summer stock theatre troupes. In 2004, the "20th Anniversary All-Star Tour" of the show starred Kaye Ballard as Sister Mary Regina, Georgia Engel as Sister Mary Leo, Mimi Hines as Sister Mary Amnesia, Darlene Love as Sister Mary Hubert, and Lee Meriwether as Sister Robert Anne.
Naturally, VCRs and camcorders are now no longer such current or expensive devices, so modern presentations of the show tend to substitute newer or more generic terms such as "home entertainment system" or a "plasma TV".
Mary Amnesia comes on next and sings a song about what it's like to be a nun, along with a foul-mouthed puppet, Sister Mary Annette ("So You Want To Be A Nun"). Reverend Mother returns and apologizes, but is shocked to hear from Mary Amnesia that the Jersey Board of Health has sent an inspector to the convent just that afternoon. Amnesia runs off crying, and the rest of the Sisters follow, except for Reverend Mother. She tells the audience how she became a nun, but still somewhat misses performing ("Turn Up the Spotlight"). Amnesia, Leo, and Hubert return, and learn that a local Jewish temple has sent them flowers wishing them good luck. They try to use the flowers to remind Amnesia of her past, but all she can get is a quick flashback ("Lilacs"). Robert Anne rushes on stage to give Reverend Mother a bag that she seems troubled about, claiming she found it in one of the girls' bathrooms. Reverend Mother dismisses the rest of the Sisters, and has a look in the bag, the contents of which ultimately get her high - hilariously so. The rest of the Sisters notice, and put on a hastily thrown-together tap number to close the first act and get her off the stage ("Tackle That Temptation").
Amnesia, Robert Anne, and Leo then perform an Andrews Sisters-type number ("The Drive-In"), then show a "homemade convent film display", which is shut off by Reverend Mother after it shows embarrassing clips of her. Amnesia remains on stage after the rest leave, and decides to tell the audience a story about who she would be if she wasn't a nun ("I Could've Gone to Nashville"). Mid-song, everything comes back to her and she remembers her real name - Sister Mary Paul - and her past. She was going to be a famous country singer, but chose the convent instead. She tells the rest of the sisters, who realize that Sister Mary Paul is also the name of the nun who just won the Publisher's Clearing House sweepstakes, and rejoice, thanking God for their good fortune. Sister Hubert closes the show with a rousing gospel number about what it takes to become a saint ("Holier Than Thou").
Sister Amnesia's Country Western Nunsense Jamboree, the third installment, is presented as a stop on the promotional tour for the nun's new album, I Could've Gone to Nashville, released after she regained her memory and discovered she really was Sister Mary Paul, a former country singer. The audience participates in a rousing auction.
Nuncrackers: The Nunsense Christmas Musical, fourth in the series, offers a behind-the-scenes look at a holiday television special taped by the sisters for public-access television cable TV in their convent basement studio, and culminates in a wild spoof of Tchaikovsky's classic ballet.
Meshuggah-Nuns!, the fifth installment, finds the sisters on a "Faiths of All Nations" cruise when the on-board cast of Fiddler on the Roof gets seasick, prompting the ship's captain to ask the sisters to put on a show.
Nunsensations: The Nunsense Vegas Revue, sixth in the series, takes the sisters to the Nevada gambling mecca when a parishioner offers them $10,000 to perform in a club. After being convinced "what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas", the Reverend Mother agrees, and before long the nuns are clad in feathers and sequins and wowing the crowd at the Pump Room in the Mystique Motor Lodge.
Nunset Boulevard, the seventh installment, premiered November 2009 in Chanhassen, Minnesota. The Little Sisters of Hoboken are thrilled by an invitation to sing at the Hollywood Bowl, until they arrive and realize they're booked into the Hollywood Bowl-A-Rama, a bowling alley with a cabaret lounge, rather than Hollywood Bowl they anticipated. The sisters must contend with announcements from the bowling alley loudspeakers as well as activity on the lanes while trying to present their latest variety show. Rumors of a new movie musical about Dolores Hart inspire the sisters to audition for roles.
Since 1995 a German adaptation under the German title "Non(n)sens" was staged by Benjamin Baumann in the city of Hanau. Within 15 years it attracted more than 120.000 visitors in a total of 544 plays. german
Nunsense A-Men, the original show with all the characters portrayed by men in drag, was staged in Brazil as Novicas Rebeldes before transferring to New York City in 1998. It premiered in Buenos Aires as "Suspiros de monja", in 2000. [4]
A new version named Nunsense: The Mega-Musical Version is a remake of the original featuring additional songs, lines, and characters.
Sister Robert Anne's Cabaret Class opened at the Playhouse on the Green in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and was an enormous hit. Deborah Del Mastro starred as Sister Robert Anne, with musical direction by Leo P. Carusone. The "One-Nun-sense Musical" featured songs introduced by Sister Robert Anne from the many previous "Nunsense" shows, but also included two new songs from "Nunset Boulevard". Approaching the audience as a class of students interested in creating their own cabaret act, the premise allowed for much audience interaction, and as in all the "Nunsense" shows, much humor.
In 2008, the Brazilian singer Xuxa (pronounced Shoo Sha) did a Christmas special based on Nunsense, with the name Xuxa E As Noviças (English: Xuxa and the novices). All the songs were translated from Nunsense (except "Amém" (Amen) and "Lua de Cristal"). The story is also based on Nunsense. It had Xuxa, Rosa Marya Colin, Sylvia Massari, Marília Pêra and Fafy Siqueira in cast.
Acorn Media first released a double-VHS set containing Nunsense and Nunsense 2: The Sequel. Imagine Ent. re-released Nunsense to DVD in 1998, followed by Nunsense 2: The Sequel in 2000; Nunsense 3: The Jamboree in 2003; Nunsensations: The Nunsense Vegas Revue in 2007; and Meshuggah-Nuns! in 2010. SRO released a four-disc DVD collection in June 2013 featuring Nunsense, Nunsense 2, The Jamboree, and Nuncrackers.
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