Anyone who has spent time at a parochial school run by Catholic fathers and sisters, where the halls are filled with the Holy Spirit and the faculty are covered in habits, know one thing for certain: nuns are hilarious.
Before Whoopi Goldberg played a showgirl-turned-nun in Sister Act and Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit, and before Sister Rose and Sister Blanche started collecting lingerie for needy sexy people in an episode of The Golden Girls, Dan Goggin had created the hilarious musical comedy Nunsense.
Nunsense begins with the Little Sisters of Hoboken discovering that their cook has accidentally poisoned and killed all but five of the sisters, and then the hilarious scenarios follow.
The original production opened Off-Broadway in 1985 and was an instant hit, running for more than 3,500 performances and becoming the second longest running Off-Broadway show in history.
Nunsense has since become a phenomenon being performed all over world in 21 different languages; and has spawned six sequels, three spin-offs and a series being adapted for television.
One of the incarnations, an all-male version of the hit show called Nunsense A-men, comes to the Winter Park Playhouse March 16 – April 21 with an all-gay male cast. The show is directed by the Playhouse’s artistic director, Roy Allen, and the music is directed by the theater’s musical director, Christopher Leavy.
The show stars David Michael Green, Ryan Corridoni, Michael Scott Ross, Victor Souffrant and Shawn Kilgore as the surviving nuns.
“The Little Sisters of Hoboken have had a small tragedy back at the convent,” says Green. Green plays the Mother Superior, Sister Mary Regina. “It seems that their sister Julia, Child of God, served some bad vichyssoise soup, and unfortunately 52 of the sisters die instantly of botulism.”
As the sisters prepare for the burial of the dead sisters, they run into an issue.
“Through our greeting card company we were able to bury 48 of the sisters,” Green says. “Unfortunately, for reasons we won’t go into, we ran out of money. [Spoiler alert: Mother Superior spent it on a flat screen television!] So we put the last four dead nuns in the freezer and are holding a fundraiser to raise the funds to bury them.”
Even though the show appears to be filled with death and religion, it is very much a comedy.
“It’s definitely just a campy, feel good musical,” says Corridoni who plays Sister Mary Leo. “People can come out, relax and have a good time and forget their troubles.”
While the show features an all-male cast dressed as female nuns, the show is played as straight, so to speak.
“The thing about the show is we know these are men playing the nuns, but we should be approaching it from a place of sincerity,” Kilgore, who plays Sister Robert Anne, says. “It’s not a drag show.” Green agrees.
“I’m not playing a woman who is playing a nun. I’m playing Sister Mary Regina, that’s the role,” Green says. “To be honest, I’m probably closer to that than I am to Harry MacAfee, married father of two. Either way I’m acting and it’s just what my intention is. I’m not acting like a woman acting like a nun, I’m Mother Superior.”
For those too young to know, Green’s MacAfee reference is to a character in the classic musical Bye Bye Birdie. MacAfee is a portrayal of your typical 1950-era “family man” type.
Nunsense A-men originated in Brazil before transferring to New York in 1998. The show not only features more than a dozen songs, but also requires a bit of fancy footwork from the actors.
“In this role there is some dancing involved so that is definitely something I have an up on,” says Kilgore, who sports a dance background.
Green has a different outlook. “I’ll just jump ahead to what I see coming and say the choreography [will be a challenge].
Watermark sat down with the cast during the first week of rehearsals. We asked what other challenges they were looking forward to taking on in this show.
“The songs are very wordy and I think that’s going to be a challenge because if you miss one word, you’re done. It’s hard to jump back in,” says Ross, who plays Sister Mary Amnesia.
“All the tunes are original to Nunsense A-men, but there is a number in this show that wasn’t in the original,” Kilgore says. “So none of us had heard it before. I think that’s something we struggled with the most so far.”
The new number comes from Nunsense: The Mega-Musical Version, a remake of the original featuring additional songs, lines and characters.
The cast is a mix of familiar faces (Ross, Souffrant and Kilgore have performed in past Playhouse shows) and veteran actors new to the Playhouse stage.
“I’ve done several shows here before,” says Souffrant, who plays Sister Mary Hubert. “I came in, sang in a really high key, and then two days later they called me and were like we want to offer you this. It’s always nice because it’s like home here; it’s really fun.”
Even though this is the first time the cast will appear on stage together you wouldn’t know it upon meeting them. They interact and play off each other in normal conversation as if they are old bandmates coming back together for a reunion concert.
“When you have only five people in a cast like we do, compared to a bigger musical with an ensemble, it’s a little different,” Corridoni says. “I think you become tighter quicker and more like family.”
Nunsense A-men plays on select days March 16 – April 21. Ticket prices are $42 evenings, $39 senior evenings, $32 matinees, $20 previews, $15 student and theatrical industry professionals. For more tickets and information call the box office at 407-645-0145 or visit online at WinterParkPlayhouse.org.
