|
by Diana Goldammer
The Little
Sisters of Hoboken are in the basement, taping their very first TV
Christmas special for which we are the audience. What can possibly
go wrong?
Luckily, in
ACT’s laugh-out-loud production of "Nuncrackers, the Nunsense
Christmas Musical," pretty much everything.
Broadcasting
from the convent basement, the sisters plan a version of the
Nutcracker. Things go awry, of course, and what we see is a mixture
of their prepared program and some of the shenanigans that go on
during the down time.
Sister
Julia, who accidentally poisoned 52 sisters a while back, is talking
to the cops again and now it's up to Father Virgil (Isaac Anderson)
to take over her fruitcake-making segment — in nunly drag and with a
bottle of rum regrettably close at hand.
Sister
Amnesia's (Libby Williams) Christmas carol visual aids, meanwhile,
lose something in the translation (waffles and leopards for
"wassail" and "shepherds"); and an anarchic puppet named Sister
Annette grabs the spotlight to slander Santa and the elves in her
"Twelve Days Prior to Christmas" number.
Sister Mary
Regina (Lauretta Cole Larsen) recalls with fondness the Christmases
of her youth spent with a traveling carnival.
Tough-talking
Sister Robert Ann (Cindy Bierman) sings about how all she wants for
Christmas is a one-night stand – at Carnegie Hall, that is.
Probably the funniest number is a recruitment song, “In the
Convent,” a parody of the Village People’s “In the Navy.”
In the midst of
all of this, Sister Mary Leo (Tessie Moline) - who would be the
world’s first nun ballerina - suffers a back-stage accident and the
convent’s Christmas presents are stolen.
Several of the
nuns’ students enact cute little Christmas themed plays that will
remind you of the true meaning of the season. Their performance of
“Santa’s Little Teapot” was charming.
The onstage
band (Cheryl Hohbach, Kayla Hohbach, Melinda Hohbach and Mike
Sejnoha) was nicely integrated into the set and kept the production
moving along.
In expressing
true Christmas spirit, Sister Hubert (Carmen Mueller) brings a moral
touch to the story in her version of “It’s Better to Give Than to
Receive.”
“Nuncrackers”
has some touching moments, but overall it is a smiling and merry
expression of the joyousness of the season.
Directors Cat
Erickson and Hilary Orban had a fun bunch to work with, as all of
the nuns had spunk and personality. ACT veterans Cindy Bierman,
Libby Williams and Carmen Mueller never missed a beat.
You don't have
to be Catholic to savor this frothy cup of holiday cheer.
Return to
Nuncrackers page |
