Little Sisters of laughter offer up funny `Nunsense’

You’ll have to go to confession after the St. Joseph Healthcare production of “Nunsense,” playing this weekend at Peakes Auditorium. It’s so much fun you’re sure to feel guilty for laughing.

The premise of the musical is that a few nuns from the order of the Little Sisters of Hoboken have pooled their talents to raise money to bury four others of the frock (who are currently being stored in the convent freezer).

It seems that while some of the sisters were out playing bingo one night, Sister Julia dished up a vichyssoise heavily flavored with botulism. As one nun explains, “For 52, bon appetit was also bon voyage.”

A greeting card sale paid for the burial of 48 of the dead nuns (and a Betamax), but now the sisters need to clean out the freezer before the health inspector slaps them with a fine.

So out come the top hats, boas and tap shoes. Out come the harmonies, tutus, and all the hidden talents tucked behind the scapulars of these five singing nuns. With snappy tunes, they open the convent doors to share the “humor of the nun.”

The show is filled with poke-fun-at-the-Catholics style comedy — a litany of one-liners about every “nunthing” imaginable. Do nuns have ears? Will there be a quiz after the lesson? And, yes, there is the obligatory nun-as-penguin joke. You don’t have to be a Catholic to enjoy the humor, but Catholics are sure to find an extra indulgence in the irrepressibly irreverent gags.

Director Susan McGinley has gathered together a divinely inspired cast of talented women for this all-star piece. Their farcical facial expressions — beaming forth from these wimpled women — would be nearly enough to carry the show on its own. But there’s much more to enjoy here. They begin bantering with the audience before the houselights go down, and keep going until the last amen.

Dorothy Pratt, as Sister Amnesia, is honest-to-God hilarious in her solo duet (with a ventriloquist’s doll) and downright droll in most everything else she does with an innocent grin and bright eyes.

Anne Pooler, as Mother Superior Cardelia, is a holy hoot. Karen McCall, as the hoodlum nun Sister Robert, is about as hip and funky as a nun can be.

A little bit of Baptist revivalism bursts through when the ever-mugging Pam Martin, as Sister Hubert, sings her “Holier Than Thou.” And you won’t find a sweeter novice than Sister Leo, played by Kimberly Horn.

The show’s capable musical director, John Haskell, and his musicians (Chris White, Chris G. White and Julie Gockel) are much too loud most of the time, but keep the tempos moving right along.

St Joseph Healthcare will present “Nunsense” 8 p.m. May 7 and 8, and 2 p.m. May 9 at Bangor High School’s Peakes Auditorium. Tickets are available at Libby’s Hallmark Shop and at the door.