Show Palace offers spirited 'Nunsense'

By BARBARA L. FREDRICKSEN

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 14, 2000

What can be said about Nunsense that hasn't been said a thousand times already? The 15-year-old musical is so popular that most people have either seen it or performed in it and could write their own review.

Even so, we all flock back to laugh at the old jokes, gasp at new ones and enjoy the fresh spin the actors put on this worldwide favorite. As the song goes, Nunsense Is Habit-Forming.

Nunsense tells about the Little Sisters of Hoboken doing a talent show to raise money to bury their four sisters poisoned by soup made by convent chef Sister Julia (Child of God). It's part variety show, part story and a whole lot of mugging and audience involvement.

All it takes is a good cast and a cooperative crowd to have a wonderful time, and Friday's opening night at the Show Palace Dinner Theatre had that and then some.

Start with the cast, five talented theater veterans, add a live, two-piece combo, toss in a house crew decked out as monks and nuns, and it's well nigh impossible not to get into the spirit. Former Broadway actor Dee Etta Rowe pulls out all the stops in the role of the Mother Superior, an authority figure who can drop her dignity at the drop of a bon mot.

Antonia Nozicka has done Sister Amnesia more than 1,000 times at other venues, but she still brings a freshness to the role that is charming and sweet, whether it's her Woody Woodpecker laugh or a withering glance at a chosen target in the audience. Orlando actor Susan Haldeman's appropriately tomboyish Sister Robert Anne fills the room with enthusiasm and a giant-size voice in her big number, I Just Want to be a Star.

Memphis native Lar'Jauanette Williams makes her Show Palace debut a memorable one as the get-down, head-shaking, hip-wiggling Sister Mary Hubert, a soul sister extraordinaire. Her duet with Ms. Rowe, Just a Coupl'a Sisters, and her all-too-brief solo in the rousing Holier Than Thou left the audience wishing for more. Chelle' St. Pierre's sweet, young Sister Mary Leo, the convent novice, shows still another marvelous facet of this multitalented dancer-singer-actor.

Nunsense is squeaky-clean, but the bygone cultural references in many of the jokes may sail right over the heads of anyone who hasn't been watching TV and movies for the past 20 years. Still, the humor is enough to keep anyone 9 to 90 entertained, and the cast's forays into the audience keep everyone engaged in this clever and sometimes corny show.

Fine piano by Bill Cusick, timely percussion by Joe Lawrence, the usual meticulously detailed set and sharp lighting by Tom Hansen and terrific staging and direction by Jimmy Ferraro all add up to a whooping good time.

REVIEW

Nunsense, at Show Palace Dinner Theatre, 16128 U.S. 19, Hudson, through June 25. Shows at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 1:30 p.m. Saturday during May, 3 p.m. Sunday. Doors open two hours before each show for cash bar and buffet. Dinner and show, $35.95; show only, $24.95. Ages 12 and younger, dinner and show, $19.95; show only, $14.95. Call (727) 863-7949 in west Pasco; toll free (888) 655-7469 elsewhere.