I gotta tell you, dear reader, that a critic questions their choice of profession sitting in choking freeway traffic headed to yet another staging of Dan Goggin’s “Nunsense,” a show now more than 40 years old with gags of the same vintage.
I haven’t looked up the number of my prior reviews. In that regard, I am Sister Mary Amnesia.
I do not need to see my life choices flash before me in such a way. Back in the day, around these parts, “Nunsense” was always either opening or running or closing or coming back or planning on returning. Many is the paragraph I have penned about Chicago’s surely Freudian fascination with the comedic nunnery canon.
Still, such was the pre-show merriment in the audience at the Drury Lane Theatre’s Thursday night opening of this “Richard III” of the Religious, I thought for a minute that some overachieving sister was doing a little unauthorized curtain-warmer. But, no. Apparently, an entire row had just burst miraculously into song.
It was that kind of night.
Thus, I am happy report that this is a very funny “Nunsense,” as directed by the veteran performer E. Faye Butler and choreographed by her pal, Kenny Ingram (once the baker opposite Donny Osmond in “Joseph”), here credited as Father Kenneth.
As it happened, I watched Butler speak at the memorial of the actor Matt DeCaro just a couple of days before this show opened. At that tribute to her lost friend, she had just the right blend of comedy and spirituality; clearly, she also employed that vibe here. “Nunsense,” a collection of skits, turns and one-liners involving various silly sisters, has to be affectionate and warm-centered because no one likes people being mean to a nun. It also has to be just anarchic enough to provide a catharsis for those repressed as a child. And, most importantly of all, it has to be performed by seasoned comedians like Rachel Carreras and Kelly Felthous, the main comedic hydra of the show here.
Goggin knew his way around one-liners and many of them still land surprising well (hard laughs, folks), even if their referents are mostly now in the great convent in the sky. (Dolly Parton excepted, of course.) Felthous in particular goes all-in on Sister Mary Amnesia and it’s quite the hoo-larious tour de force of wackiness. Amnesia, I remembered halfway through, is one of the best comedic roles of this particular genre.
The Little Sisters of Hoboken, led by Cory Goodrich’s Reverend Mother and featuring Sherriese Hamilton as Sister Mary Hubert and Aurora Boe as Sister Mary Leo, focus on their audience, as a good nun does, and there are a few sops to the 21st century added, included a gag about Pope Leo’s joining the internet’s “six-seven” nonsense and even a sly reference to the immortality of Tony DeSantis, the founder of the Drury Lane feast; it was good to hear the old man’s name again on the stage he built.
If you are walking through the door for “Nunsense,” it’s fair to assume your expectations are in line with the material (although maybe not the single ticket prices).
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And you surely already know that good nuns rarely disappoint.
Chris Jones is a Tribune critic
Review: “Nunsense” (3 stars)
When: Through Aug. 2
Where: Drury Lane Theatre, 100 Drury Lane, Oak Brook Terrace
Running time: 2 hours. 15 minutes
Tickets: $85-$150 at 630-530-0111 drurylanetheatre.com