The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
It’s back: ‘Nuncrackers — The Nunsense Christmas Musical’
CLINTON >> Park & Rec’s Clinton Family Theatre celebrates its 27th season with a revival of “Nuncrackers — The Nunsense Christmas Musical” under the direction of John Lampe. The show is one of the sequels written by Dan Goggin, following the huge success of his original “Nunsense.”
This time, the members of the Mount St. Helen’s Convent are preparing to tape their big Christmas special in the convent’s basement studio, and as always they run smack into a series of mishaps. Like the original “Nunsense,” “Nuncrackers” is mainly about providing laughs, not about cliffhanger events or momentous issues. You have to think that whatever other mission these nuns have, their main vocation is knock-about humor.
Peggie O’Donnell plays Reverend Mother with an air of sunny but unquestionable authority. Reverend Mother’s backstory is that she grew up in a showbiz family. She grabs a straw hat and cane for “Old Time Carnival Christmas,” pausing for a ribald gag about Sophie Tucker.
Sister Mary Paul (Jennifer Russo) was once known as Amnesia. She’s still a bit of a ditz with a weak memory, and she still loves to belt country-western music. Tré Johnson is Sister Mary Hubert, who in “Nunsense” had a power struggle with Reverend Mother. But in “Nuncrackers,” Hubert keeps a low profile until she leads the stomping, hand-clapping gospel rock finale, “It’s Better to Give Than to Receive.”
Michele Hammond gives an especially strong characterization of Sister Robert Ann, who was once a juvenile delinquent from a broken home. When Reverend Mother asks Robert Ann to explain the meaning of Christmas, Robert Ann begins, “It once meant a month of detention .... ”
Carl Calhoun returns as Father Virgil with his outrageous humor, and when he joins in with the nuns to celebrate Christmas, you never know what is in store, including his cooking-show segment with his impression of Julia Child.
Colleen Whittel is Sister Mary Leo, a ballet dancer who may or may not get to dance in the convent’s production of “The Nutcracker” because she sprained her ankle. Will she do her ballet?
‘Nuncrackers’ will be performed Friday and Saturday, Nov. 11-12 at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, Nov. 13 at 2 p.m. at the New Morgan School Auditorium, Route 81, Clinton. Tickets are $18; call 860-452-4186 or email cftheatre@comcast.net for reservations.