Georgia Engel reminds me of my mom, who used to say, “If you don’t have anything nice to say . . . let someone else do the talking.”
So on the subject of “Nunsensations,” the, I dunno, 49th installment in Dan Goggin’s musical franchise about nuns in showbiz, I defer to Engel, who played Georgette on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and is a veteran of Goggin’s traveling sister act, including the “Nunsense” 20th-anniversary tour.
“People who come to Dan’s shows are not even people who like theater,” said Engel, in town for “The Drowsy Chaperone” national tour. “They are just regular, salt-of- the-earth people who like to laugh.
“Theater snobs don’t go to ‘Nunsense,’ ” she added. “Nor should they.”
Which may explain why I’m the nasty guy who once quipped: “So the catchphrase for ‘Nunsense’ is, ‘It’s habit- forming’ . . . If only Goggin had gotten himself into a treatment center.” Rimshot.
I can hear Mom — and Engel — tsking.
You might then wonder, like me, why the good folks at the classy new $6.2 million Candlelight Dinner Playhouse in Johnstown have been relentlessly courting my attendance at their second offering, “Nunsensations: The Nunsense Vegas Revue.”
That’s easy. It’s that they’ve put together this cast of five women that would be the envy of any theater company: There’s Tracy Warren, who played Dainty June in “Gypsy” on Broadway; Melissa Swift-Sawyer, who was Patsy Cline for nearly four years at the Denver Center; Reyna Von Vett, who starred in “Mamma Mia” for three years in Las Vegas; Gina Schuh- Turner, who appeared in Denver’s longest-running musical, “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change” at the Denver Center; and 45-year stage veteran Kathy Leonard.
I’d see those five do anything . . . even a chunk of corn like “Nunsensations.”
If you have seen one of the (actually only seven) “Nunsenses,” Goggin would be first to admit you’ve seen ’em all. Each is only a slight variation on the charming original, in which the Sisters of Hoboken threw together a night of vaudevillian shtick to raise cash to bury a bevy of sisters done in by bad soup.
Now a shady parishioner has offered a $10,000 donation if the nuns agree to perform for one night in Las Vegas. That the nuns won the lottery way back when, and have no need to proselytize themselves in this way, is one of only about 432 “nunsensical” plot holes.
You’ll get your country song, your ballerina song, your randy puppet, your sweet harmonizing and your many bad puns (“Holy rollers? Catholic skateboarders!”). Count on excessive feathers, sequins and other Vegas trappings, all building to a big 11’o clock number that here merits, eh, only about 8:45.
Candlelight’s menu will satisfy all tastes, from the signature buffalo prime rib to my fave, the baked gorgonzola mac ‘n’ cheese. But it’s pricey. Dinner and the show can run as high as $73, before booze and dessert. Still, as a complete entertainment experience, it’s worth a try.
The theater, 40 miles north of Denver, is a friendly, comfortable place to see a show. But at 380 seats, it’s just not the best environ for a cabaret offering like this.
Whenever the band plays on stage, they should bridge the gap between action and audience by building the stage out over the orchestra pit, bringing the show right to where the people are. Inexplicably, they aren’t even seating patrons in the first row of tables, adding to the disconnect.
I was seated so far back from the action, I might as well have been watching “Meshuggah-Nuns.” But then again, as we’ve previously established, I pretty much was. Rimshot.
Is “Nunsensations” fun fluff or benign tripe? Depends on whether you’re a theater snob . . . or Georgia Engel’s aunt.
“She’s not theater-savvy at all . . . (but) she thought it was the most fun theater she had ever seen,” said Engel.
“But . . .” (wait for it) . . . “she had never been to anything else.”
John Moore: 303-954-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com
“Nunsensations: The Nunsense Vegas Revue” **1/2 (out of four stars)
Nuns in Vegas! Candlelight Dinner Playhouse, 4747 Market Place Drive, Johnstown. Written by Dan Goggin. Directed by Nick Turner. Through Nov. 30. 1 hour, 50 minutes. 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays (dinner 90 minutes prior). $36-$59 plus upgrades. 970-744-3747, 1-877-240-4242 or .
Online bonus: Listen to our podcast interview with Dan Goggin
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We’ve re-posted Denver Post theater critic John Moore’s podcast interview with Dan Goggin from March 2008, when he directed the regional premiere of “Nunsensations” at the Arvada Center. Listen by
You’ll be taken to a miniplayer. Once there, click on the miniplayer’s triangular “play” button, and the podcast will begin playing without your having to download. Or, right-click on the “download” option to save a copy to your own desktop. Recorded March 7, 2008. Run time: 17 minutes.
