SOUTH AFRICA: 'NUNSENSE' THE MUSICAL COMEDY ROMP ABOUT FIVE NUNS CONTINUES TO THRILL SOUTH AFRICAN AUDIENCES

Record ID: 858866

  • Title: SOUTH AFRICA: 'NUNSENSE' THE MUSICAL COMEDY ROMP ABOUT FIVE NUNS CONTINUES TO THRILL SOUTH AFRICAN AUDIENCES
  • Date: 19th December 2004
  • Summary: VARIOUS: MORE PERFORMANCE BY CAST MEMBERS (3 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 3rd January 2005 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA
  • City:
  • Country: South Africa
  • Topics: Arts
  • Reuters ID: LVAECI8L2IFRC0FECML73LXDS8T9
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: Nunsense, Nuns go crazy in this musical fare! You don't have to be Catholic to enjoy 'Nunsense', the musical comedy romp with a wry sense of humour about five nuns staging a show within a show. But you do have to have a broad sense of humour to laugh it up at its prize-winning goings.
    And the laughs are indeed heaven bound as the Order of the Little Sisters of Hoboken - affectionately known as the Little Hobos - stage a fund-raiser of sorts to help sort out the living from the dead, in that order, in their order.
    'Nunsense' revels in its own zaniness, but the show's irreverence is rooted in affection, not mean-spiritedness.
    The 'habit-forming' musical is now virtually the longest running off-Broadway show in history. It has been translated into ten different languages and is currently playing in over three hundred theatres around the world.
    To quote Dan Goggin, writer of the book, music and lyrics: "It all comes down to this: something funny is funnier when a nun does it". Goggin, a former seminarian, created this off-Broadway show from a successful line of Nunsense greeting cards which he devised.
    Each of the 'sisters' has something special to share.
    They're devoted to their calling, but the lure of show business ensnares them. Sister Robert Anne (Shelley McLean), a tough, street-wise nun with a heart of gold, speaks for all when she confesses "I Just Want to be a Star". Sister Mary Amnesia (Carol Trench) lost her memory when a crucifix fell on her head; Sister Mary Hubert (Nothando Ngubane) is mistress of the novices, and Sister Mary Leo (Tarryn Page), formerly a professional dancer before entering the convent, is always eager to display her talents. Sister Mary Regina (Amra-Faye Wright) is to the outside world a model Mother Superior. But to those who know her she is outrageous and quick-witted.
    Nunsense is basically about a fund-raising show organised by the surviving Sisters to bury four Sisters after one of the chef Sisters, Sister Mary Julia, accidentally poisons 52 Sisters who died instantly.
    Forty-eight were buried and four were left and put in a deep freezer.
    "There's a lot of fun involved, we'd like to present the nuns as real and honest as possible, certainly, we don't intend to poke fun at anybody's religion in any way at all and it never does that. In fact the message of the show is definitely pro-faith ", Sister Mary Regina told Reuters Television.
    In Broadway terms, Nunsense is the definitive theatrical miracle - initially regarded as something of a tacky frolic that began "off- Broadway" 20 years ago, it has become a cottage industry and a precursor to the hugely successful "Sister Act" movies.
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