Nunsense 2 Is an Unholy Mess

Nunsense 2: The Second Coming is like an endurance test for the audience. If you can survive two hours of corny puns, cheap gags and forgettable songs, then you deserve some sort of award.

The original Nunsense, which I have not seen, was a huge international hit. The plot of Nunsense 2 is as threadbare as possible: the five nuns at Mt. Saint Helens School reunite for what is billed as a thank you program for their supporters. Forced to work around the set of The Mikado (being presented by a junior high) they decide to stick to their successful formula and present a variety show. Meanwhile, an order of Fransciscans threaten to take one of the nuns away with them. Do we care? No. Is this the least bit interesting? No.

The creative bankruptcy on display here is really stunning. One of the nuns does some ventriloquy with a nun puppet, one wears roller skates and another twirls like a ballerina. Two of the nuns mistakenly sip some sake and get drunk, in one of the more embarrassing moments of the show. There is also a bingo game involving the audience, as well as a sing-along. It all falls flat.

Writer Dan Goggin, who also composed the songs, gives the nuns one groaningly awful bit of dialogue after another. The humor is aimed at the lowest common denominator. After a few minutes, I was hoping to make it stop by reciting the rosary, and I’m Jewish!

The actresses, including Cathy Fox as Reverend Mother Mary Regina, Karen Gail Kessler as Sister Mary Hubert, Maria Day as Sister Robert Anne, Jeanne Sullivan Evans as Sister Mary Paul “Amnesia” and Donna Gorham as Sister Mary Leo, try their very best but are defeated by the atrocious material. They shouldn’t feel too bad, however. Even Meryl Streep couldn’t have brought this lame story to life.

Oddly, Nunsense 2 features a song called “What a Catastrophe.” The title may as well be describing the show itself.

Nunsense 2: The Second Coming runs through April 24. The Community Players. Jenks Auditorium, 350 Division St, Pawtucket. For tickets, call 401-726-6860. thecommunityplayers.org.