And now, for some biblical math.
If a bit of accidental food poisoning kills 52 nuns, but the Mother Superior went on a shopping spree and now only has the money to bury 48 of them, how much cash will it take to get the convent out of the jam?
Such is the dilemma for the Little Sisters of Hoboken in Marathon Community Theatre’s “Nunsense,” opening Thursday, March 13 at 8 p.m. With four of their sisters temporarily stored as nun-sicles in the freezer, Sister Mary Hubert (Kara Pascucci), Sister Robert Anne (Aubrey Kehn), Sister Mary Leo (Michelle Macoskey) and Sister Mary Amnesia (Destiny Lee) are paying the price for a splurge on flat-screen TVs by the Mother Superior Sister Mary Regina (Leigh Sanchez), throwing together a variety show to raise money and properly put their comrades six feet under.
“They’re the five hardest-working nuns in show biz,” said director Jerry Nussenblatt, who together with musical director Jaimie Roberts Gearhart and choreographer Lisa Scobba molded the powerhouse vocal quintet in author Dan Goggin’s musical comedy.
All five actresses are experienced under the bright lights, whether honing their craft in dozens of past shows at MCT or bringing prior training in theater and dance to the local stage. So much so, Nussenblatt said, that in some cases he was able to take his hands off the wheel and wait to see what happened.
“A lot of what you see on stage, they came up with themselves,” he said, pointing to entire musical numbers and choreography sequences in which he made a conscious effort to give the cast extra ownership over their performances.
“I learn something from every single person here,” said Sanchez. “This is Michelle’s first musical, but if I didn’t have her next to me, I wouldn’t be able to dance.”
The show breaks the fourth wall with abandon in a musical designed to bring different laughs each night. It’s the convent’s variety show, after all, and that means plenty of audience participation and “prize-winning” opportunities for MCT patrons. The line between the script and natural talent within the cast’s own ad-libs is blurry at best.
“There’s not a whole lot of characterization in the script itself,” said Lee. “So a lot of it was just us experimenting and how to deliver subtext and backstory. … It’s never the same show two nights in a row.”
“In (MCT’s 2024 musical) ‘Disenchanted,’ there was a lot of talking TO the audience, but the audience wasn’t invited to talk back to us. It was like a one-way mirror,” said Kehn. “In ‘Nunsense,’ we NEED them to talk back to us.”
“They’re going to be quizzed,” laughed Sanchez.
“Nunsense” runs on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. through April 12, with a 3 p.m. matinee on Sunday, March 30. Tickets are $38 and are available at marathontheater.org or by calling 305-743-0994.
