Review: NUNCRACKERS Brings Christmas to The Keeton

Those wacky sisters of Hoboken are back on the job and back in the theatre in Nuncrackers - writer Dan Goggins' latest installment of the continuing saga of a group of down-on-their-luck nuns from New Jersey who are still trying to beef up their rolls, score some longed-for electronic gadgets and launching a cable access TV channel to hawk their own special brand of must-have holiday gifts - celebrating the Christmas season with a variety show that shows off their own questionable talents, along with those of a group of four children from the school at the Convent of Mount Saint Helen's.

Onstage through December 18 at The Larry Keeton Theatre in Donelson - directed, music directed and choreographed by the multi-talented, hardest working woman in Nashville show business, Ginger Newman - Nuncrackers might not be as outrageously fun or whip-smart funny as the show that spawned the whole genre of Nunsense-fueled musicals, but its gentle humor and heartfelt take on the holiday season remains true to the theatrical enterprise launched by Goggins more than 30 years ago (the show opened off-Broadway in 1985).

Starring the inimitable and unforgettable Ann Gwinn and the scene-stealing and gloriously voiced Brooke Leigh Davis, who last assayed the roles of Mother Superior Sister Mary Regina and Brooklyn-born Sister Robert Anne in last year's staging of Nunsense at The Keeton (directed by the award-winning Joshua Waldrep), the cast for Nuncrackers (a clever take-off on Tchaikovsky's holiday classic The Nutcracker, naturally) includes Keeton favorite Maggie Jackson (last seen as a wild-eyed Kit Kat Klub girl in Cabaret) as Sister Mary Paul (but perhaps best remembered as Sister Mary Amnesia), Melissa Wilson as Sister Mary Hubert and Larry Jones as Father Virgil Manly Trott. Sister Mary Leo, the dancing nun, is offstage rehearsing for her featured solo as The Sugarplum Fairy in the planned staging of The Nutcracker - until she's waylaid by an errant baton - and Sister Julia, Child of God still rides herd over the kitchen (despite the fact that some 52 nuns previously succumbed to her poisonous brew masquerading as vichysoisse) and Sister Spoonie (production stage manager Suzanne Spooner-Faulk, who deserves sainthood for all she does backstage, onstage and offstage at The Keeton) is on hand to keep the ship sailing smoothly - or a reasonable facsimile thereof...

They are joined in all the frivolities by a quartet of budding young thespians, playing the most talented students at the nuns' school (although you have to wonder who would entrust the molding of such young minds to this particular brain trust), and who show off their own ample talents in the process. Winnie Combs, Max Caplenor, Daniah Carr and Cole Alsup are the energetic and focused young actors giving the older, more experienced performers a run for their money in Nuncrackers. You'd be advised to remember their names: these kids have legs (in the theatrical sense of expected longevity, don't you know)!

In Nuncrackers, the ensemble is gathered together in the convent basement (which has been converted into a television studio, thanks in no small part to Sister Mary Paul's winnings from the Publisher's Clearinghouse Sweepstakes) for the taping of the Christmas spectacular - a shopworn and largely untested variety show in which WCON, the convent's home shopping club, is being launched. All manner of hilarity ensues, as is usually the case when the Little Sisters of Hoboken are gathered together, most of them in one room, and the stage is set for a holiday-themed show of Biblical proportions.

Although not as ribald and remarkable as the original Nunsense, the holiday version found in Nuncrackers is nonetheless entertaining, an ideal way of getting into the holiday spirit and sharing some laughs with some very talented people onstage and the gracious folks in the audience who have been plied with some tasty turkey and dressing before the curtain rises. The music isn't particularly memorable, but Goggins once again gives Sister Robert Anne her due with the heartwarming "Jesus Was Born in Brooklyn" that's likely to leave you a tad misty-eyed and her show-stopping "11 o'clock number," which evokes memories of "I Just Want to Be a Star" from Nunsense: "All I Want for Christmas."

The "Christmas Sing Along," which features the Entire company and invites the audience to join them in song, offers up a compendium of traditional carols that perfectly captures the spirit of the season and is sure to leave you in a festive and reflective mood.

Newman keeps the show moving and she ensures that her cast members deliver the musical good throughout the show, which is set against the backdrop of Lane Easterly's colorful set. Denise Robertson and Tanis Westbrook's costume design is spot on, while Stella London and Coleton Woods' lighting design provides the appropriately atmospheric illumination for the piece.

Annie Diomedes leads the three-member band (even playing the accordion to accompany Reverend Mother's reminiscence of childhood Christmases on the circus circuit), which includes Gillion Welch on violin and Liz Ficarello on percussion.

Nuncrackers. Written by Dan Goggins. Directed and musical directed by Ginger Newman. Choreographed by Ginger Newman and Melissa Wilson. Presented by The Larry Keeton Theatre at the Senior Center for the Arts, Donelson. Playing through December 18. For details, go to www.thelarrykeetontheatre.org or call (615) 883-8375. Running time: 2 hours (with one 15-minute intermission).

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