STAGE REVIEW : Can the Religious Be So Wacky? Nunsense!

The Little Sisters of Hoboken have a big problem. The vichyssoise that Sister Julia made? Well, it wasn’t as good as it looked. Botulism can be a terrible thing.

As one of the sisters sweetly put it, “For 52, bon appetit was also bon voyage.”

Now the remaining ladies of the order must find a way to bury the dead. The bodies are chilling in the freezer, the health department is closing in, and the Reverend Mother has blown the pin money on a VCR. What to do?

In Dan Goggin’s goofy little musical “Nunsense,” the solution is obvious--hey, let’s put on a show!

“Nunsense,” a teasing tear through Catholic dogma and the convent way-of-life which won the New York Critics’ Circle award for best off-Broadway musical in 1986, opened last weekend at the Pacific Auditorium in a spry revival by the Fullerton Civic Light Opera Company. Director Rob Barron and a talented cast know they’re dealing with the lightest of satires, and they’ve approached it with an easygoing combination of energy and wit.

There’s a coziness to Barron’s staging that fits this show. Right off, the audience realizes that it plays something of a role here as Catholic-school boosters eager to attend this fund-raising revue to help the Little Sisters out of a jam. There’s interplay between the cast and crowd, and it works well within the intimate framework.

“Nunsense” tickles with peeks into the personalities of the sisters, a disparate quintet if ever there was one. Leading the charge is the Reverend Mother, who originally worked in a leper colony “because all the good causes were taken.” Mary-Pat Green makes her tough in a fun, winking sort of way.

There’s a bit of rivalry between the Reverend Mother and Sister Mary Hubert, her second-in-charge. Debbi Ebert, praised for her recent turn in FCLOC’s “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” gives the group some sass, especially when strutting through “Holier Than Thou.”

The other nuns keep step. Jennifer Bryce shows there’s more than a little stage ambition lurking under Sister Mary Robert Anne’s habit, and Kathleen Gillmore provides humorous glimpses into Sister Mary Leo’s artistic side. Then there’s out-of-it Sister Mary Amnesia; Tracey Williams is super at playing befuddled.

The setting by Gil Morales accentuates the show’s wacky streak. Forced to take over a local high school gym for the fund-raiser, the Little Sisters find themselves surrounded by ‘50s junk from a student production of “Grease.” It’s easy being silly when you’re being watched over by a huge poster of pouty Marilyn Monroe.

* “Nunsense,” Pacific Auditorium, 2500 E. Nutwood Ave., Fullerton. Thursdays through Saturdays, 8 p.m.; May 16 at 2 and 7 p.m.; May 23 at 2 p.m. Ends May 23. $19-$24. (714) 879-1732. Running time: 2 hours.

Mary-Pat Green: Sister Mary Regina (Reverend Mother)

Debbi Ebert: Sister Mary Hubert

Jennifer Bryce: Sister Mary Robert Anne

Tracey Williams: Sister Mary Amnesia

Kathleen Gillmore: Sister Mary Leo

A Fullerton Civic Light Opera Company production. Music, lyrics and book by Dan Goggin. Directed and choreographed by Rob Barron. Musical direction by Grant Rohr. Set by Gil Morales. Lights by Donna Ruzika.