THEATER REVIEW : A ‘Second Coming’ That Makes No Sense

Those who feel the need to catch up on their penance and anyone else who’d like to see how low a show can go might welcome the Los Angeles premiere of “Nunsense II: The Second Coming” at the La Mirada Theatre.

A sequel to “Nunsense,” also by Dan Goggin, this revue-style musical brings back the five nuns of the Little Sisters of Hoboken and their penchant for bad jokes, worse puns and wretched songs.

Once again, the sisters have decided to put on a benefit show. And the string of 22 songs interlaced with patter is nothing if not punishing.

Intended as a sendup of parish talent shows and the like, the evening takes this thinnest of premises and stretches it way too far. The musical numbers, many of which paraphrase show-tune, country and pop styles, may be intended as parody, but in fact they’re merely amateurish.

The jokes seldom rise above grade-school humor. When the sisters read aloud from a mail-order catalogue of gifts for Catholics, for instance, the suggestions include “Pope on a Rope” and “Pin the Braid on Sinead.”

Jo Anne Worley of “Laugh-In” fame heads the cast as Sister Mary Regina, Mother Superior, and her sturdy comic presence occasionally wends its way through this inane vehicle. Unfortunately though, her four fellow cast members have little opportunity to shine, stuck as they are in stereotyped roles.

“Nunsense II.” None sense. None fun. None Worse.