Chyrel Miller, director of Springfield Little Theatre's new production of "Nunsense."
This is actually the fourth “Nunsense” at LT, Miller said. “We’ve done it twice before as ‘Nunsense,’ and then the third time it was done as one of the takeoffs of ‘Nunsense.’ But this one is going back to the original writing of ‘Nunsense,’ which actually was created in 1953!” (So says Dan Goggin, who created the “current” version of the show in 1985, which has logged more than 5000 performances worldwide.)
Referring to ‘Nunsense’ as a “cabaret show” should be a hint that it’s not your standard “book” or “storyline” musical. It’s the story of five nuns in Hoboken, New Jersey—their order is called “The Little Sisters of Hoboken”—who put on a variety show at Mount. St. Helens High School as a fundraiser... “to help them bury the last four dead sisters that are stuck in the freezer because Mother Superior spent the rest of their money on a 3D HD television, and the health inspector is right around the corner now,” according to Chyrel Miller. The backstory is that the convent’s cook, “Sister Julia, Child of God,” accidently poisoned 52 of the nuns with her recipe for vichyssoise. And the remaining nuns have decided that the best way to pay for a proper burial of the victims is to put on a variety show.