With a full house of supporters and sponsors, the Gryphon is alive with the sound of Nunsense.

Written by Dan Goggin over 30 years ago, Nunsense is one of the longest running Off-Broadway musical hit shows in history. Given tonight’s performance by Wellington’s newest theatre company Wing It Productions, I can see why. 

What a gem of a production! From the get go the Little Sisters of Crofton Downs have the audience clapping, cheering, confessing and dissolving into raucous laughter.  

The premise for the story – the sudden death of fifty two Nuns through food poisoning – is probably not supposed to be funny, except it is, especially when re-enacted by Sister Mary Leo’s (Rebecca Tate) dying Nun ballerina.

The dilemma of how to pay for the burial of the last few bodies currently on ice in the cafeteria freezer, results in a fundraiser variety show performed paradoxically on the set of the local schools production of Grease! (Set design Ben Emerson and Jeff Hewitt – also lighting designer).   

The hilarious, irreverent and yet thankfully not gratuitously offensive revue that follows is packed with show-stopping song and dance numbers with plenty of ‘convent humour’. 

There is obviously scripting license to make things local and topical and director Lyndee-Jane Rutherford has cleverly put a Wellington and Kiwi-ana flavour into this production. She is expertly supported by her production team – one man band and maestro Michael Nicholas Williams and choreographer Rochelle Rose, who also plays Sister Robert Anne with vim and vigour.

All five performers are fantastic and these dynamic and challenging characters give them all a platform to inhabit (ba dum tish) their roles and show off their craft with everything from puppetry, ballet, Marx Ba rother-esque comedy, and plethora of musical theatre singing and dancing styles.

The choreography is slick and the ensemble choral sound (I love that there is no added amplification) is resounding with excellent harmonies, although the head voice tone is sounding tired overall. But the energy pouring off the Gryphon’s intimate stage environs is infectious – which is amazing, given the heat and their costumes!

Jane Keller’s Mother Superior is quick witted and her physical comedy in a scene where her character discovers some ‘sinful’ temptations is uproarious. (It also wouldn’t surprise me if those burlesque feather fans turn up again in a one woman show some time).

Sister Mary Hubert (Bronwyn Turei) delivers pithy one-liners, funky moves and outstanding soulful vocals – bringing the house down in the final number, ‘Holier than Thou’, in true Sister Act style.

Tania Parker as Sister Amnesia (the nun who has forgotten her name because a crucifix fell on her head) brilliantly duets with the foul-mouthed puppet Sister Mary Annette in ‘So you want to be a Nun’. Her character seems to have forgotten which vocal style to sing in too as she runs the whole gamut of vocal timbres from opera to country (I could have gone to Nashville)! Such a demanding role, executed with panache.

It isn’t just a frivolous farcical story though. Given that the writer based these characters on Nuns he knew while growing up, we do get an impression of the truth in the relationship between the characters, their dreams and aspirations, quirky humour and fun and the feeling of care and community within all the hilarity and pastiche.

So no matter if you are practising or lapsed in your religious persuasion, or not a believer at all, it’s well worth seeing this wonderful production in all its Gloria-veil.

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