‘Nunsense Muny Style’ will be a stage-filling, laugh-packed extravaganza

By Doug Kaufman

When writer/Broadway performer Dan Goggin expanded on a humorous greeting card featuring a nun and turned it into the wildly funny and successful musical comedy “Nunsense” 30 years ago, it was conceived as a small show.

So when Muny executive producer Mike Isaacson asked Goggin to oversee a large production called “Nunsense Muny Style,” which opens tonight and runs through Sunday, Goggin knew he would need help.

“I’ve directed the show all over the place, but the most people we’ve ever had in it is seven,” said Goggin, who serves as supervisor for The Muny’s show. “I said I have no clue how to move 60 people around a stage. My friend Matt Lenz, who is a New York director, had worked out here several times. We had talked about working together, so I said to Matt, ‘Do you want to do this together, because you’ll know how to do it.’ He said yes.”

The creative team also includes choreographer Teri Gibson.

“Basically what I’ve been doing is helping them with things about the characters that Matt may not have experienced over the years – giving them insights about things that have worked for us and things that haven’t,” he said. “Then he basically put the whole thing together and did a brilliant job. When we had our tech rehearsal, I said to him, ‘It was a very good choice to have you come.’”

The cast features St. Louis native Phyllis Smith (from TV’s “The Office”) as Sister Julia, Child of God; Kathy Fitzgerald as Reverend Mother Mary Regina; Tari Kelly as Sister Mary Amnesia; Beth Leavel playing Sister Robert Anne; Sarah Meahl portraying Sister Mary Leo and Terri White as Sister Mary Hubert. Muny regulars Ken Page and Lara Teeter play Sister Mary Wilhelm and Father Virgil, respectively.

“The whole cast is phenomenal,” Goggin said. “I think three of them are Tony winners, and the rest of them have like three or four Tony nominations. I was just very honored that they were all excited to do the show. It’s a really top-notch group of people.”

The plot involves the Little Sisters of Hoboken doing a benefit to raise money to properly bury sisters who died from eating tainted vichyssoise made by Sister Julia, Child of God. So the sisters do their “show within a show” benefit at The Muny, which means they will use the “Shrek” set. It features 40 tap-dancing nuns and plenty of hilarity.

“It’s a brilliant, brilliant comedic cast, and we’re gonna have so much fun with the audience on this thing,” Isaacson said. “It’s a real romp. “

Goggin, who was taught by Dominican Sisters while growing up in Alma, Michigan, said the story is “totally crazy” and made up.

“But the personalities of the five sisters are based on five nuns who taught me,” he said.

The nuns were funny, but it didn’t dawn on Goggin until many years after he graduated. He was in New York as a singer and had performed on Broadway. A friend who was a Dominican Brother gave him a mannequin dressed as a nun as a joke.

“A couple of us got together and made a greeting card of her – again, as a joke,” he said. “People thought it was so funny that that’s when I thought, ‘Gee, maybe I can do something with this,’ and I can put together some kind of show. Then when I looked back and started to think, ‘How can I develop the personalities of these nuns,’ and was thinking of things that happened in the past, then I started relating them to sisters who had taught me in school.”

He and a couple of friends collaborated on a line of 12 nun cards and sold 38,000 cards during two days at the National Stationery Show in New York.

“That was the thing that really kind of triggered it, where it was like, ‘You know what? The sense of humor we’ve come up with – people are really enjoying this.’”

He was already writing for the theater, so creating a show was a natural extension. When the first “Nunsense” hit the boards in 1983, it was supposed to play as a cabaret show for four weekends, which blew up to a 38-week run. The cast and everyone involved wanted to take it to the next level, so it opened off-Broadway in 1985.

“Since then I’ve written six more sequels to it – kind of the continuing adventures of the nuns,” he said.

But The Muny debut of “Nunsense” is also the debut of the larger show with additional characters, thus the title “Nunsense Muny Style.” Expanding the show to fit The Muny stage involved adding chorus members and dancers to ”big numbers” and adding characters by pulling them from the sequels. Sister Julia, Child of God, was more of a plot element. She was the nun whose cooking accidentally poisoned the other nuns, but had never been physically in the show before.

Smith is in on the ground floor of the development of Sister Julia.

“Phyllis has been just an absolute joy,” Goggin said. “Before she signed on, I met her in Los Angeles, and we became friends in about 10 minutes, and then we talked for two hours. It was funny – when Phyllis first said to me, ‘Tell me about the character,’ I said, ‘We don’t really know about her. We’ve never seen her.’ So it was kind of fun for Phyllis to develop a character around her.”

While much of the dialogue was already figured out, Smith had input in terms of the character’s personality.

“As Phyllis has learned the part, Sister Julia has become quite feisty, which I’m really enjoying,” he said. “One of the great things about ‘Nunsense’ is it’s just all fun, and it’s about making the people laugh. We’ve always said, because it happens in real time, and we’re playing it that the nuns really have come to The Muny to raise money, … I say to Phyllis, ‘Whatever happens, happens.’ That’s always been our rule. Since it’s in real time, it’s like, if the set falls down, that’s what happened at their benefit.”

In other words, flexibility to ad-lib is built in to the show.

“It’s kind of a relaxing feeling to know that is something does happen, you can play it,” Goggin said.

When Isaacson asked Goggin to adapt “Nunsense” for The Muny, it was an easy answer because The Muny has an excellent national reputation.

“People in New York have said to me it’s almost one of those things where it should be on your list of things to do,” he said of being involved with The Muny.

Once rehearsals began, Isaacson said to Goggin, “I can’t believe we haven’t done it sooner. It seems like such a natural for The Muny.”

Goggin believes audiences will agree right off the bat.

“The opening number, when you’ve got a kick line of 50 nuns across the stage, I must say, just sitting and watching it, it’s like, ‘Wow.’ So it’s been very exciting for all of us, just to see it grow and see it happen,” he said.

After all these years and all those shows, opening night is still a big deal.

“It’s exciting because it’s the biggest we’ve ever seen it, and ever been involved in it,” Goggin said. “And to hear the voices and stuff is very exciting. And then, you’re always nervous for the actors, because as solid as they are, we’ve only had a week of rehearsal to throw this whole thing together. Once you’re out there, no matter what happens, you can’t do anything to help anybody. That always makes you nervous. No matter how confident everyone is, you’re out there thinking, ‘Oh my God, our kids are up there. What if they stumble? We can’t pick ‘em up.’ So that’s more of the nervousness, rather than the kind of nervousness if you have to go out and do it.

“But it’s very exciting, and also, for me, coming out with our people from New York and that, to put it together, you feel a certain responsibility that we’ve been invited out here. … But so far, everybody is just all smiles, and we’re just feeling that the audience is really going to get into it.”

Showtime is 8:15 p.m. Monday, July 1 through Sunday, July 7. Tickets are $12 to $80 and are available at The Muny box office at at www.muny.org.