‘Nunsense’ revels in lighthearted farce

“Nunsense”

Now to April 17

CLO Cabaret Theater

655 Penn Ave.

Wednesday-Saturday… “Nunsense”

Now to April 17

CLO Cabaret Theater

655 Penn Ave.

Wednesday-Saturday at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday at 2 p.m.; select Thursdays at 1 p.m.

Tickets: $15 through Pitt Arts

“Nunsense” began with a line of greeting cards and a mannequin.

When nuns began to modernize — in particular, loosening restrictions on their clothing — a Dominican brother gave his friend Dan Goggin a mannequin outfitted with an old, traditional nun’s habit. It was a fantastic conversation piece, and eventually inspired him to create the original line of “Nunsense” greeting cards, which features nuns in full habit alongside sayings like, “Have Ruler, Will Travel.”

The greeting cards were so popular that they prompted Goggin, an aspiring performer, to write the “Nunsense” musical — a play centered around the five surviving Little Sisters of Hoboken’s attempts at putting on a variety show to raise money for the burial of four departed comrades, whom the convent cook accidentally poisoned.

Goggin, who directed the current performance at the Pittsburgh CLO Cabaret, was raised Catholic, and the five women featured in “Nunsense” are based on five nuns who taught him while he was at Catholic school.

“There are three of them still living and they consider themselves huge stars,” Goggin said, citing Sister Mary Ellen Walenta in particular, the inspiration for smart-mouthed Brooklyn nun Sister Robert Anne. Walenta was unavailable for comment. “It’s very cute,” Goggin said.

Despite its surprisingly dark premise, Goggin said Catholics take issue with “Nunsense” very, very rarely.

“The nuns are our biggest fans! I think the reason is, it’s all zany comedy; it has nothing to do with religion. It’s really more of a farce than a satire. I’ve had people tell me, ‘You know, you really could have put a couple of zingers in there,’ but we just wanted to make people laugh,” he said. “I think there’s certainly a place for theater like that, that questions things and makes you think, but that just wasn’t our goal.”

Whereas St. Paul Cathedral declined to comment on whether or not they found the play offensive, both Goggin and musical director Deana Muro insist that there are always nuns in the show’s audience.

Muro suggested that nuns are not as unviable a source of zany comedy as one might expect.

“Certainly if you’re Catholic, but even if you’re not, there’s something very mysterious and fun about a nun,” Muro said.

Christy Rodibaugh, who plays Sister Hubert, agreed.

“Most of the humor comes from the fact that we’re doing things that you don’t necessarily expect nuns to do. Even normal, everyday ordinary things … but you see someone in a full habit doing it, and that’s what makes it funny,” Rodibaugh said.

Although the church itself, which advocates traditional family values and does not allow women to be ordained as pastors, has been criticized as being male-dominated, feminists will be happy to hear that “Nunsense” provides five fantastic roles for women — particularly older women.

“We’ve had a lot of stars do the shows, and they always say, ‘It’s just wonderful that it doesn’t matter how old I get — I can still be a nun!’” Goggin laughed. “And they don’t have to look pretty that day.”