Sister act revels in a musical full of Hoboken nunsense

6:00am Thursday 1st May 2008

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Wootton Bassett Light Operatic Society's Spring production, Nunsense, provided four fun-filled evenings at the Memorial Hall last week.

Dan Goggin's hilarious musical, which offered an affectionately comic slant on Catholicism, concerned the fund-raising antics of The Little Sisters of Hoboken, after the demise of 52 nuns, accidentally poisoned by the convent cook.

Nunsense, Wootton Bassett Light Operatic Society

Show-goers were greeted by some of the Sisters in the foyer, where a retiring collection (for Prospect Hospice) followed the final curtain.

Linda Worth was splendid as the Mother Superior (allegedly from Kilquirky, a small county in Ireland). Elaine Taylor, a noted comedienne, gave a great peformance as Sister Mary Robert Anne, a zany streetwise nun from New Jersey.

The show was set on the stage of Mount Helen's School Auditorium in Hoboken, New York, amid remnants of the 8th Graders'production of Grease.

Gems included Kayleigh Stanley's portrayal of Sister Mary Amnesia, Marion Aspell as Sister Mary Hubert, and Suzanne Russell as Sister Mary Leo (whose ballet solo was entitled The Dying Nun).

The enthusiastic cast included Michelle Cooper, Jackie Cowley, Cheryl Deller, Tammy Hollands, Margaret Oakley, Ros Vickers, Lorraine Winterflood and a lone male actor, Terry Aspell (in a bit part as Father Terry).

An able musical ensemble, and the sheer ebullience of the entire cast ensured that Nunsense, a very different show from the usual WBLOS fare, won a warm response from large audiences.

Stella Taylor