After tentative attendance for the offerings of its own self-produced inaugural shows, and while waiting until spring when it rents its luxurious space for “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” for what all concerned hope is an open downtown run a la “Wicked,” Drury Lane Water Tower is closing out its 2005-6 season with the touring original cast production of the latest “Nunsense” show that feature the five Sisters of Hoboken agreeing to appear at a friend’s Las Vegas showplace for a $10,000 donation for their school back home. Your reaction to this material will depend largely on your reaction to the entire “Nunsense” franchise, which has thus far spawned six shows that imagine Latin-praying, pre-Vatican II nuns in full habit blissfully unaware of the modern world that surrounds them but which they encounter in increasingly bizarre situations: a kind of convent “Beverly Hillbillies,” if you will. “The audience will want to see plenty of T & A,” the Rev. Mother is told, who primly surmises that this means “talent and attitude.” And so it goes. But if the idea of large middle-aged women in full habit dancing and singing as if they were Vegas show girls—complete with feathers and hats and at one point even in imitation of the Village People—appeals to you, this is your show. (Dennis Polkow)
Drury Lane Theatre Water Tower Place, 175 E. Chestnut; (312)642-2000. Through Feb. 26.
Get Sparklejollytwinklejingley: A Review of Elf the Musical at Drury Lane The show is everything you’d imagine for a staged version of Buddy the Elf’s coming-of-age story. You can practically taste the gooey gumdrop goodness from any seat in the house, even if you’re more Team Grinch than Team Buddy.
