The original cast of this latest “Nunsense” show, wherein the five Sisters of Hoboken agree to appear at a friend’s Las Vegas showplace for a $10, 000 donation for their school back home, made a successful downtown run over the winter at Drury Lane Water Tower Place, which was a remarkably flat and sometimes unbearable affair. In the hands of this far more talented cast of locals, however, the show is hitting its mark. Jokes that fell flat in the original production work here because these nuns do not telegraph the double meaning of their statements: the nuns are played here as if they are true flesh and blood characters rather than caricatures and as a result, don’t really see how ridiculous of a situation that they are in. That has been the appeal of the previous “Nunsense” shows and is helped enormously in this case by performers who can sing, dance and interact with audience members as if they are real nuns and by an elegant set and first-class onstage band. (Dennis Polkow)
Drury Lane Oakbrook, 100 Drury Lane Rd, Oakbrook Terrace, (630)530-0111. $22-$26. Through July 23.
Toxic: A Review of Poison at The Plagiarists The real poison at work here isn’t strychnine or hemlock, it’s a dreary self-seriousness that leaches the play of any hint of wit, humor and humanity.
