It all begins in the lobby of Patio Playhouse. The USS Golden Delicious bulletin board adorns the wall featuring the day's schedule of activities. Tonight the passengers are to be underwhelmed by Fiddler on the Roof. Sadly, with the exception of Jewish actor Howard Liszt (Scott Kolod) who plays Tevye, the cast is seasick. Alas, no show!
Fortunately, a group of nuns led by Sister Mary Regina (Caro Louise Aristei), who allegedly have some show biz savvy, are aboard. Playwright Dan Goggin, the author of eight Nunsense plays and musicals, created Meshuggah-Nuns! This edition is a revue with a watery thin plot and an array of strange songs. With a Jewish actor and a group of nuns, the show cascades with Jewish and Catholic humor.
Diminutive Sister Amnesia (Catharine Bock) performs feats of magic to the astonishment of the crowd. She also is a one-woman dynamo with more energy than I've seen on any stage recently. Sister Robert Anne (Miranda Porter) has a Brooklyn accent that can be sliced with a knife. Only Sister Hubert (Tiffany Paster) seems to be almost normal, but even that may be a stretch.
Reverend Mother Mary Regina tries unsuccessfully to keep her charges in line. Alas, she even goes over the edge.
Okay, so the jokes are old. It's just a revisit to some seriously funny ethnic humor. For those few old enough to have seen the end of vaudeville, we remember some of these groaners.
The music suggests its precursors quite strongly. Since we're on a ship and the theater audience is also the ship's audience, we are treated almost immediately to a unique version of "Anchors Aweigh." This is followed by a rousing "Contrition" that bears more than a slight resemblance to the more familiar "Tradition" from Fiddler.
It never lets up. Need I even hint where Howard's song "If I Were a Catholic" had its inspiration? No Catholic/Jewish show would be complete without a country-and-western hit such as "Three Shayna Maidels?" (A literal translation is three pretty girls.)
The humor through music continues with "The Potchky Polka," which has the nuns doing a Klezmer dance. Fortunately for the audience, the program offers a very short glossary of terms that are in Yiddish, Latin, and Portuguese. Yes, there is one profane sentence in Portuguese.
One of the cleverest take-offs is "Matzoh Man," which sounds so like "Macho Man."
Act I ends with "Das Boat," which parodies the marine disasters in "Titanic" and "The
Poseidon Adventure." The Reverend Mother is great in the Shelley Winters role. "Fiddlerspiel," deep in the second act, encompasses all the song titles in Fiddler.
Puns are the name of the game in this production. One of the most blatant examples is in an Act II number titled, "Mae's Moment," with a hand puppet called Sister Mary Annette. Oy Vey! Her major refrain is "Come up and see me sometime;" like what else could it be.
Sister Robert Anne tries desperately to end this punnerific play with "I'll Find a Song to Sing." Alas it doesn't work, although it is a lovely number. The cast comes romping back with "Rock the Boat," which is a most fitting way to end this frolic with chutzpah.
This is not great theater; it is fun theater slightly frayed at the edges, but then just what would you expect from a group of crazy nuns and one really happy Jewish entertainer? Wow, what fun!
In closing, I can only say mazeltov, for it took a lot of chutzpah for Patio Playhouse. Hopefully, the audiences don't plotz at seeing these delightful meshuggah-nuns! Or, as the nuns would say, adoramus te, benedicta tu, and dominus vobiscum. (We adore thee, bless you, the Lord be with you.)
Catharine Bock (Amnesia) & Tiffany Paster (Hubert)
Miranda Porter (Robert Ann) & Carol Louis Aristei (Rev. Mother)
Scott Kolod (Howard)
