Goofy habits

Nunsense II may be a formula comedy, but at least it’s a reliable formula. There aren’t a lot of surprises in this show, which contains a steady string of well-worn jokes (some of vaudeville vintage, others aimed at Catholics) and lighthearted musical numbers, set against the airiest of plots.

And as you might expect, there’s audience participation: the inevitable sing-along, plus a well-rigged game of bingo. (Your winning card comes in the playbill.)

The twist is that the characters are nuns, and the visual fun stems from seeing the formally garbed sisters in improbable situations.

To wit: A nun on roller skates. A nun belting out a country-western song. Two nuns getting tipsy (when they mistake a flask of Japanese sake for drinking water). Three nuns doing the can-can. And multiple nuns—why bother counting how many?—doing a tap dance, some with straw hat and cane.

Original? Well, not really. Mindless? You betcha. Fun? Most of the time. The show is something of a one-note symphony, but it summons up some smiles.

Credit the cast—Cathy Monaghan, Lee-Ann Becton, Sylvia Peek, Patricia Bloch and Buffee Gillighan (all community actresses who live in the foothills)—for communicating a fairly contagious sense of enjoyment: They’re always energetic and mostly on the mark, though some scenes bubble more than others.

Director Corey Rickrode also works in a clever bit of visual humor using black light and glowing white fabric, and piles on various other visual and verbal diversions. Musicians Dan Monaghan and Jennifer Johnson dish up doo-wop, country and neo-classical styles.

If you’re a Sacramento resident, is it worth driving up to Placerville to see? Well, that depends. This ultra-light show is a pleasant interlude of earnest community theater. It probably won’t linger in your memory, but it’s likely more fun than a routine end-of-summer movie. Consult your expectations and decide for yourself.