About the work
Nunsense (German title: Non(n)sens) is a musical comedy by the American Dan Goggin, who wrote the book, music and lyrics. It began as a line of greeting cards featuring a quick-witted nun, which Goggin first turned into the cabaret show The Nunsense Story and then into a full-length musical. It premiered, directed by Goggin himself, on 12 December 1985 at the Cherry Lane Theatre, Off-Broadway in New York. The German version is by Markus Weber and Thomas Woitkewitsch, adapted by Benjamin Baumann; the first German-language performance took place on 7 December 1989 at the Graumann-Theater in Vienna.
Plot
The cook of the Little Sisters of Hoboken has poisoned 52 nuns with a tainted vichyssoise while the others were out playing bingo. Money from selling greeting cards allowed the Mother Superior to bury almost all of them, but she then spent funds on a VCR – so four of the dead are still stored in the freezer. To pay for the remaining burials, five sisters put on a variety show in a school auditorium whose stage is still dressed with the set from a production of Grease. With solo numbers, dance routines and an audience quiz, the Mother Superior, her ambitious second-in-command, a nun from Brooklyn, a novice dreaming of ballet and the memory-less Sister Mary Amnesia step into the spotlight.
Cultural significance
The New York production ran for about ten years and reached 3,672 performances, making Nunsense the second-longest-running Off-Broadway show after The Fantasticks. The musical won four Outer Critics Circle Awards, including Best Off-Broadway Musical, and has been translated into numerous languages. Goggin followed it with several sequels and spin-offs, such as Nunsense II: The Second Coming and the Christmas musical Nuncrackers.