The Nuns return to Concord

With not quite the frequency of the swallows at Capistrano, The Little Sisters of Hoboken are once again bound for the Willows stage in a brand new production, the sixth in the extraordinarily popular series, Nunsense.

Nunsensations, the Nunsense Vegas Revue will premiere at the Willows Theatre November 27, 2006, and run through New Year’s Eve.

The history of how the Nuns first came to Concord goes back to 1989 when Artistic Director Richard Elliott caught wind of the first Nunsense.  After a successful run in San Francisco at Theatre on the Square and continuing performances Off-Broadway in New York, the author Dan Goggin held the performance rights very strictly and was not planning to let any “local” theatres produce the show.

The Willows Theatre Company had been gaining in stature and reputation and that same year signed a seasonal contract with Actors’ Equity Association – the union of professional actors and stage managers.  Elliott called repeatedly, trying to persuade the decision makers that the Willows Theatre Company was the perfect organization to produce the first ever Nunsense outside of a major city.

Months passed before the Willows Theatre was finally given a very limited license to produce the show.

During this period, the Willows Theatre Company was still a program of the City of Concord and all the staff were city employees.  The city had recently purchased the old Roller World at 5298 Clayton Road in Concord with plans to renovate it into a large community center to serve that part of town.  The city asked the theatre if they could put together a program at Roller World which would attract people to the new site in an effort to “test the waters” as to whether the location would make a viable community center.

The Company had initially planned to stage Nunsense at the Willows Theatre but considered presenting the show at the Roller World site as a valuable opportunity: if the audiences would come, the site could seat 450 patrons for each performance rather than the 210-seat capacity at the Willows.  The Company knew it would be a gamble and with the strict limitation on the performance license Elliott had to do some quick scrambling to convince the licensing agent and author that their show could succeed in a former roller rink.

Actually, Elliott thought the idea was kind of perfect.  Having essentially a vaudeville show featuring singing and dancing nuns playing on a makeshift stage in a facility with faded carpet hanging on the walls and a huge mirror ball overhead added a level of “kitsch” to the proceedings that just seemed to fit.

He was successful in convincing the decision makers and was granted permission to mount the show at Roller World.  The marketing director at that time, George Evano, thought we should pull out all the stops and make the show a true destination event. He schemed to have Bingo played at intermission; appetizers served with names like “The Reverend Mother” (a large cheese and meats tray) and “The Little Sister” (a smaller portion of the Reverend Mother); and bottles of Blue Nun Wine made available for patrons to purchase and take to their tables to enjoy while watching the show.

The production was a runaway hit.  In its first presentation, more than 10,000 patrons came to see the Nuns sing and dance at the roller rink.  Spaghetti dinners were added to Sunday afternoon performances and Nunsense “frequent flyer” cards were distributed offering discounts for patrons who came to see the show more than once.

The show was so successful that it transferred nine different times and played more than 200 performances in locations such as the Willows Theatre, Solano College, St. Mary’s College, Town Hall Theatre in Lafayette, and in a moment of inspiration, the nuns traveled in the Concord Pavilion’s parking tram from Roller World to the Del Valle Theatre in Walnut Creek for an extended stay seven months into the production.  A short stop along the way in downtown Walnut Creek coincided with the Regional Center’s intermission of the musical Mame and the nuns hopped off the tram and gave flyers to the crowd assembled at the RCA.

Nun fever had reached Contra Costa: it seemed the show would never close.

The original cast of Barbara Larsen (Reverend Mother), Alma Sayles (Sr Hubert), Diana Torres-Koss (Sr Robert Anne), Carrie Keskinen (Sr Amnesia), and Julie James (Sr Leo) stayed with the production for its entire run through all the moves around the region.  The show finally closed in 1991 – nearly a year after it began performances.

In 1993, Dan Goggin, having found an ally in Elliott and the Willows Theatre Company, decided to open the sequel to Nunsense – Nunsense 2: The Second Coming -- again in San Francisco in a commercial production at Theatre on the Square.  The Willows had already been granted the rights to produce the show – the only stipulation was that we could not open the show before its premiere in San Francisco.

Longtime musical director (and our managing director) Andrew Holtz was chosen by Mr Goggin to be a member of the orchestra for the San Francisco run.  This affiliation helped to cement the relationship with the author and the Willows Theatre Company.

Unfortunately, the San Francisco press did not favorably review the sequel and the show closed its city engagement, losing its entire investment.  The production only ran a little over two months there.

Conversely, the Willows Theatre Company planned to open its 1993 season with this production and rehearsals were well under way, with season ticket holders eagerly awaiting the second installment.  Again, the Willows felt it was a bit of a gamble to go forward with the show.  What if the local audiences agreed with the San Francisco press and decided the show wasn’t good?  Elliott and Holtz figured that perhaps the San Francisco press was seeking something “high brow” and Nunsense didn’t fit their tastes.  However, they had seen the thousands of patrons who had attended Nunsense 1 and were reasonably certain they would take to No. 2 as well.

The gamble paid off in more ways than one.  Not only was the show another mega-hit for the company, running an extended six months in its initial performance schedule, but the author, seeing its success in Concord immediately following the disaster in San Francisco, vowed if he ever wrote any more of the series he would give the West Coast premiere at the Willows Theatre.

What followed was to become a staple for the company and a lifelong friendship between Elliott, Holtz, and Goggin.  In 1996, Goggin brought his New York design team to Concord and directed Sister Amnesia’s Country Western Nunsense Jamboree.  One of his favorite actresses who had worked with him around the country was Jeanne Tinker in the title role.  Ms. Tinker stole the hearts of the audience with her loopy country western singing and characteristic lunacy as Sister Amnesia.  The show was again a blockbuster and had a long, extended run at the Willows.

In 1999, Goggin again struck gold with Nuncrackers, the Nunsense Christmas show, which played to sold out houses from mid-October through January 2000.

In 2003, once again Goggin brought the New York team out for the premiere of Meshuggah-Nuns.  This show found the Little Sisters on a cruise ship and unwittingly coerced into being the stage show for the liner as the regular performers had come down with a bad case of seasickness.  The show played for an unprecedented run and only closed because the theatre simply had to put up the next show of the season.

It is now 2006 and Mr. Goggin is back again with an entirely new production – Nunsensations.  Ironically, while the show premiered on the East Coast, three of the original cast members are Willows favorites from previous productions of the series.  Jeanne Tinker, Carrie Keskinen, and Deborah Del Mastro are all returning to Concord along with newcomers Susan Goeppinger and Bambi Jones.

It’s been 17 years since the first Nunsense graced the stage at the Roller Rink but the relationships that have been built with the author and the cast members will live forever.  We can only hope Mr. Goggin continues to bring us a new production for at least 17 more years.