THEATRE REVIEW

NOVEMBER 2026 | Volume 269

 

Since 1985, Dan Goggin’s Nunsense has played everywhere, including a ten-year-long run off-Broadway. No dummy Dan, he has turned the Little Sisters of Hoboken into a franchise with five spinoffs to date and counting. Nuncrackers is the Nunsense Christmas show.

After a successful run of Nunsense earlier this year, Metro has come back this holiday season with Nuncrackers. Returning cast members include Jenn Suratos (who also directs) as the Mother Superior, Mary Cleaver as Brooklynese Sister Robert Anne, and Paula Higgins as Sister Mary Hubert. New to the convent are Keri Smith as forgetful Sister Amnesia and Vincent Keats as Father Virgil.

The play’s conceit is that the nuns and priest are taping a Christmas show for cable TV, so the evening has a basic variety show format, punctuated by addresses to the audience, backstage accidents and screw-ups. Like most variety shows, there’s a hit-and-miss quality to the numbers.

Goggin is not the world’s best songwriter, but all these actors can sing, and we get some entertaining dance numbers courtesy of choreographer Shelley Stewart Hunt. The nuns also come into the house with prizes and surprises for the audience. My wife was given a golden rule(r), two inches long, with the comment, “Maybe your husband can use it.” These nuns aren’t 100% holy, but that’s about as far as the spicy innuendo goes.

Highlights include a Sophie Tucker number by the Mother Superior and a snappy tap routine featuring her and Father Virgil. There are some good jokes – a Catholic video game (Moral Combat) and a candy cane and Abel for the Christmas tree. A reference to the St. Andrew Sisters of Hoboken sets up the show’s best song and most delightful number, “In the Convent,” sung by all five performers with excellent harmonies. Musical director Carlina Dykstra and a small band provide the live music.

Nuncrackers is a good-natured, often charming little show. The actors are obviously having a lot of fun with it and, at its best, the audience does, too.

 

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