A hallelujah

Topeka Capital-Journal, The, Aug 18, 2000 by Bill Blankenship Capital-Journal

From left, Sister Amnesia (Christi Moore), Sister Wilhelm (Chris Day), Sister Robert Anne (Glynis Kickhaefer) and Sister Leo (Kelly Grecian) sing a song about men in "Sister Amnesia's Country Western Nunsense Jamboree," which opens tonight at the Columbian Theatre.

In "Nunsense Jamboree," Sister Amnesia (Christi Moore) hits the road to promote her first country album with the help of Sister Wilhelm (Chris Day), superintendent of nursing.

Sister Leo (Kelly Grecian), ponders the secular life in the Columbian Theatre's production of "Sister Amnesia's Country Western Nunsense Jamboree."

Tickets

"SISTER AMNESIA'S COUNTRY WESTERN NUNSENSE JAMBOREE" will be staged at the Columbian Theatre, 521 Lincoln, Wamego at 7:30 p.m. today and Saturday, Aug. 18-19, 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 20, 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Aug. 25-26 and 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 27. Dinner theater is available at 6 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and a Sunday brunch is served at 12:30 p.m. Tickets are $15 ($8 for children) for the show only. Meal and show tickets are $30 ($16 for children). To make a reservation, call the box office at (800) 899-1893 or (785) 456-2029.

'Hee-Haw'

By BILL BLANKENSHIP

Photographs by GREG LAHANN

The Capital-Journal

AMEGO --- In a way, the actress playing the title role of the Columbian Theatre's production of "Sister Amnesia's Country Western Nunsense Jamboree" was heaven sent.

At least there was quite a bit of serendipity if not divine intervention in how Christi Moore came home to Kansas to star in the musical which opens tonight for a two-weekend run in the

historic downtown Wamego playhouse.

Moore, who grew up in Riverton in the southeast corner of the state, had finished an eight-month national tour of "Wizard of Oz," starring Mickey Rooney and Jo Anne Worley, in which she had understudied the Wicked Witch.

The theater faculty at Emporia State University, where Moore earned her bachelor's degree in 1989, had wanted Moore to appear as a guest artist in their summer theater production of "Beehive," reprising a role Moore had done several times during her decade in Wichita theater.

"Just kind of in passing, I told Scott that was what was happening," said Moore, referring to Scott Kickhaefer, the artistic director of the Columbian. Kickhaefer also is an alumnus of the ESU theater department, where he appeared in productions with Moore.

Knowing he had "Nunsense Jamboree" scheduled as the Columbian's 2000-2001 season opener, Kickhaefer invited his former college classmate to extend her stay in Kansas and appear as a guest artist in Wamego.

"Other than being 100 degrees every day since I've been here, it's been wonderful," Moore said.

Moore has done three productions of "Nunsense," the 1985 off- Broadway hit with book, music and lyrics by Dan Goggin. The former seminary student who chose show biz over priesthood based his musical revue on his line of greeting cards featuring nuns.

"Nunsense" featured the five surviving members of the Little Sisters of Hoboken.

Before settling in New Jersey, the nuns ran a leper colony in the Mediterranean. But then the Protestants moved in and built leper condos, putting the sisters out of business. So they moved to Hoboken, where things were supposed to get better.

However, disaster struck in the form of the convent's chef, Sister Julia, Child of God, whose tainted vichyssoise wiped out 52 of the nuns. The five survivors --- they were off playing bingo --- managed to bury all but four of their sisters before running out of money. To give a Catholic burial to the four "blue nuns" being kept on ice in the convent's freezer, the remaining Little Sisters of Hoboken stage a musical revue.

Sister Amnesia, who lost her memory after being conked on the head by a crucifix, discovers her true identity as Sister Mary Paul, who once had been in a singing contest in Nashville.

In Nunsense II: The Second Coming," Reverend Mother secures a recording contract for Sister Amnesia, and in "Nunsense Jamboree," the songs and jokes continue with the nuns on the road to promote Amnesia's first album, "I Could've Gone to Nashville."

Goggin has described the show as "a cross between 'Laugh-In,' 'Hee- Haw' and the Grand Ole Opry," with the score including songs like "Mini-Pearls of Wisdom."

In keeping with the theme, Kickhaefer, who also directs the Columbian production, designed a set with a big red barn, a chicken coop and a corral for the orchestra, which is led by music director, Pat Nunley, of Topeka, on piano.

Amnesia and her fellow nuns pop in and out of windows and doors in the barn and coop as they share groan-invoking jokes, like, "Do you know what they call nuns at the Sistine Chapel? Ceiling fans."

Then there's this exchange:

"Knock. Knock."

"Who's there?"

"A little old lady."

"A little old lady who?"

"I didn't know you could yodel."

There are even commercials during the show: Ascension Air (if you're in coach, you get a rosary and a snack. First class includes a full meal and a high Mass); the Manger Inn (its motto: there's always room for one more); and Franciscan Fodder (chow for saintly livestock).