Heaven Isn't Quite a Place on Earth
Camp darling Charles Busch has put aside frequent muse Susan Hayward in order to pay homage to another star of the silver screen from its golden days: Rosalind Russell. And though The Divine Sister may be a spoof of every nun movie ever filmed (from The Singing Nun to Roz herself in The Trouble with Angels), the script also owes just as large a debt to His Girl Friday and Auntie Mame.
In fact, large chunks of Buschs turn as Mother Superior are direct quotations from Russell performances, from the way he shakes his head back and forth to his habit of peering out from behind lowered eyelids. The script, though, is more like Roz Russell vehicles: forgettable.
Oh, there are laughs to be had, but too much of the time Busch and director Carl Andress are throwing jokes as hard and fast and frequently as they can, hoping that the majority will stick.
So in addition to a very funny flashback sequence to Mother Superiors days as snappy girl reporter Susan Appleyard, we have fart jokes and a weird, recurring gag about, well, gagging.
As with any Charles Busch production, plot and character matter less than tone, and Andress keeps a firm hand on the outrageous proceedings. Even when the show dips into cheap laughs (those nuns farting come to mind), the result is less one of frustration and one more of impatience. We just want to slog as quickly as possible through the cheap stuff and back to what Busch does better than anyone else: turn the cheap, sentimental acting of Hollywood glamour gals gone to seed into comedy gold.
Luckily, the cast are mostly on level with Busch, particularly Julie Halston has a no-nonsense nun/wrestling coach and Alison Fraser as a mysterious German nun import who favors long black gloves to accessorize her habit. As a novice with special powers, Amy Rutberg is a trippy delight, but she cant quite manage a late-in-the-show transformation into a tough-talking tramp. Jennifer Van Dyck feels a bit out of place as unfunny philanthropist Mrs. Levinson (and shes been costumed horribly by Fabio Toblini), but Jonathan Walker, as a man from Mother Superiors past, is both sexy and funny in a stylized way, the perfect leading man for Busch, who is in fine form here. And when he finally gives the audience what it secretly craves, an extended riff on the infamous The Sound of Music line, What is it you cahnt face? nothing can stop The Divine Sister from feeling divine indeed.
The Divine Sister
Open run, [Soho Playhouse], 15 Vandam St. (betw. 6th Ave. and Varick St.), 212-691-1555; $65–$90.