Five quirky nuns in NUNSENSE

MEAN GIRLS: The original national tour of Mean Girls, the new musical, was stopped by the Pandemic. Now it’s finally coming, and I couldn’t be more excited! Mean Girls is a ferociously funny new musical from an award-winning creative team including director Casey Nicholaw (Aladdin, The Book of Mormon), composer Jeff Richmond (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt), lyricist Nell Benjamin (Legally Blonde), and book by Tina Fey (30 Rock, Bossypants, and the original movie of Mean Girls).

Teen girl Cady Heron may have grown up in Africa, but nothing prepared her for the wild and vicious ways of her strange new home — suburban Illinois. How will this naïve newbie rise to the top of the popularity pecking order? By taking on The Plastics, a trio of lionized frenemies led by the charming-but-ruthless Regina George. Cady, aided by her gay bestie Kevin, devises a plan to end Regina’s reign, but…. well, that’s gotta wait until you see the show. It’s bright, funny, and very, very pink! Hollywood Pantages 1/4 – 29; San Francisco Golden Gate 1/31 – 2/26; San Diego Civic 2/28 – 3/5; and Segerstrom Center Costa Mesa 3/7 – 19. As always, make absolutely certain you are booking through the theatre’s actual website. The tickets scalpers are nefarious with sites that look like the real thing, but at triple the prices!

NUNSENSE A-MEN: Way back in 1985, a man named Dan Groggin wrote the book, music and lyrics of an incredibly funny little musical called Nunsense. It’s the tale of five nuns in Hoboken who accidentally poisoned the other 52 nuns in their convent. They now need to raise money for the burial of the last four deceased nuns. Comedy? Oh, you better believe it. Through songs and chat, we meet and grow to love the five quirky individual nuns. The original musical has spun off several sequels and variations. This month, Coachella Valley’s Desert Theatreworks is presenting the original show – but with male actors playing the nuns. No, this is not a drag show with lashes and corsets; it’s five very talented men playing the female roles. Director Kam Sisco (Christmas With the Crawfords) has retained all the humor of the original script while adding an additional realm of laughs from our knowledge that it is men delivering the dialogue. This little jewel of a theatre company, located in Indio, delivers top-notch work on a regular basis, and I’m eager to see this production. 1/13 – 2/5 www.DTWorks.org