"Get thee to a nunnery with' Nunset Boulevard'--- What's more useless than a blind umpire in a baseball game? A critic at a 'Nunsense' show. Goggin has used Chanhassen as a shakedown cruise for the past several 'Nunsense' shows, and at last Thursday's press opening, he expressed his gratitude. For the Chan, currently uncertain about its financial future, 'Nunset Boulevard' arrives at an opportune time. Goggin's stuff is box office cat-nip.

Which gets back to the umpire/critic joke. Goggin uses a solidly pat formula with long-established characters who need only the barest pretext. 'Plot?' they ask in one of their early songs. Who needs a plot? 'Drop the plot and what have you got? A show that's S.R.O.'

Nonetheless, Goggin cobbles together a little story. The Sisters were lured west by the chance to sing at the Hollywood Bowl. Arriving in Tinseltown, they discover it's the 'Hollywood Bowl-Arama,' a bowling alley.

Across the street from the Bowl-Arama, a producer is auditioning roles for a movie about Dolores Hart, an actor who left a promising film career to become a nun. Sister Mary Leo, the pretty Sister, seems perfect for the role. She runs over for an audition and...I wouldn't dream of ruining the surprise.

Under the Hollywood motif, Goggin stuffs his show with... pop-culture references and line after line of film dialogue. In one short sequence alone, he knocks off 'In the Heat of the Night,' 'Streetcar Named Desire,' 'Sunset Boulevard,' 'Terminator,' 'Casablanca,' 'Princess Bride,' and 'Gone With the Wind.'

The thing is, it's impossible not to be amused---to marvel at Goggin's ability to spin this confection. His New York actors will be replaced by a local cast within the next month, but that shouldn't matter. So, play ball!"

"Sisters of Hoboken still making sense in Nunset Boulevard--- The set-up is that the Little Sisters of Hoboken have a gig at the Hollywood Bowl. Turns out that, rather than the legendary California amphitheatre, they're actually booked in the Hollywood Bowl-Arama.

The conceit gives Goggin and his company license for all manner of hijinks. 'Nunset Boulevard' hardly ever pauses. 'The Plot' is a gleeful admission...that a simple set-up is all you need. There is a shameless number called 'The Hollywood Blondes' in which the nuns dress up as screen sirens, and an even more shameless 'Whatever Happened To...' which recreates a certain 1962 Joan Crawford/Bette Davis movie, complete with bad wigs and wheelchairs.

The New York based cast can intuitively milk their characters without going overboard. And when Goggin's musicianship excels they can make the most of it---as with Deborah Del Mastro's big-voiced, big-hearted singing of 'That Kid's Gonna Make It' or Bambi Jones' leading the company in the boisterous pop-gospel finale, 'Don't Look Back.'

It is pointless for me to write that people loved the show because the fact that people love Goggin's shows is about as surprising as the fact that the sun rises in the East. I know there are playwrights and composers out there who would kill for his unerring sense of what audiences like, and I am certain that the show will go on to a long healthy life. Mister Goggin is ready for his close-up."