Johannes Brahms / Nunsense

On this day in classical music: Johannes Brahms’ “Clarinet Trio in A Minor” and “Clarinet Quintet in B Minor” were given their premieres in Berlin in 1891. Both works were composed for Richard Muhlfeld, a clarinetist for whom Brahms had tremendous admiration. Mulhfeld was also the dedicatee of Brahms’ two clarinet sonatas, completed in 1894. Listen to the Oscine Trio perform the first movement of Brahms’ “Clarinet Trio in A Minor.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAjrKApZ6w0

On this day in the musical theatre: The popular musical “Nunsense” opened off-Broadway in 1985. Dan Goggin’s hilarious spoof tells the story of a group of nuns who decide to present a variety show in order to raise money for the burials of their four recently deceased sisters. “Nunsense” originated as a line of greeting cards, whose success led Goggin to expand the concept into a full-length musical. The original production ran for 3,672 performances and became the second longest running off-Broadway show in history. The tremendous popularity of “Nunsense” has resulted in six sequels and three spin-offs. “Nunsense” has been translated into more than two dozen languages and has had more than 8,000 productions worldwide. Watch the St. Mary’s Musical Society cast in Navan, Ireland perform “Nunsense Is Habit Forming.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wA6KKcXmx0E

Musical musings: If you forget the featherweight plot and watch the five winning actresses dressed as nuns do their vaudeville turns in “Nunsense,” a new musical comedy at the Cherry Lane Theater, after a while it becomes habit-forming. That pun is the property of Dan Goggin, the show’s writer-director, who uses it in the first number and again in the final reprise, “Nunsense Is Habit-Forming.” In the middle of this lively, repetitious little musical, one of the nuns says that at least there are no jokes about how their black-and-white habits make them look like penguins. Then she imitates the rolling gait of a penguin walking offstage, which doesn’t give Mr. Goggin absolution for temporal musical sins. The show is milked for every nun sequitur (it’s catching) in the book, including a few that never should have made it to the convent, such as putting on a Carmen Miranda fruit-bowl hat over a nun’s wimple and thinking it’s hilarious. For most of the skits, and especially for calling upon members of the audience to join in the antics — including a show of hands to see who is Catholic — Mr. Goggin should do penance by reciting a few Hail Marys and Our Fathers. – Herbert Mitgang in The New York Times

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