'The Divine Sisters'
From left, Amy Rutberg as Agnes, Charles Busch as Mother Superior, Alison Fraser as Sister Walburga and Julie Halston as Sister Acacius in "The Divine Sisters" written and played by Charles Busch. Credit: David Rodgers
There is something very right about having Charles Busch's "The Divine Sister" at the scruffy little SoHo Playhouse, cheerfully spoofing Hollywood nun movies with utmost respect for the cheese-ball demands of junk-food theater.
The 90-minute play is a happily irreverent throwback to the drag-diva's heyday of "Vampire Lesbians of Sodom" and "Psycho Beach Party." Busch, a quick-change virtuoso, plays just two characters - the star, Mother Superior, and the nun's young self as a feisty reporter. The number of overwrought movie-star personalities that pass over these two faces, however, may actually be infinite.
The rest of the remarkable cast is as silly/mad as Busch, in this supposedly sinister story of a down-on-its heels convent in Pittsburgh. Adorably staged with sinister gothic silliness by Carl Andress, all the actors (but especially Alison Fraser as a mysterious German nun and Jennifer Van Dyck as the rich old Jewish atheist) savor the style's verbal demands. And Busch is wonderfully generous about giving each one a star turn.
WHAT "The Divine Sister"
WHERE SoHo Playhouse, 15 Vandam St.
INFO $65; 212-691-1555; sohoplayhouse.com
BOTTOM LINE Virtuosic silliness
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