By BRENDAN LOSINSKI

Staff Intern

It all started when Dan Goggin was given a mannequin dressed as a gag-gift from a Dominican Priest. From it, he found the inspiration for writing “Nunsense,” a play about a handful of zany and musical nuns trying to raise money to bury their accidentally poisoned sisters.

After creating it as a modest cabaret show in New York, Goggin’s story was adopted as a Broadway production. It later inspired five sequels, started a ten year run on Broadway, and was produced for TV on A&E and PBS.

Now, “Nunsense” is at Meadow Brook Theatre. Goggin, a Michigan native, is glad to have it back at Meadow Brook.

“We love the theatre,” Goggin said. “The space is great and it’s a terrific place to work.”

Goggin is confident that students at Oakland will love the play,

When asked if people who were taught by nuns would like it, Goggin said, “They’ll love it even more! We even get nuns and priests all the time and they think it’s great.”

Goggin also stressed that the viewer needs not to be Catholic to understand the humor, comparing the production to situation comedies like “Seinfeld” or “I Love Lucy.”

“What has surprised me is that universality of the humor,” Goggin said. “The laughter just seems to grow and grow.”

Goggin has worked on his six “Nunsense” plays for over 25 years. He said writing the plays are actually more of a chore, but putting them on is fun.

“When the play first started, it was like avoiding landmines, you have to figure out what works and what doesn’t,” he said. “Now it’s like clockwork.”

Goggin said an added bonus is that, since most of the cast and crew have performed it before, the focus is given less to technical issues and more to enhancing the comedy of the play. The cast will be lead by Cindy Williams, best known as Shirley from the TV show “Laverne and Shirley.”

After “Nunsense,” Meadow Brook will be putting on “Nunsense Jamboree,” one of the sequels, from May 28 to June 8. Goggin will film the sixth play, “Meshuggah-Nuns,” for PBS in February.

“With the state of the world today, it’s nice to come somewhere for two hours and just laugh,” Goggin said.

Nunsense will be playing at Meadow Brook Theatre from April 23 to May 18. Tickets will be $8 for OU students and $28to $38 for general admission depending on which showing.