Likewise, in this musical, the conflict is between the oppressive Mother Superior (Elizabeth Ward Land) and the hip Cartier who helps everyone express themselves. Somehow, we are to believe that every girl really needs a pair of purple platform boots, even though disco is dead and they look like something a pole dancer would be wearing. Some of the comedy is at the incongruity of religious sisters getting into rock-n-roll. This is a musical production that goes for flash, the black and the white and the obvious laughs.

Garry Lennon has fun with Shank's wardrobe, which couldn't be brighter or more flamboyant. White has more costume changes than Lewis and he's quite the peacock. For a musical supposedly about nuns, it's ironic that the best musical numbers belong to the men. As the high school geek that Cartier remembers as "Sweaty Eddie," Jennings' "I could Be that Guy" has a wistfulness of a hero that hasn't overcome his nerdy image and its very subtleness seems incongruous with the two-dimensional feel of the show and hints at how much better this show could be.

Shank's three henchman (Melvin Abston, Danny Stiles and Dan Domenech) shine in their number "Lady in the Long Black Dress" although how many gangs have a white guy, a black guy and a Latino? Is that a nod to Tarantino (a black boss with a black and an Italian henchman) or multi-culturalism or an attempt to hit all the demographics? Was Philadelphia in some kind of a time warp that you could have 1970s-type music with a little rap?

OK. Reality isn't what one expect from slapstick comedy and particularly a musical. Yet what exactly is the message of this musical? Even nuns need to shake their booty? Catholics need some gospel lessons from the Baptists? A black sister can show white sisters how to get some soul? If you need some mindless entertainment with some obvious laughs, this will do. This show opens up in Atlanta this month and hopes to head to Broadway.

Ironically, the Kander and Ebb show, Curtains, which features a four-time Emmy-winning TV star (David Hyde Pierce), who possesses only a servicable voice, is a more satisfying musical. Much in the manner of the musical The Drowsy Chaperone that opened at the Ahmanson in downtown Los Angeles before moving on to Broadway, this show lovingly mimicks old musicals. Yet while The Drowsy Chaperone had a narrator who was listening to a cast recording of a musical and giving out commentary about his personal life and the personal lives of the cast, Curtains is a play-within-a-play conceit.

A Boston homicide police officer, Lieutenant Frank Cioffi (David Hyde Pierce) goes a theater after the leading lady of the Robbin'Hood of the Old West is killed on opening night. As he unravels the murder mystery, he falls in love with the small-town girl making Niki Harris (Jill Paice), and helps doctor up the script and the music. Set in 1959, this show has old-fashioned values and looks back fondly at musicals of a more innocent time.