Even when Nunsense was new and fresh -- in 1985 -- I found its punning, pseudo-religious humor to be labored. But it has its charms, especially as a gee-whiz, let's-put-on-a-show kind of entertainment.  

One character asks, "When did we meet?" A simple question, right? Not so in Cloud Tectonics, a 75-minute 1995 Jose Rivera script that Transit Five Productions is premiering locally at Xavier University studio theater.  

On June 25, nominees for the Cincinnati Entertainment Awards were announced. The 20 categories include nearly 100 nominees (20 percent more than in past years) since the decision was made to expand from four to five nominees per category.  

Just like the economy, Cincinnati's theater scene runs in cycles. Ten years ago, summer was full of theater choices: UC's College-Conservatory of Music entertained us with new or seldom-seen shows at Hot Summer Nights and the Cincinnati Playhouse offered interesting fare. Those series dried up for budgetary reasons about five years ago, but suddenly summer theater has burst forth again. Last weekend, we had four new productions to choose from in addition to New Stage Collective's "Jerry Springer: The Opera," which opened in late June, and Commonwealth Theatre Company at NKU, where a dinner-theater production of "Forever Plaid" wraps up on Sunday. Know Theatre Tribe Know Theatre of  

If you're clueless about Jane Austen's witty romances, you'll likely be bewildered by the angst over matchmaking and gossip in "Emma." The most serious drama is whether the heroine will realize she's not a very good matchmaker. If you've read "Emma," you'll not only be in heaven -- you'll know what’s going to happen from start to finish.  

New Stage Collective has opened its eight-play 2008-09 season with another dazzler, the regional premiere of Conor McPherson's 2006 Tony nominee, "Shining City." Prediction: When CEA ballots are assembled next July, this show likely will be in the running for "outstanding local premiere" and Randy Lee Bailey certainly will be nominated for his outstanding performance.  

It's 15th anniversary time at Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, and they're launching the celebration with a classic more recent than Will's best stuff -- that being Peter Shaffer's Tony-winning 1980 comedy-drama "Amadeus." They've made quite a stylish affair of it with dozens of sumptuous costumes glittering on a grand set with multiple white and gilt arches that imply Imperial Vienna.  

Nobody connected with the Carnegie Arts Center/New Edgecliff Theater co-production of the Agatha Christie thriller The Mousetrap seems to realize that the real play resides in a tidal wash of simmering, threatening subtext under the polite, placid, even boring dialogue.  

Generational dysfunction is the fuel that drives "Grey Gardens," based on the lives of two relatives of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (an aunt and a first cousin, both named Edith Bouvier Beale) as depicted in a 1975 documentary about their reclusive lives in a once grand Long Island seaside mansion.   

Accordingly, it's a fine work to inaugurate the new theater space at the Madisonville Arts Center, where Queen City Off Broadway has landed after several years of performing downtown and in Northside.