Oyster Mill Playhouse's second offering of the 2005 season is "Monky Business," a musical not unlike its sister show, "Nunsense."

The scene design is simple, the costumes equally so, and the score, reduced to a piano and percussion, has taken a vow of poverty.  Still, the brothers of St. Bernard's and OMP manage an entertaining evening that most will consider worth the ticket price.

The plot: The brothers of St. Bernard's must raise $250,000 by midnight, or their beloved monastery faces bank foreclosure, sale and a developer's plan to rebuild it as a den of vice -- a gambling hall, complete with dancing girls in the sanctuary.  To raise the cash they need, the brothers conduct a radio telethon.  With a minion of Satan in their midst, actively working to stop them, it's going to take a miracle to save St. Bernard's.

Cast members work well together, with no one performer outshining the rest.  Generally, their voices complement one another, and they perform the show's songs ably.  On those occasions when the harmony slips into something more akin to what the rest of us belt out on Sundays, the song lyrics are clever enough, and the choreography silly enough, that audiences will be too busy laughing to care.

At its heart, "Monky Business" is a campy comedy, with goofy tunes, shticky jokes and a predictable, feel-good ending.

Most will find the show funny, some will think it's hilarious, a few will be indifferent, and a handful, who are unlikely to attend anyway, could be horribly offended by jokes made at the expense of Christianity and the good book.

Throughout the evening, some technical problems were evident, chief among these being late light and sound cues that caused confusion for performers.

The action takes place inside a radio studio, a prominent feature of which is a large, illuminated cross that when lit, indicates the brothers' broadcast is live on the air.  Numerous times, the actors were forced to delay dialogue until the cross was either lit or dimmed, because whether the listening audience could hear what was being said in the studio was crucial to the story line.  These delays were never long, but always awkward, with more attention drawn to them when performers had to continually check the on-air status of their broadcast.

Judging by the laughter and happy faces, Oyster Mill can be said to have produced another fun show, one sure to please subscribers and occasional theatergoers.