The opening night of "Girls Night: The Musical" at Shea's Smith Theatre was an estrogen extravaganza. Under a spinning disco ball, there was raucous laughter, singing and dancing - and that was just the audience.

The estrogen level of "Girls Night" did everything it could to blow the roof off of the palatial Hanover Theatre Wednesday night.

Imagine this if you can: "Sex in the City" meets "Desperate Housewives." Then, throw in "Grease" as the offbeat third ingredient and you've got "Girls Night: The Musical."

I must say I was pleasantly surprised after dragging my baby-booming, starch-conservative mother out to "Girls Night: The Musical" last night. It even sent my Pentecostal mother on a laughing spree...

Think just as funny and raunchy as "Sex in the City," although definitely not as sophisticated.

Last night, this uproarious musical comedy, produced by Entertainment Events Inc. and Robert Dragotta of New York City and presented April 1 - 6 by Broadway Series South, had the mostly female audience in A.J. Fletcher Opera Theatre rocking, from its opening number - Diana Ross' "Remember Me" (1971) to its exuberant encore of Gloria Gaynor's 1978 chart-topper "I Will Survive."

So, a nun walks into a theater. No, really. It's not a joke. Not yet.

There's nothing quite so entertaining as watching girls who just want to have fun. They can be catty and cynical, silly or serious, weepy or wistful. And they've evene been known to get a bit raunchy every now and then - usually after midnight and only with the most innocent of intentions.

"Late Nite Catechism" at the Olney Theatre Center for the Arts through Nov. 11, takes a hilarious and nostalgic look at parochial school education 40-some years ago, and incorporates many of the changes in the church since then, but it is never unkind or cynical about either the old or the new ways.

Now for something completely different - at least in these rancorous times: a comedy inspired by the Catholic Church that isn't edgy or angry or blasphemous.