THROUGHOUT Southern California, secular entertainment with an...

THROUGHOUT Southern California, secular entertainment with an ecumenical theme, it seems, is habit-forming.

On the heels of the Ahmanson Theatre’s recent run of “Doubt,” John Patrick Shanley’s Tony-winning drama about an obsessed, old-school nun, the convent went disco in “Sister Act: The Musical,” the new stage version of the 1992 Whoopi Goldberg film, currently at the Pasadena Playhouse.

In North Hollywood, the nuns of Dan Goggin’s comic “Nunsense” franchise are getting into the holiday spirit in the Valley Musical Theatre’s “Nuncrackers” at the El Portal Theatre. Sally Struthers and Adrian Zmed don habit and collar for this show.

And making the rounds to teach a lesson or two throughout the Southland is Maripat Donovan’s sister, last seen in “Late Nite Catechism.” “Sister’s Christmas Catechism -- The Mystery of the Magi’s Gold” makes appearances at the Laguna Playhouse, the Brentwood Theatre and at Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza.

And if that’s a little too lively for your tastes, consider Stephen Adly Guirgis’ “Our Lady of 121st Street” at the Matrix Theatre. In this play, the nun never actually puts in an appearance -- but her funeral is the catalyst for solving a murder mystery.

-- Lynne Heffley