Sister Act

I was delighted to be invited to see Bridgwater Operatic Society’s production of Sister Act, on 30th April 2019.  This was my first visit to see BOS and, in fact, it was also my first visit to The McMillan Theatre (what a lovely theatre!).

As the audience entered the auditorium, the first thing that they noticed was the fantastic staging, which took up the whole of the stage.  Beautifully created stone looking pillars, stretched up to the top of the stage, making it feel like the show was set inside a church.  Ornate looking stained glass windows, added to the effect, which looked incredibly impressive when lit in a certain way by the lighting crew.  The McMillan Theatre stage has a lot of space above it and the fact that the gothic pillars stretched right to the top gave a very dramatic look to the show.  Either side of the stage, at the front, were two lovely little arches which tied the whole effect together.  Although, these were a little irritating at times as at certain points in the production, actors were hidden from the audience behind them.  This didn’t happen a lot but when it did it was very hard to see what was going on, most notably during some of the dances.  As an extra point of interest, the floor was painted and decorated to look like the stone floor of a church, complete with gravestones and plaques.  This was a lovely extra touch and showed that someone had a real flair for detail.

There were so many scene changes in this production, which could have really slowed the show down, but these were handled very well by having individual scenes represented by just a few pieces of furniture which were expertly and swiftly brought on to the stage by the stage crew.  Having everything on wheels, was a clever idea and it was very satisfying to see scene changes done like this without any annoying squeaking wheels or rumble of furniture across the stage. 

The lighting for this production was very good and the use of the lights through the stained glass was particularly effective.  Unfortunately, the use of a spot light in the production was a little off putting as there was a clear small spot visible on stage before it was in place and after it had been used, the spot would often disappear into the roof of the theatre before being turned off.  I found myself distracted, more than once, by a flash of the spotlight flying upwards.  The sound for this production, was a little inconsistent, sometimes it was perfect and the audience could hear every word with crystal clarity but other times, it was hard to hear what was going on.  This seemed to happen when there were multiple actors talking or singing at the same time.  The lyrics in the first number were indistinguishable from where I was sitting, which was a real shame.

The orchestra, under the control of Richard Lennox, were very good and they produced a real rich full bodied sound.  It was a great touch to have them on stage all the time, only visible through an arch at the back of the stage.  One downside to this, was that the conductor had a monitor next to him, to see the stage, which was clearly visible to the audience during the whole show but this was only distracting when the stage was very dark or only slightly lit.  The singing was of a good standard and clearly the cast had been working hard on melodies and blending the sounds together, especially during the choir scenes.  The song “Lady in the Long Black Dress”, was fun but seemed a little flat in places.  All the songs performed by Liam Frampton (Eddie) were not only beautifully sung but also incredibly funny (double threat).  The choreography was also very good and varied, energetic and made good use of the whole stage, which surprisingly seemed quite wide as well as tall.

The wigs and the costumes worked well together to embody the 70’s theme.  Especially impressive were the sparkly disco costumes at the beginning and Deloris’ wig (myself and my guest argued over whether this was a wig or not – either way it looked impressive well done).  However TJ’s  wig did look a little odd.

The casting for this production was pretty perfect and everybody seemed to embody their characters well.  However, there were the odd moments where some of the actors felt the need to highlight that they had delivered a funny line by doing the old look at another character for clarification (a sort of what, what moment) and then look away with the shrug of the shoulders, instead of just letting the joke stand on its own merits.  It is not possible, or practical, to mention every cast member individually but Sarah Creswick made a very strong Mother Superior, this is a very big character and could easily swallow up a less confident actor but Sarah made it her own.  Andrew John Carpenter and Liam Frampton were audience favourites as Monsignor O’Hara and Eddie and both obviously understand and know how to deliver comedy.  Curtis-Jaydon Marsden has an amazing singing voice and stage presence but it was hard to buy him as a bad guy as he just seemed too nice.  Adding to the comedy stakes, and milking an awful lot out of a small role, was Brandon Filler who was so funny as Pablo.  The characterisation and singing of the chorus was good and everyone seemed to gel together well, it was clear that everyone was having fun.  Special mention must go to Sue Pomeroy who was not only suitably grumpy as Sister Mary Lazarus, but also had to get her teeth around that tricky little rap in “Sunday Morning Fever”.

Of course, in any production there is that one stand out performer and in this one it had to be Natasha T Green who was just amazing as Deloris Van Cartier.  She completely embodied the character of Deloris and the fact that she has played this character before, must have helped give her the extra depth that she showed on the stage.  She has a mesmerising stage presence and a beautiful singing voice and we could have watched her on stage all night.  You were very lucky to have her and your production benefitted immensely from having her too.  Clearly it’s not only a birthday she shares with Whoopi Goldberg!

Overall, this was an entertaining, fun and enjoyable production.  Yes, there were a few niggles but most of them seemed to be tied to the fact that this was the first night and presumably these things would have been ironed out as the production continued.  I really enjoyed my first trip to BOS and hope that I get to return again in the future.

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