Sister Act

Sister Act is now a well established and much-loved staple of the community theatre scene and although based on the Touchstone Motion Picture of the same name has a musical score unique to the stage musical.  When delivered well this is one of the most “feel-good” musicals around with high tempo numbers, villains who, although not pantomime caricatures, are sincerely stupid bringing comedy alongside their more psychopathic edge and finally nuns, nuns and more nuns giving female members of a cast a fair shake for once.   I’m happy to report that in every dimension of this production BMTG delivered a great night in the theatre that was suitably appreciated throughout with whoops and laugher throughout and a standing ovation from the sell-out audience including myself.

Although very much a female ensemble driven musical no production of Sister Act is successful without a number of critical Principal performances and here the great strength in depth BMTG has, was key to their success.  First on stage was Monique Henry as Deloris van Cartier.  This not the first time Monique has played Deloris and she inhabited every facet of the role with her perfect gospel choir soul filled tones, attitude a mile wide when dealing with Cutis’s henchmen and unending love and support for her “Sisters”.  Monique was always on superb form and was equally matched in both vocal and acting prowess by Sandy Lane as Mother Superior.  Sandy brought out the frustration the Mother Superior feels taking a night club singer into her religious order but also the warmth and fierce protection she grows to show towards Deloris alongside all her other charges.

Emily Owen made an amazing step into the spotlight as Sister Mary Robert the young novitiate.  In every scene Emily brought out the nervousness and wonder as she began to experience the real world after a lifetime in a holy order and alongside her acting brought a great vocal purity to all her solo numbers reaching a highlight in “The Life I never Led”.  Charlotte Howarth brought just the right level of enthusiasm, that bordered on the manic but at no time went over-the-top, in any dialogue, dance or vocal delivery.  Mina Holtom as Sister Mary Lazarus seemed to be another performer born to play her character including the sarcasm, annoyance at being usurped as Choir Mistress all the way to the pelvic thrust that came out of nowhere in “Take me to Heaven” and caused one female audience member close to me to let out an involuntary scream of surprise.

Lu Anthony was also on great form as Sweaty Eddie Souther and manged to effortless be the centre of attention in any scene they were involved in while not being overly showy or distracting.  Lu captured the essence of Eddie with their uncertainty and fear all the way to finding the lion like courage with literally amazing dance prowess including handling multiple in-dance quick costume changes without missing a beat or a step.

Paul Mills made a welcome return in the key role of Curtis and effortlessly manged the challenge of portraying a character who essentially is a psychopath, murdering without hesitation, who still persists with the incompetence of his sidekicks as some of them are “Family”.  Paul’s vocals were always on point, especially in “When I Find my Baby”. Paul was very ably supported by a trio of sincerely stupid cohorts.  Matt Charlton as TJ, Gareth Morris as Joey and Cibele Alvarenga as Pablo provided a laugh a minute and were vocally on-song in all their scenes with some of the facial expressions and Barry White homage being works of genius.  Chris Bryan provided his usual superb death fall with Eve May Evans and Masie Cutts on sparkling form in their dance moves and broad Bronx accents.

William Howarth was a very believable Monsignor O’Hara complete with sparkling ad-libs that were very much in keeping with his character and special mention has to be made to Jane Cottee as the oldest nun on stage Sister Mary Theresa and finally the one woman expression machine Daisy Forster who made Sister Mary Martin-of-Tours a very very special nun indeed!

So much for the many talented named characters, but this show would be nothing without a wall of sound and huge show stopping dance numbers and here the BMTG ensemble shone, so huge congratulations to David, Charlotte D, Naomi, Sarah, Jaye, Hannah, Phillipa, Maria, Andy, Ruth, Rebecca, Alice, Christine, Amelia, Esther and Claire.

As always, shows with this much drive, energy, enthusiasm and quality of dance, acting and vocal precision don’t happen by accident and this is down to the many months of hard work by the talented production team.  John Hand in his first experience as a director has done a very impressive job including his acting coaching across the cast and set design ideas.  Chris Toon as always manged his talented Band with great skill and also ensured that the balance between pit and stage was always just right.  The work he had done in the rehearsal room with Lisa Mills was also clear to hear in both solo and full-on ensemble show stopping numbers.  The success of the choreography in this production was testament to the work that Jodie Lakin had put in with the ensemble numbers being a particular highlight throughout.  Sound and Lighting all added to the atmosphere of the show and the look and feel-good of the show was complimented by the hired costumes and home grown set design.

As you can tell, I had a blast with BMTG so congratulations to all for a “Fabulous Baby” Sister Act!

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