Sister Act

What an absolute pleasure to sit in a full house watching an energetic, enthusiastic and accomplished group performing their hearts out in a fabulous (baby) production of Sister Act.  The mixed cast of junior and adult performers certainly enjoyed every moment and made sure that so did the audience.

Doloris Van Cartier was in the very capable hands of Dani Worlock who gave an admirable performance as the charismatic and funny nightclub singer. Dani had the perfect combination of the brassy women of the world with a heart of gold. I was longing for Dani to become the powerhouse diva, but I felt she held back a little and I know she was in there. Not that it mattered as her renditions of “Take me to Heaven”, “Fabulous Baby” and “Sister Act” were, well fabulous.  I've since found out that Dani was feeling the effects of performing eight shows, and although her voice was having a tough time, she managed to hide it impressively.

The antithesis to this being the Mother Superior played by Bronwen Carless whose raised eyebrows had a language all of their own. Bronwen also had some of the best songs of the show too and sang them beautifully with feeling and dignity. The moment almost at the end of the show when the Mother Superior thanks Deloris was particularly poignant and did bring a lump to my throat.

The Sisters as an ensemble were magnificent and their harmonies were truly beautiful, every one of them had a character that they remained in throughout and the one-liners were quick and clear. Of course, the three dominating nuns, Sister Mary Robert (Charlotte West) Sister Mary Patrick (Emily Chambers) and Sister May Lazarus (Catherine Crosswell) were perfect in their roles, and each gave an excellent performance. Charlottes solo “The Life I Never Led” was gorgeous and Emily’s lovely strong voice could be discerned in many songs (“Sunday Morning Fever” “Sister Act” and “It’s good to be a Nun”) gave a real depth to the ensemble. Catherines rap verse in “Sunday Morning Fever” was brilliant and certainly got the expected laugh from the audience. Congratulations must go to Lisa Legge for her stage and musical direction, not an easy dual role but one that she certainly achieved.

Hugh Farey was just right as Monsignor O’Hara and certainly looked the part! I absolutely loved all of his costumes and coveted the beautiful robes. Hugh is a stalwart of the Conquest Theatre and can always be relied upon to give a solid performance and in this case a likeable character.

Andrew Cooper was the sleezy nightclub owner/gangster character Curtis and I hope I won’t offend him when I say he came over very well.  I thought his rendition of “When I find my Baby” was really nice and melodic and his voice well suited this number. His comedic (whether intended or not) actions went down very well. His stooges were a little reticent except for Joey played by Mitchell Worton, but they all gave good support to Curtis.  However, TJ (Jessica Gilbert) and Emilia Unwin as Pablo with a passable Spanish accent, came into their own when they, together with Joey, did a fantastic execution of “Lady in the Long Black Dress”, it was very funny.

Rob Finney as Eddie Southern was a lovely character. His persona was relaxed and came over as totally comfortable in the role. The triple transformation was impressive, involving not only 2 costumes being ripped from his body but also a strong vocal performance of "If I Could Be That Guy."  It really was a case of the good guy gets the girl because he deserved it.

The set was cleverly designed to accommodate Conquests relatively small stage. The maximum use was made of the space with an upper platform accessed by a staircase that was used throughout the show, even during some of the musical numbers, which I was very impressed with. Another raised platform was utilised too enabling the whole cast to be seen throughout and the roll-on smaller sets worked well and were implemented as unobtrusively as possible.  The lighting set for the opening of “Sister Act” was perfect and got an audible ‘ahh’ out of me.  The costumes were practically stars themselves. I wish I could have captured the picture of the tableau created for the finale as the costumes almost stole the show, it was sparklingly brilliant.

Thank you so much Conquest Theatre for yet another wonderful production.

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