Sister Act

Arriving just in time on a balmy Friday night in Winchester, we collected our tickets and warmly welcomed by the front of house staff who ushered us to our seats and we settled in for what we hoped would be a great night's entertainment. As always with Winchester Musicals and Operatic, we were not to be disappointed. Sister Act, the Musical is based on the 1992 film of the same name. The story is of a nightclub singer, Delores, who witnesses a murder by her boyfriend, Curtis (Daniel Williams-Brown) and who then spills the beans and is placed in protective custody by the policeman in charge, Eddie, in a convent run by a very dyed in the wool Mother Superior and is tracked down by three very bumbling comic baddies. Let the story unfold...

The stage was split back to front two thirds stage and one third the orchestra which was hidden behind the Abbey facade, smoke gently hazing across the stage for good dramatic effect. The house lights dimmed and the neon nightclub sign dropped in and we were immediaetly transported back to 1970's Philadelphia. The stage was then filled with great prescence by Olivia Conroy, playing the lead role of Delores van Cartier very ably backed by Funke Akiboye and Aramantha Fennell-Wells as her illustrious backing singers. They filled the stage with colour and sound. The eleven piece orchestra, fantastically led by their MD Martin Patterson, made a tremendous sound and played at real pace. Nothing left behind. Equally the balance between the cast and the music was just right, not so loud that we could not hear the principals but loud enough to add entertainment and excitement. A testament here to the efforts of Martin and also the lighting and sound.

There was a fantastic array of costumes, from 1970s' flares to transformative nuns habits, sparkly nightclub dresses, to three-piece velcroed policemen's uniforms. All very much added to the overall piece and its visual appearance

The choreography was very well delivered, Simple and effective, along with the clever direction of Gina Thorley-Hibbard, the cast looked as if they were really enjoying themselves, and why not, this is such a fun and upbeat musical. They all looked in time and sync and provided a very imagistic spectacle. The diction was of very high quality, all words heard, didn't appear to have any dropped lines.

The principles were very well led by Olivia Conroy as Delores, Conner Handstock as Eddie and Rachel Wells as the Mother Superior, they all interacted very well with each other, but, were also brilliantly backed up by Suzanne Hall, as the bulchy Sister Mary Lazarus, Molly Moffitt-McGrath as Sister Mary Robert and Savannah Williams as Sister Mary Patrick. Curtis, (Daniel) and his three inept sidekicks Vince Betteridge, Andrew Hodgson and Pablo kept the laughs coming, some great timing here gents.

Overall a more than creditable evenings entertainment was had by all, and even I was clapping in time during the bows. Well done WMOS, another triumph

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