Sister Act

Making its first appearance in District 4, “Sister Act” presented Loudoun’s audiences with a “new” show set largely in the somewhat unusual setting of a convent in Philadelphia but also having the more familiar gangster characters and nightclub settings associated with American musicals. This recently released version differs from the film of 1992 but features the music of Alan Menken.

Lesley-Anne Park excelled as Dolores Van Cartier, the disco diva caught up in the plot as the witness to a murder committed by her mobster boyfriend Curtis (Douglas Wardrop) and his friends. When she reports the murder to the Police Department, she runs into her old school friend Sweaty Eddie (John McGill) who whisks her into a convent for safety where she adopts the name Sister Mary Clarence and from there, the plot develops in accordance with the show’s title. Dame Sheila Fyffe played the haughty Mother Superior at war with Dolores and Dolores’ sister nuns were well portrayed by Jennifer Hart (Sister Mary Robert), Irene Sinclair (Sister Mary Patrick) and Maureen Powell (Sister Mary Lazarus). Gavin Park took the dignified role of Monsignor O’Hara. One of the funniest scenes in the show occurs in Act I when Dolores attends choir practice which starts off with suitable excruciating and distinctly unmusical sounds. All improves, however, when Dolores takes over the practice and shows the nuns a different take on the hymns with the result that the up-tempo rhythms appeal to the worshippers who begin to attend the church in greater numbers and gradually, the collections increase.

Re-enter Curtis and his mobsters who learn of the success of Dolores and the Church from the local newspaper. More fun ensues as Curtis and his hoodlums enter the Church disguised as nuns in order to kidnap Dolores, but with the aid of the real nuns and Eddie, Curtis and his hoods are arrested and all ends well – even the Mother Superior relents.

The American comedy translates well into this version of the show and it is just as well Loudoun were able to obtain a license to perform it when they did as I suspect it may be withdrawn temporarily when the Sister Act Tour of the U.K. and Ireland gets under way in September, 2016.
 

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.