Sister Act

What could be better on a cold dark winters night than going to the theatre to be entertained watching an excellent upbeat feel-good musical and I am glad to say this production performed by St Pauls players met all the afore mentioned criteria. From the very beginning, we were swept along with Deloris the central character as we followed her antics and adventures while she causes havoc for the Mother Superior and changes the life of the nuns who unknowingly had taken Deloris into their home to hide and protect her from Curtis her murderer gangster boyfriend.

Sister Act” is a musical based on the hit 1992 film of the same name Written by Joseph Howard, however the show does not include the songs associated with the film, but happily it does have music written by Alan Menken who is known for composing the music for a number of the most popular Disney musicals/films  loved by children and adults alike, these include  The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, Home on the Range, Enchanted, and Tangled. Lyrics were by Glenn Slater, from a book by Bill and Cheri Steinkellner with additional book material by Douglas Carter Beane. Sister Act premiered in Pasadena, California in 2006, and the West End production opened on June 2, 2009 at the London Palladium. The plot follows a similar story line to that of the film, about a lounge singer called Deloris who witnesses a murder committed by her gangster boyfriend Curtis and is then taken into witness protection and hidden in a convent for her own safety.

Director Jane McQueen with the help of production coordinator Lisa Cohen had gathered together an excellent cast, which was led by Katie Toole in the pivotal role of Deloris Van Cartier, she more than met the challenges of this part, understanding the character very well, performing with confidence, exuberance, and very good comic timing with excellent musical numbers. Allison Fox was authoritative as Mother Superior displaying confusion and worry when everything appeared to be spiralling out of her control. Dave Moloney as Eddie Souther, Deloris’s police contact and old High School friend, gave an excellent performance and a very enjoyable rendition of the song, “I Could Be That Guy” he complemented Katie, very well making their relationship believable and the audience were rooting for them to be together by the end of the show. Isla Graham was spot on as the shy postulant Sister Mary Robert her Rendition of “The Life I Never Had” was stunning and brought the house down, There were two very entertaining comedic performances from Laura Jones as Sister Mary Patrick and Alison Hampson as Sister Mary Lazarus, her rap dressed all in gold and waring a baseball cap was a site to see and very funny. John Whitehead as Monsignor O’Hara produced an excellent comedy performance even though this was not a large role, he certainly made a mark on the show. Tom Townsend was suitably devious and untrustworthy as Deloris’s dangerous gangster boyfriend Curtis; Tom also had a very good singing voice producing a very enjoyable rendition of “When I Find my Baby”. Curtis had three rather inapt henchmen which included Chris Whitehead as Joey, Ben Brooks as a very comedic TJ, who just happened to be Curtis’s nephew and Lucas Holmes was Pablo, they worked together very well making a very good comedy threesome, their rendition of “Lady in the Long Black Dress” was brilliantly entertaining and was a big hit with the audience. The principal cast were well supported by the actors in the smaller but important cameo roles which included Emily Burnside as Michelle and Hannah Thornley Corkin as Tina, Deloris’s backing singers with Sarah Pilkington as Sister Mary Theresa, Christine Harper as Sister Mary Martin of Tours and Harry Cohen as Ernie.

The hard-working ensemble of nuns is very important and central to the success of this show and here in this production they met their remit fully. They all appeared to be enjoying themselves immensely performing and singing the wonderful catchy upbeat yet somewhat complicated numbers excellently with lots of energy and gusto resulting in a very happy feel-good show which was felt by the audience.

Diction and clarity of words along with accents were generally very good from all the cast which meant diolouge could be heard and the story and action could be followed easily, Choreography by Lily Fothergill was, effective and suited the upbeat numbers of the show, with Emily Burnside as the Dance Captain. The orchestra was conducted and led with a steady hand by Musical Director Debbie Brotherton supporting the cast on stage very well and I liked the way they appeared to be following the singers when the performed as this production warranted due to its complicated score which had a mixture of singing and dialogue in some of the numbers, this meant the cast were able to give their best,

There was one main static set, and scenes and locations were changed using furniture and props which along with sound and lighting made a very good performance area for the cast to work on. The backstage crew changed the scenes efficiently and silently, ensuring the very smooth running of the show, that was kept at a good pace. Well, Done to Stage Manager Stephen Blundell and all the hard working back-stage crew, set builders, properties, sound, lighting and wardrobe for providing the wonderful sparkly costumes, all these people supporting, working quietly and efficiently enabled the cast to perform successfully.

I would Just like to mention a  couple of constructive comments for awareness, there was some interference from the microphones on the night I visited, and the sound was a bit distorted and harsh at times, but this could possibly be due to faults with equipment, and there was a couple of occasions when the principles started speaking while still in the dark, not waiting for lighting, however please be assured that this did not affect my enjoyment of the show at all.

This was an outstanding production from St Paul’s Players that contained plenty of well sung upbeat numbers, good acting and plenty of comedy. The talented cast gave their all with lots of energy, enthusiasm and teamwork they also appeared to be enjoying themselves immensely and the musical numbers were performed excellently by all. Everyone involved in bringing this outstanding production to the stage must be congratulated.

Thank you very much for inviting us and making us so welcome, it was lovely to see everyone again, we had a very enjoyable evening.

 

 

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