SISTER ACT THE MUSICAL

★★★★★

_REVIEW.   it’s about _THEATRE.   words _KYLE PEDLEY.   at _BIRMINGHAM HIPPODROME.   tickets _OFFICIAL SITE.   booking until _15th OCT.

October 4, 2022

images © Manuel Harlan.

Pre-pandemic, the musical theatre scene fizzed with something of a buzz for an announced revival of Sister Act The Musical promising something of a twist. Not only would it be overseen by OG ‘Deloris’, Oscar-winner Whoopi Goldberg, but so too would it be a hybridised version of the stage musical, intercut with some of the jukebox hits from the film.

And then? Enter COVID-19, stage left.

Three years on, it seems that perhaps God, after all, does move in mysterious ways. For whilst ‘Act’ MkII would have no doubt been an interesting curio to visit, and few would likely have denied the appeal of seeing Goldberg back involved in the habit, on the merits of this most fabulous new London and touring production that materialised, our stagey prayers were answered, anyway.

Wisely abandoning much of the tinkering and restyling done by Craig Revel Horwood in his 2016/17 tour of the show – not least of all its somewhat divisive ‘actor-muso’ infusion – Sister Act 2022 brings itself much closer in line with the original, celebrated West End production. Like the film that inspired it, it tells the story of washed-up lounge singer Deloris Van Cartier (Sandra Marvin) who, after witnessing her gangster boyfriend murdering a mole, goes on the run and, eventually, into hiding in a struggling nunnery.

“Sister Act takes so much of the fish-out-of-water hijinks that made the film such a smash and dials it up to eleven…”

On stage, Sister Act takes so much of the fish-out-of-water hijinks that made the film such a smash and dials it up to eleven, as brass, sassy Deloris butts heads (and, indeed, butts) with the convent’s no-nonsense Mother Superior (Lesley Joseph) whilst forming an unlikely and wholesome friendship with the Nuns about her. Characters grow. Lessons are learnt. And, for the stage, it’s all given a glitzy, sequinned gloss thanks to being transplanted to the ’70s. A move that lends a perfectly apt disco styling, only solidified by Alan Menken and Glenn Slater’s terrific score that offers echoes of everything of the era from Studio 54 to The Jackson Five and even a soupçon of Marvin Gaye.

The Habit, Kicked: In 2019, a revival of Sister Act The Musical was announced, set to star Brenda Edwards and involved original ‘Deloris’, Whoopi Goldberg (both pictured above, © Matthew Murphy). The revisited version of the show was set to be something of a hybrid, incorporating some of the musical numbers from the hit 1992 film into Alan Menken and Glenn Slater’s score for the stage show. Owing to a certain pandemic, the production never materialised.

The show’s got good, groovy ‘bones’, then. Which always helps, but a show as spunky, funky and funny as Sister Act will live or die by its cast. So praise whatever deity gives you your ‘Sunday Morning Fever’, then, for the utterly joyful ensemble of Act ’22. Without any egress or sensationalism, this is one of the most divine companies you could wish to watch treading the boards (and raising the roof).

Front and centre is the ever-fabulous Sandra Marvin, who, vocal powerhouse as ever, proves herself a formidable comedienne here, too. It’s a quite perfect blessing of performer and role, and right from her toe-tapping, scene-setting double-whammy opener of ‘Take Me To Heaven’ and ‘Fabulous, Baby!’, you know from the outset that not only are you in safe hands, not only has this Act got its Deloris down pat, but a damn high bar has been set that, amazingly, Marvin’s co-stars manage to routinely play up to, as well.

The Habit, Kicked: In 2019, a revival of Sister Act The Musical was announced, set to star Brenda Edwards and involved original ‘Deloris’, Whoopi Goldberg (both pictured above, © Matthew Murphy). The revisited version of the show was set to be something of a hybrid, incorporating some of the musical numbers from the hit 1992 film into Alan Menken and Glenn Slater’s score for the stage show. Owing to a certain pandemic, the production never materialised.

Lizzie Bea continues her ascent as a leading lady of the stage on the rise, with a beautifully observed take on the timid but kindly Sister Mary Robert. Her Act II soul searcher, ‘The Life I Never Led’ is breathtakingly strong. Similarly, veteran actor Clive Rowe takes his moment to shine (quite literally) and knocks the audience out of their pews during his ‘I want’ piece. Jeremy Secomb, as the villainous Curtis, similarly belts for the back rows, ably supported by Damian Buhagiar, Tom Hopcroft and Bradley Judge on hilarious form stealing scenes (and hearts!) as his bumbling three cohorts.

“Lizzie Bea continues her ascent as a leading lady of the stage on the rise, with a beautifully observed take on the timid but kindly Sister Mary Robert.”

Catherine Millsom and Anne Smith take on Kathy Najimy and Mary Wickes’ supporting Nuns from the film, and they are each utterly joyous and hilariously cranky, respectively. And you can’t help but be bowled over by the wonderful Lesley Joseph, still belting out the numbers and cutting a rug at the venerable age of 76.

It almost becomes redundant to attempt to ‘critique’ Sister Act The Musical. Morgan Large’s set and costume design are just that – big. Bill Buckhurst and Alistair David play with numbers and set pieces that could easily be languid or familiar and let their freak flag fly. See as Deloris takes to the skies aboard an enormous disco glitter ball during the reprise of her feisty ‘Fabulous’ signature. Or as her ‘sisters’ pop out from inside cupboards, beneath beds and other peekaboo surprises earlier in the same number. ‘If you feel it,’ Marvin belts during one of the show’s favourite numbers, ‘why conceal it?’. It seems a fitting mantra for this heavenly revival as a whole.

“Everything here just works.”

Everything here just works. And does so at such a consistently high, dazzling and impressive level, it’s difficult to imagine a more consistently uplifting, irrepressible and entertaining evening of musical theatre.

We almost didn’t get this glittering, pitch-perfect incarnation of Sister Act The Musical. This transcendent joyful noise of camp, colourful, soulful fabulousness. And, whilst there will likely always be some with a modicum of curiosity as to what form the previously-announced hybrid Act could have taken, and ponder how successful chopping up Menken and Slater’s score to make room for jukebox classics would have been, on the basis of this gorgeous cast, stunningly realised spectacle and all-round divine treat that is Sister Act The Musical, one can’t help but have another tried-and-test homily spring to mind, too.

Namely – if it ain’t broke, don’t crucifix it.

Gorgeous, glittering, joyful noise. This is ‘Sister Act’, back in the habit, and better than ever. Marvin leads a faultless, divinely gifted congregation, who knock one of the shows of the year out of the pews, and right up into the rafters. Amen.

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