Note: TWE reviewed  ‘Sister Act The Musical’ earlier in its current tour. Given that this is the same touring production, what follows is a revised version of that same review, updated for its latest visit to the Birmingham Hippodrome.

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.

Fast forward a few years, and it seems Jamie Wilson and team are making up for lost time (and opportunity?). This glitzy, vibrant restaging of the original Sister Act musical has scarcely left the boards of late, oscillating between repeat UK tours and intermittent London residences.

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 – this Act 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 (Landi Oshinowo) who, after witnessing her gangster boyfriend murdering a mole, goes on the run and, eventually, into hiding in a struggling nunnery.

“On stage, Sister Act takes so much of the fish-out-of-water hijinks that made the film such a smash and dials them 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 them up to eleven, as brass, sassy Deloris butts heads (and, indeed, butts) with the convent’s no-nonsense Mother Superior (Coronation Street‘s Sue Cleaver) 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 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.

Front and centre this time round is the ever-dependable Landi Oshinowo, who is expectedly great as the fiery, feisty Deloris. Injecting the role with plenty of vim and sass, she also sings up a storm, with her take on the titular number one of the most idiosyncratic and emotive versions of the song to date.

“…the ever-dependable Landi Oshinowo, who is expectedly great as the fiery, feisty Deloris…”

Cleaver, meanwhile, opts for a mostly sprechsegang approach with her slightly more deadpan and sardonic take on Mother Superior. She’s at her best when spitting out dismissive asides or neat little sarcastic flourishes of her own, but also finds space for a couple of self-deprecating jabs at her not exactly being the most bellicose of singers.

Eloise Runnette makes for a softly-spoken, timid Sister Mary Robert, though she more than gets her vocal chords around demanding Act II big sing, ‘The Life I Never Led’. Ceris Hine did a delightful, exuberant and wonderfully animated job understudying the buoyant Sister Mary Patrick in the performance reviewed. Alfie Parker makes for a likeable love interest as bumbling cop Eddie, benefiting from one of the evening’s best and funniest numbers, and another understudy shoutout must go to Harvey Ebbage who put in a winning, charismatic showing as gangster nephew, TJ.

Morgan Large’s showy, suitably vibrant staging returns in full force, after certain dates on the previous run seemed to excise considerable chunks of the staging. It remains an opulent, technicolor spectacle, though it still feels as though certain numbers get a little stranded, with only really Tim Mitchell‘s groovy lighting helping to create a sense of place or event during numbers such as ‘When I Find My Baby’.

There remains, of course, plenty of fun character beats and staging wrinkles to enjoy – watch as Deloris’ ‘sisters’ pop out from inside cupboards, beneath beds and other peekaboo surprises whilst she croons, in a move reminiscent of the postmodern quirks of Marianne Elliot‘s recent revival of Company.

“…the time that this current incarnation of Sister Act has spent doing the rounds can occasionally be felt…”

Whilst Sister Act almost always makes for an upbeat and irrepressibly feelgood affair, the time that this current incarnation of Sister Act has spent doing the rounds can occasionally be felt. Some set pieces – such as Deloris’ improvised escape on a pedicab – are missing altogether, and in some of the more choreographed moments there were times when it was hard to not shake the sense that some of the company seeemed to be going through the motions.

These minor quibbles aside though, for the most part everything here still works, and quite joyously so.

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 may have been, on the basis of this solid cast, still-glitzy presentation and all-round divine service of musical fan 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.