CurtainUp
CurtainUp
The Internet Theater Magazine of Reviews, Features, Annotated Listings
HOME PAGE

SITE GUIDE

SEARCH


REVIEWS

REVIEW ARCHIVES

ADVERTISING AT CURTAINUP

FEATURES

NEWS
Etcetera and
Short Term Listings


LISTINGS
Broadway
Off-Broadway

NYC Restaurants

BOOKS and CDs

OTHER PLACES
Berkshires
London
California
New Jersey
DC
Connecticut
Philadelphia
Elsewhere

QUOTES

TKTS

PLAYWRIGHTS' ALBUMS

LETTERS TO EDITOR

FILM

LINKS

MISCELLANEOUS
Free Updates
Masthead
A CurtainUp Review
Sister Act


If you want the world to listen,
stand up tall and proud.
Let 'em know what they been missin'
and turn the volume up loud!

—Deloris
Sister Act
Victoria Clark and Patricia Miller
(Photo: Joan Marcus)

Let's forego the list and get right to the point that Sister Act, the popular 1992 film, has unsurprisingly been adapted into Sister Act, the musical. If you can forgive my lapse of faith by first admitting that the film somehow failed to make my must-see list even when it re-appeared on TV, the stage musical is a joy and a revelation. Although it is downright silly, outrageously hokey and pervasively shallow, Sister Act, under the snappy direction of Jerry Zaks, ranks among the best of the season's musicals.

There was advance news that the book for the musical by Cheers team Cheri and Bill Steinkellner that originally supported the production when it opened in London last year was being re-written/enhanced/buoyed by Douglas Carter Beane. Whether it was ultimately collaborative or not, the result is a very funny and entertaining show. Whether we can assume that many of the funnier punch lines are attributable to Beane, who won awards for his book for the musical Xanadu, is a moot point, as you will be laughing almost continually throughout.

The film was primarily identifiable as a vehicle for comedienne/icon Whoopi Goldberg. The stage version can only boast her name as lead producer. (Goldberg, however, did don the habit during the show's final weeks in London.)

Sister Act is set in 1977 Philadelphia or, as it may now be recognized, the City of Sisterly Love. The plot follows the unexpected career-altering path of an out-of-work nightclub singer Deloris van Cartier (Patina Miller) who discovers that her affiliation with Curtis (Kingsley Leggs), her married gangster lover, may not have been a wise choice. After auditioning for him and his three yes-men stooges (John Treacy Egan, Caesar Samayoa, Demond Green), Deloris witnesses a murder in the club's back alley committed by Curtis. Fearing for her life as a witness to a murder, she runs to the nearest police precinct where Eddie (Chester Gregory), a police officer who remembers having a crush on her in high school, figures out a plan. She is hustled off to a convent for safe-keeping, presumably part of the witness protection program.

Within the protective Gothic walls of the church (the awesomely resplendent work of set designer Klara Zieglerova) and placed in the dutiful but doubtful care of the Mother Superior (Victoria Clark), she takes on the guise of Sister Mary Clarence. That she also takes charge of a tone-deaf choir and turns them into a world-renowned sensation comes hardly as a surprise. Improbable to say the least, but irresistible to say the most, the Sisters' act of transforming their hymns into show-stopping anthems and spirited production numbers provides the show, as do the solos of many supporting characters, with many of its most exhilarating moments.

One might suspect that choreographer Anthony Van Laast may have either seen or been inspired by the traditional (but no longer) Glory of Easter pageant at Radio City Music Hall in which the stage was filled with nuns who formed symbolic reverential designs before the alter in a grand cathedral. The catch here is that these nuns discover that they have a distinct flair for emulating the Rockettes as well as for singing the roof off the bell tower. Naturally, this order of nuns is composed of personalities who divinely define what is meant as a caricature; each one, however, getting a new lease on life within their calling. One of the funniest numbers is "It's Good to Be a Nun" in which the nuns list all the dubious but dutiful tasks they have to do.

Our chief concerns are with Deloris who appears to be having the biggest occupational conversion since Mary Magdalene. How inspirational is that? Miller, who originated the role of Deloris in the West End production, is making one splendid Broadway debut as the sexy and incorrigibly earthy center-piece for the show and for most of the bright and lively musical numbers. The score by Alan Menken (music) and Glenn Slater (lyrics) is a major asset being as witty as it is often a bit wacky —as in "Lady in the Long Black Dress" sung by the three thugs —. Tmore than fulfills its obligation to mix and match the requirements of high-minded gospel with the less exalted but more pulse-racing delights of pop-disco, even rap.

Clark, who has been lauded for just about every role she has taken both on Broadway The Light in the Piazza) and Off Broadway, keeps apace with the show's light hearted agenda even as she has to put on a disapproving face on occasion, one that manages to remain aglow in her glorious solo "Haven't Got a Prayer."

Although the women dominate the spotlight, Fred Applegate is splendid in the role of the Monsignor O'Hara, who may register his concern that the impoverished church is to be sold to a pair of bachelors who like Gothic and buy antiques, but also registers as a very hip promoter for the choir that gains the attention of the Pope. Spectacular transformations are in order in this show. Even as the disarming Chester Gregory fantasizes his dream of romance with Deloris in the delightful "I Could Be That Guy" we see through Deloris and the nuns how possible it is to "Spread the Love Around. "

The plot may be threadbare, but not the habits that costume designer Lez Brotherston that become more dazzling with each successive musical number. Add to these eye-popping displays, a huge statue of the Virgin Mary that not only becomes incrusted with glitter but begins to revolve in an ecstatic response to the joyful goings on beneath her. Notwithstanding those early sweetly sour-ish sounds from the pre-Sister Mary Clarence choir, Sister Act belts out the rest of its notes in a way that the cast sums up best in a song "Fabulous, Baby."

Sister Act
Book by Cheri Steinkellner & Bill Steinkellner (Additional book material by Douglas Carter Beane
Music by Alan Menken, Lyrics by Glenn Slater
Directed by Jerry Zaks

Cast: Patina Miller (Deloris Van Carier), Rashidra Scott (Michelle), Alena Watters (Tina), Kingsley Leggs (Curtis), John Treacy Egan (Joey), Caesar Samayoa (Pablo), Demond Green (TJ), Chester Gregory (Eddie), Victoria Clark (Mother Superior), Fred Applegate (Monsignor O'Hara), Marla Mindelle (Mary Robert), Sarah Bolt (Mary Patrick), Audrie Neenan (Mary Lazarus)
Set Design: Klara Zieglerova
Costume Design: Lez Brotherston
Lighting Design: Natasha Katz
Music Supervision: Maichael kosarin
Choreography: Anthony Van Laast
Running Time: 2 hours 30 minutes
Broadway Theatre, 1681 Broadway at 53rd Street (212) 239 - 6200
Tickets: $51.50 - $126.50
Performances: Tuesday at 7 PM, Wednesday - Saturday at 8 PM, Wednesday and Saturday at 2 PM and Sunday at 3 PM
Previews began 03/24/11
Opened 04/20/11
Closing 8/26/12 Review by Simon Saltzman based on performance 04/19/11
Musical Numbers
Act One
  • Take Me to Heaven / Deloris, Michelle, Tina
  • Fabulous, Baby! /Deloris, Michelle, Tina
  • Here Within These Walls / Mother Superior, Deloris
  • It's Good to Be a Nun /Deloris, Mary Patrick, Mary Robert, Mary Lazarus, Nuns
  • When I Find My Baby /Curtis, Joey, Pablo, TJ
  • I Could Be That Guy /Eddie, Bums
  • Raise Your Voice /Deloris, Mary Patrick, Mary Robert, Mary Lazarus, Nuns
  • Take Me to Heaven (Reprise)/ Deloris, Mary Patrick, Mary Robert, Mary Lazarus, Nuns
Act Two
  • Sunday Morning Fever /Deloris, Mother Superior, Monsignor O'Hara, Eddie,
  • Mary Patrick, Mary Robert. Mary Lazarus, Nuns, Workers
  • Lady in the Long Black Dress /Joey, Pablo, TJ
  • Haven't Got a Prayer /Mother Superior
  • Bless Our Show /Deloris, Mary Patrick, Mary Robert, Mary Lazarus, Nuns
  • The Life I Never Led /Mary Robert
  • Fabulous. Baby! (Reprise) /Deloris, Eddie, Nuns, Fantasy Dancers
  • Sister Act /Deloris
  • When I Find My Baby (Reprise) /Curtis
  • The Life I Never Led (Reprise) /Mary Robert
  • Sister Act (Reprise) /Deloris, Mother Superior, Mary Patrick, Mary Robert, Mary Lazarus, Nuns
  • Spread the Love Around /The Company
REVIEW FEEDBACK
Highlight one of the responses below and click "copy" or"CTRL+C"
  • I agree with the review of Sister Act
  • I disagree with the review of Sister Act
  • The review made me eager to see Sister Act
Click on the address link E-mail: esommer@curtainup.com
Paste the highlighted text into the subject line (CTRL+ V):

Feel free to add detailed comments in the body of the email. . .also the names and emails of any friends to whom you'd like us to forward a copy of this review.

Visit Curtainup's Blog Annex
For a feed to reviews and features as they are posted add http://curtainupnewlinks.blogspot.com to your reader
Curtainup at Facebook . . . Curtainup at Twitter
Subscribe to our FREE email updates: E-mail: esommer@curtainup.comesommer@curtainup.com
put SUBSCRIBE CURTAINUP EMAIL UPDATE in the subject line and your full name and email address in the body of the message. If you can spare a minute, tell us how you came to CurtainUp and from what part of the country.
Slings & Arrows  cover of  new Blu-Ray cover
Slings & Arrows-the complete set

You don't have to be a Shakespeare aficionado to love all 21 episodes of this hilarious and moving Canadian TV series about a fictional Shakespeare Company

Next to Normal
Our Review of the Show

Scottsboro Boys cast album
TheScottsboro Boyse


bloody bloody Andrew Jackson
Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson


In the Heights
In the Heights


broadwaynewyork.com


amazon




©Copyright 2011, Elyse Sommer.
Information from this site may not be reproduced in print or online without specific permission from esommer@curtainup.com