I am not in the habit (gettit?) of comparing musicals with film versions or vice versa but this is really the only reason this show exists. In this case it is not a good comparison to make.
Basically, this is an amusing enough show that gives whoever is playing the central character Deloris plenty of space to show her vocal skills and some sassy moves while rekindling memories of the hit movie.
Deloris is still hiding as a nun in struggling convent and teaches the real nuns how to sing, overcomes the cynicism of the Mother Superior and find inner peace thanks to her time with the sisters.
In this story we also Deloris having the realisation that the dull chap who has always loved her, in the form of a policeman Eddie who doesn’t like shooting people, is really the man for her and she doesn’t really need all the glitz and glamour. Well, maybe not.
She, of course, rejoins the sisterhood (without the religion) for their big gig so that is very right on and woke but what is missing is the position of the nuns and the convent in the life of the community they serve. I am not the slightest but religious but I found much of the show distasteful in a way the film avoided.
So what do we have here? Well Sandra Marvin can sing the role extremely well and, yes, has the sort of disco diva attitude moves to make it fun (this time round Philadelphia in the disco 1970s era).We must have other singers who can, well, sing otherwise it just doesn’t work. The Mother Superior role is here taken by Lesley Joseph and she makes some joke about not being able to reach the low notes in a final scene duet. I am not sure if she was singing the Alan Menken music to Glenn Slater lyrics the rest of time but the audience didn’t seem to care one jot. Many, perhaps most, of the audience members found it all hilarious.
The production from Bill Buckhurst vamps up the lacklustre plot with some musical theatre audience pleasing set-pieces tropes, usually requiring costume change dream like sequences and here 70s icon reference (Village People etc etc) and some migraine inducing lights and colour displays.
I had enough by the interval and would have not come back for the second half but that would be unprofessional and fortunately it not only races along but some of the songs are actually much better, although the humour descends into pantomime farce – but, again, the audience members seemed to enjoy it.
It is a pleasant enough musical with some decent songs and strong delivery from generally talented singers. There are moments your eye brows raise to what is coming into your ears, but in the main this is compensated by those who can carry and deliver a tune and, not least, Emma Ralston as Sister Mary Robert.
Until November 5
https://www.wmc.org.uk/en/whats-on/2022/sister-act
Images Manuel Harlan
and back in 2017 in Swansea…. https://www.asiw.co.uk/reviews/sister-act-grand-theatre-swansea