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The much hyped Whoopi Goldberg and Stage Entertainment project ‘Sister Act’ came to the West End stage in May earlier this year, and tongues have not stopped raving about it since.  

I was curious as to how they were going to recreate such a loved film on stage, especially without Ms Goldberg as the protagonist, along with a completely revamped soundtrack.  After a mere 10 minutes into the show I realised I need not have worried.  What the team have created is something bigger and better than the film could have ever been, a true spectacle for the eyes and ears in which you cannot help but laugh, cheer, sing along and wriggle in your chair desperate to jump up and dance had it not been for your fellow spectators.

Patina Miller stars as Delores van Cartier, the lounge singer who dreams of becoming a world famous superstar.  “I’m fabulous babayy” she exclaims with her glamorous backing singers, and from here on the story unfolds along the basic line of the first Sister Act movie.  Miller was nothing short of superb.  Her acting was engaging and colourful, her vocals strong and passionate, her dancing simply spectacular.  They have found a true star in Miller.  It was as if she was born to play this role and you watch, mesmerised, as she eases her way through scene by scene, song after song with sheer effortlessness.

British veteran Sheila Hancock plays the traditional, pious and strict Mother Superior, the antithesis of Delores and yet her saviour in more ways than one.  Fellow Brit, Ian Lavender plays Monsignor Howard and was absent on my night; however his understudy surely entertained in his supporting role.  In fact, all the supporting cast were heavyweights in their own right in terms of vocals, performance and energy.  

The acting aside, one cannot escape the magnificent stagecraft involved in this production.  I truly thought it would be a long time before I saw staging better than The Lion King musical, but this came along to knock me for six.  The scene changes were swift with seemingly invisible tracks on the stage and beams, so much so that unless you were a technician yourself, you couldn’t fathom at times just how they did it.  That’s when you know you’re experiencing true theatre, when a world is created before your very eyes and you can see it, feel it and believe it.  What a joy, what talent, what a show.

Unforgettable magic.


Showing at the LONDON PALLADIUM until 17 March 2010.

Written By Tamara Laryea

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