Sister Act will take you to musical heaven

Way back in 1992, Whoopi Goldberg and Disney’s Touchstone Pictures had a huge comedy hit on their hands with Sister Act, the story of a Vegas lounge singer with big dreams and a terrible boyfriend. Said boyfriend is a mobster who rubs someone out just as Deloris walks in the door but pretends that she saw nothing. She goes to the police and is put under protective custody at St. Katherine’s Parish in San Francisco where she turns the choir into a musical sensation, much to the chagrin of the Reverend Mother.

The film, made for about $31 million, was a smash, grossing over $231 million worldwide. By 2011, Broadway was making a killing by turning Hollywood movies into big stage musicals and Sister Act, which had started life in 2006 at the Pasadena Playhouse, was no exception. A newly revised adaptation of the show opened on Broadway in April 2011 and ran for 561 performances, garnering multiple Tony Award nominations including Best Musical.

Now, Sister Act has hit the road, crossing the country and winding down its tour with a stop at Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre (the last show of the Baltimore season). If you’re familiar with the movie, you’ll be pretty familiar with the show even though the location has been changed to Philadelphia and the time has been set back to the 1970s, and adding a bit of an unrequited love interest for Deloris.

Luckily for the show, it’s far enough removed from the movie so that audiences probably won’t be comparing stage star Ta’Rea Campbell to movie star Whoopi Goldberg. Where Whoopi was quick with the one liners, Campbell gives her Deloris more sass and sex appeal and can certainly belt out a tune. The change in era also gives her a chance to wear a period appropriate disco ensemble before putting on her habit. Campbell is terrific once the show gets rolling, and you can feel the energy she brings to the convent. Once she gets the nuns out of their ruts, you’ll be under her spell as well.

The show, though, takes its time to get moving. The first two scenes are rather drawn out, introducing boyfriend Curtis (Melvin Abston) and his henchmen, and cop Eddie Souther (Chester Gregory), nicknamed “Sweaty Eddie” for obvious reasons, who has known Deloris since high school and has crushed on her ever since. But once things move to the parish and we meet Mother Superior (Hollis Resnik), the show finds its groove very nicely. I was worried we were in for another Ghost, but that was not the case.

The cast is phenomenal with Resnik a magnetic force on stage, drawing your eyes to her regardless of what else is going on. She really is the spark that brings the show to life. Florrie Bagels plays Sister Mary Patrick, the role played so memorably on film by Kathy Najimy, and it’s certainly no coincidence that Bagels resembles Najimy. She also brings the same comedy timing to the role but doesn’t completely steal the show from Campbell. Abston is a powerful presence and gets to sing one of the show’s hilariously clever tunes about how he’s going to keep a hold on Deloris when he finds her … and then sings about all the gruesome ways he’s going to kill her. Gregory’s character is meant to be weak and wishy-washy, but he also has one of the show’s stand-out musical numbers that has to be seen to be believed. From that moment, your whole perception of “Sweaty Eddie” changes.

The show is fun to watch with multiple settings gliding on and off stage, and it’s also fun to watch the nuns add various accoutrements to their habits during the big musical numbers. And that brings us to the music. One may wonder why a movie that was set in 1992 has been time-shifted to the 1970s. One word: music. The change in eras gave the songwriters, Alan Menken and Glenn Slater, an opportunity to craft a set of tunes that evoke the music of the period (particularly in the men’s solos, riffing on Barry White and Lou Rawls) as well as giving Deloris a goal – to wear the same white sequined dress and white fur stole that she saw Donna Summer wear in concert. It was probably a risk setting the show in the 70s, but the risk paid off. Overall, Sister Act is a fun, uplifting night at the theatre that will have you shouting “Hallelujah” by the end.

Sister Act is playing in Baltimore through June 15th, and makes one last stop for the year in San Antonio, June 24-29. This is a show definitely worth catching while you can.