Post by santtu on Oct 25, 2009 16:39:04 GMT -5
I really like this Whoopi Goldberg's movie, so I really wanted to see this stage version. But at the same time I had some reservations, would it live up to the 'feel-good' level of the film?
The score is by Alan Menken, lyrics by Glenn Slater. I wasn't too thrilled about this. I didn't like much the material this duo provided for the stage version of Disney's THE LITTLE MERMAID.
In short, the story is about a lounge singer Deloris Van Cartier, who is dating a 'gangster' called Curtis (aka"Shank"). Deloris happens to be in the wrong place in the wrong time and witnesses her boyfriend killing a man so she runs away. The police ends up hiding her in a convent where Deloris, a wanna-be disco-diva, is forced to live as a nun. After some comic events the Mother Superior decides to put Deloris's, known in the convent as Sister Mary Clarence, musical talent in use and train the somewhat tone-deaf choir of the convent. And needless to say Deloris finds a way to actually make the nuns sing... but not just your everyday church hymns etc, but modern music! And to Mother Superior's horror, the choir becomes an instant hit with their disco material!
The plot has been changed from the film. Most of the changes are not that big a deal. The biggest change is that the story is now set in 1978 - in the highday of the disco-era. This actually works in the favor of the show, Menken's music really reflects that time period brilliantly! There's also some smaller changes but I'm not going to go into those here.
Alan Menken has written a score that is absolutely captivating!! The songs are melodic, catchy and well structured. I had some doubts about this after hearing the new songs of TLM, and not liking most of them. But here we have beautiful ballads (Sister Mary Robert's "The life I never led", Mother Superior's "Here within these walls"), light standards (nuns' "How I got the calling", "Bless our show"), groovy numbers (Shank's "When I find my baby", goons' "Lady in a long black dress") and absolutely fantastic, uplifting, upbeat numbers ("Raise your voice", "Sunday morning fever" and "Spread it around") that have you pretty much jumping up and dancing on your seat! The score is really wonderful! I totally loved it!
I can't think of a more catchier number to open Act II than "Sunday morning fever". It's picking up right were they left off before the intermission. If you were dancing on the aisles when the Act I ended, guess what - you're back on the aisle again.
Glenn Slater's lyrics are this time clever and well written. He really surprised me!
Visually the show is every bit as good as the music! Especially the scenes that take place in the convent or in the church. Particularly the church set - though done in a quite traditional way - was impressive with the huge Virgin Mary statue in front of the huge rose window. Nice contrast to the disco-dancing nuns in front of it!!
The performers were brilliant. Patina Miller as Deloris had her own take on the role, which was actually good. She didn't try and imitate Whoopi's performance, but made the role her own. Her voice is very charismatic, though I usually don't like voices that have a lot of 'tremolo'/'vibrato'. But Miller's voice is very colourful and expressive, and the vibrato isn't that disturbing.
Sheila Hanc-ock as Mother Superior was excellent. Expressive enough to make MS a person but not try and steal the show. Her facial expressions were amazing - she had me rolling on the floor with laughter during "Take me to heaven (rep.)" as the nun choir strut their disco stuff for the very first time at the end of Act I. The same thing happened again in the end of the first scene of Act II as she gets stuck in the middle of the choir's performance... ;D I did miss however some of that more confrontational "you or me" -setting between MS and Deloris from the movie.
Chris Jarman was very good as Shank. I really liked his deep voice, reminded me of Brian Stokes Mitchell.
I was particularly impressed by Maggie May who played the role of Sister Mary Robert. She was an understudy but you just couldn't tell! She knew exactly what she was doing and she did it really well! Her vocal power was amazing!
The whole cast did brilliant job with their roles, however big or small.
The only things I didn't really like that much were the solo number for Eddie, the cop ("I could be that guy"). I'm sorry, Mr Menken & Mr Slater, but the song was booooooriiiingg!! And I didn't care too much for the changes they had made to the role of Sister Mary Lazarus (I'm not going to reveal what they were, let's just say the role was much better in the movie).
The choreographer Anthony Van Laast wrote in the program that one of the biggest challenges for him was to create choreographies for the nuns - peformers who are not even supposed to be dancers and are dressed up in costumes that don't really help a choreographer - but still make the choreographies impressive and feast for eyes. All I can say is MISSION ACCOMPLISHED, Mr Van Laast!!! They were brilliant!!
All in all, SISTER ACT is totally worth seeing! I enjoyed every minute of it! And I wasn't the only one! I can't remember the last time I saw a show in London where the whole audience was having this much fun watching the show - not even MAMMA MIA! or MARY POPPINS. I saw the show Thursday evening... I can only imagine what the mood must be like in Sat evening performance!! ;D
A wonderful, feel-good, uplifting show!!
The score is by Alan Menken, lyrics by Glenn Slater. I wasn't too thrilled about this. I didn't like much the material this duo provided for the stage version of Disney's THE LITTLE MERMAID.
In short, the story is about a lounge singer Deloris Van Cartier, who is dating a 'gangster' called Curtis (aka"Shank"). Deloris happens to be in the wrong place in the wrong time and witnesses her boyfriend killing a man so she runs away. The police ends up hiding her in a convent where Deloris, a wanna-be disco-diva, is forced to live as a nun. After some comic events the Mother Superior decides to put Deloris's, known in the convent as Sister Mary Clarence, musical talent in use and train the somewhat tone-deaf choir of the convent. And needless to say Deloris finds a way to actually make the nuns sing... but not just your everyday church hymns etc, but modern music! And to Mother Superior's horror, the choir becomes an instant hit with their disco material!
The plot has been changed from the film. Most of the changes are not that big a deal. The biggest change is that the story is now set in 1978 - in the highday of the disco-era. This actually works in the favor of the show, Menken's music really reflects that time period brilliantly! There's also some smaller changes but I'm not going to go into those here.
Alan Menken has written a score that is absolutely captivating!! The songs are melodic, catchy and well structured. I had some doubts about this after hearing the new songs of TLM, and not liking most of them. But here we have beautiful ballads (Sister Mary Robert's "The life I never led", Mother Superior's "Here within these walls"), light standards (nuns' "How I got the calling", "Bless our show"), groovy numbers (Shank's "When I find my baby", goons' "Lady in a long black dress") and absolutely fantastic, uplifting, upbeat numbers ("Raise your voice", "Sunday morning fever" and "Spread it around") that have you pretty much jumping up and dancing on your seat! The score is really wonderful! I totally loved it!
I can't think of a more catchier number to open Act II than "Sunday morning fever". It's picking up right were they left off before the intermission. If you were dancing on the aisles when the Act I ended, guess what - you're back on the aisle again.
Glenn Slater's lyrics are this time clever and well written. He really surprised me!
Visually the show is every bit as good as the music! Especially the scenes that take place in the convent or in the church. Particularly the church set - though done in a quite traditional way - was impressive with the huge Virgin Mary statue in front of the huge rose window. Nice contrast to the disco-dancing nuns in front of it!!
The performers were brilliant. Patina Miller as Deloris had her own take on the role, which was actually good. She didn't try and imitate Whoopi's performance, but made the role her own. Her voice is very charismatic, though I usually don't like voices that have a lot of 'tremolo'/'vibrato'. But Miller's voice is very colourful and expressive, and the vibrato isn't that disturbing.
Sheila Hanc-ock as Mother Superior was excellent. Expressive enough to make MS a person but not try and steal the show. Her facial expressions were amazing - she had me rolling on the floor with laughter during "Take me to heaven (rep.)" as the nun choir strut their disco stuff for the very first time at the end of Act I. The same thing happened again in the end of the first scene of Act II as she gets stuck in the middle of the choir's performance... ;D I did miss however some of that more confrontational "you or me" -setting between MS and Deloris from the movie.
Chris Jarman was very good as Shank. I really liked his deep voice, reminded me of Brian Stokes Mitchell.
I was particularly impressed by Maggie May who played the role of Sister Mary Robert. She was an understudy but you just couldn't tell! She knew exactly what she was doing and she did it really well! Her vocal power was amazing!
The whole cast did brilliant job with their roles, however big or small.
The only things I didn't really like that much were the solo number for Eddie, the cop ("I could be that guy"). I'm sorry, Mr Menken & Mr Slater, but the song was booooooriiiingg!! And I didn't care too much for the changes they had made to the role of Sister Mary Lazarus (I'm not going to reveal what they were, let's just say the role was much better in the movie).
The choreographer Anthony Van Laast wrote in the program that one of the biggest challenges for him was to create choreographies for the nuns - peformers who are not even supposed to be dancers and are dressed up in costumes that don't really help a choreographer - but still make the choreographies impressive and feast for eyes. All I can say is MISSION ACCOMPLISHED, Mr Van Laast!!! They were brilliant!!
All in all, SISTER ACT is totally worth seeing! I enjoyed every minute of it! And I wasn't the only one! I can't remember the last time I saw a show in London where the whole audience was having this much fun watching the show - not even MAMMA MIA! or MARY POPPINS. I saw the show Thursday evening... I can only imagine what the mood must be like in Sat evening performance!! ;D
A wonderful, feel-good, uplifting show!!
