Post by santtu on Mar 27, 2011 13:27:15 GMT -5
SISTER ACT has just started the previews on Broadway, at the Broadway Theatre. I managed to get a ticket for the second preview performance (it was sold out, but I got a cancellation ticket).
There's been quite a few changes since the show closed in London! The basic story is the same - the wanna-be disco-diva Deloris van Cartier witnesses her gangster-boyfriend shoot a guy and she's hidden into a convent until the trial - but the details have been re-written. There are new scenes and new songs, old scenes and songs re-written and revised.
Most of the songs have been touched more or less, some more some less. All three nuns' choir's show songs ("Take me to heaven", "Sunday morning fever", "Spread the love around") have remained untouched, as well as two or three others.
Most notable changes (at the moment!) are:
* Mother Superior's short monologue in the beginning of the show has been cut
* "Take me to heaven" opens the show and it is now Deloris's audition song to perform in Shank's club, instead of performing it in the club to an audience
* "Fabulous baby!" is tightened, with the back-up singers' lines ("There she goes again...", "Honey, whatever you're sniffing...") now gone
* Deloris's witnessing the shooting is now more like in the film (as well as her getting the fur coat from Shank)
* the police station scene is completely re-written and works better now
* "Here within these walls" has now Deloris singing in counterpoint in the end of the song
* lyrics to "How I got the calling" have been re-written and the song is now called "It's good to be a nun" (I didn't like these new lyrics that much). Sister Mary Robert's part is the same as it was before
* "Do the sacred mass" is gone, and the bar scene is dialogue only and the scene is now much better
* Act II opens with a small book scene (spoken scene) prior "Sunday morning fever"
* "Sunday morning fever" has the spoken bits re-written and they are far worse than in the London version!! Now they're just awful.
* Mother Superior has a new solo number in Act II, called "Haven't got a prayer"
* most of the dialogue leading up to "Bless our show" has been cut
* "Here within these walls" reprise has been cut
There are tons of re-written lines here and there, new choreographies (except the nuns' show numbers which have pretty much the same choreographies as in London), sets have been re-designed in many points.
Overall, the show 'flows' better now, but there are some things that I would change back - or change still. For example, I would cut the song "I could be that guy" immediately, it still is by far the worst and most boring song in the show.
The actors are wonderful. Patina Miller is doing great job as Deloris, she's now more down to earth and not aiming for the laughs so much as it was in London. Victoria Clark is absolutely wonderful as Mother Superior! Sarah Bolt makes Sister Mary Patrick more like the character was in the film, instead the ADD-type giggler that we saw in London. Audrie Neenan's Sister Mary Lazarus is also more like the character in the film instead of that horrible character they had in London, which didn't work at all. Also Chester Gregory does great job as Eddie, the cop. The role is now more a human, instead of a caricature.
Wonderfully entertaining, a feel-good show with a great score and a fun story. I will definitely go and see this again after it opens (if not sooner
) to see how much it has developed and changed during the previews.
There's been quite a few changes since the show closed in London! The basic story is the same - the wanna-be disco-diva Deloris van Cartier witnesses her gangster-boyfriend shoot a guy and she's hidden into a convent until the trial - but the details have been re-written. There are new scenes and new songs, old scenes and songs re-written and revised.
Most of the songs have been touched more or less, some more some less. All three nuns' choir's show songs ("Take me to heaven", "Sunday morning fever", "Spread the love around") have remained untouched, as well as two or three others.
Most notable changes (at the moment!) are:
* Mother Superior's short monologue in the beginning of the show has been cut
* "Take me to heaven" opens the show and it is now Deloris's audition song to perform in Shank's club, instead of performing it in the club to an audience
* "Fabulous baby!" is tightened, with the back-up singers' lines ("There she goes again...", "Honey, whatever you're sniffing...") now gone
* Deloris's witnessing the shooting is now more like in the film (as well as her getting the fur coat from Shank)
* the police station scene is completely re-written and works better now
* "Here within these walls" has now Deloris singing in counterpoint in the end of the song
* lyrics to "How I got the calling" have been re-written and the song is now called "It's good to be a nun" (I didn't like these new lyrics that much). Sister Mary Robert's part is the same as it was before
* "Do the sacred mass" is gone, and the bar scene is dialogue only and the scene is now much better
* Act II opens with a small book scene (spoken scene) prior "Sunday morning fever"
* "Sunday morning fever" has the spoken bits re-written and they are far worse than in the London version!! Now they're just awful.
* Mother Superior has a new solo number in Act II, called "Haven't got a prayer"
* most of the dialogue leading up to "Bless our show" has been cut
* "Here within these walls" reprise has been cut
There are tons of re-written lines here and there, new choreographies (except the nuns' show numbers which have pretty much the same choreographies as in London), sets have been re-designed in many points.
Overall, the show 'flows' better now, but there are some things that I would change back - or change still. For example, I would cut the song "I could be that guy" immediately, it still is by far the worst and most boring song in the show.
The actors are wonderful. Patina Miller is doing great job as Deloris, she's now more down to earth and not aiming for the laughs so much as it was in London. Victoria Clark is absolutely wonderful as Mother Superior! Sarah Bolt makes Sister Mary Patrick more like the character was in the film, instead the ADD-type giggler that we saw in London. Audrie Neenan's Sister Mary Lazarus is also more like the character in the film instead of that horrible character they had in London, which didn't work at all. Also Chester Gregory does great job as Eddie, the cop. The role is now more a human, instead of a caricature.
Wonderfully entertaining, a feel-good show with a great score and a fun story. I will definitely go and see this again after it opens (if not sooner
) to see how much it has developed and changed during the previews.