Sister Act musical review and star rating: ★★★★★
Let us join together to pray: please let them never take Sister Act away!
Returning to the West End with a booking period currently through to August, Sister Act is a stroke of genius: simple, straightforward fun channelled through a production that is so precision-tooled that every moment becomes either a huge laugh or a visual spectacular. It’s two-and-a-half hours but doesn’t drag for a second.
In past iterations the London theatre version of Sister Act has relied on star casting, most famously with Jennifer Saunders in the role of Mother Superior, the role originated by Maggie Smith in the Whoopi Goldberg movie. This time around it’s Ruth Jones of Gavin and Stacey playing the disgruntled matronly leader.
For her West End debut Jones brings with her sass, confidence and a charming informality. This version of Mother Superior has spent thirty years in the States “via Wales” – a new addition to the script which, strung out in her strong accent, gets one of the biggest laughs of the night. Later, she puts her feet up on her desk to show off dragon socks. It’s neat and not overdone, and she can sing, too: Jones’ Mother Superior is pitched just right: she could give you a good scolding, but she also emanates warmth.
Sister Act is the story of lounge singer Deloris Van Cartier who goes on the run after witnessing a murder by her on-off boyfriend Curtis Jackson. She’s made to look like a Nun and hidden in a beleaguered convent by a policeman who pays off the church – desperately in need of repair – so that they take her in. Then she teaches the Nuns about disco music! And shaking their bums!
The set pieces look a million dollars, including the church, its stained glass windows glistening as beats infuse these spaces for the first time. The show is basically a role call of incredibly strong performances that hold down some incredibly strong comedic and musical writing.
Not least Beverley Knight as Deloris, panto legend Clive Rowe as cop Eddie who you just melt for whenever he’s on stage yearning for Deloris (he gets a lovely solo in I Could Be That Guy about his feelings for her) and Lizzie Bea, whose Sister Mary Robert, who delights in Deloris’ energy and progressive messaging, you long for during her homage to changing fortunes, The Life I Never Had. Lesley Joseph is hilariously curmudgeony as the veteran Nun Sister Mary Lazarus, pulling out some great physical comedy bits with dance when the more socially conservative of the Nuns finally gets behind Van Cartier’s tutorship and into the modern musical grooves. By the end you’re considering the application process for joining the convent, it looks like so much fun.
The only small complaint is that Lemar’s Curtis Jackson character feels a little too pantomime villain. His character is essentially a prop, but you feel that Lemar is hemmed in a little by the performative precociousness of Jackson who basically just gets to strut around in a huff all night.
Sister Act remains one of the capital’s most vibrant and hilarious nights out 15 years after it first premiered on the London stage. Go and have your awakening – with this cast Sister Act is a religious experience for us all.
Sister Act plays at the Dominion Theatre until 31 August
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