Sister Act - UK Tour

Of course. We all do. But humour is very subjective isn't it? And just because a gag doesn't land with one person doesn't mean it has to be erased. 

I do do find "the gays" as an expression a bit offensive though. So...

Nice to know you're in control, but what ya going to do about me feeling offended? 

I saw this last night. Before I begin my review, I just want to say that I saw the original London production and absolutely loved it! Also, bear in mind that this was only the third preview, so certain things may change and tighten as the run progresses.

Overall, I found this VERY disappointing. The further in the show got, the more I disliked it. This is the first time I have seen it with the Broadway changes, and I did not like them at all, as they added nothing to what was there before. If anything, they hindered the show. As others have said above, whilst I understand why they replaced "How I Got The Calling" with "It's Good To Be A Nun", the former was a much better song. It was funnier, and introduced the audience to each of the nuns, telling us more about them. So what if they were singing! It really wasn't an issue for me in the London production, and surely audiences can suspend their disbelief. It is a musical after all! The cutting of "Sacred Mass" made the bar scene so short and inconsequential. As for the additions, all I have to say is...why? The confession scene at the top of Act 2 should be cut. There is no reason for this to exist, as it does not tell us anything we do not need know already. In this production, it is also very oddly staged (More on the staging later!) It makes Act 2 come in with a whimper, when it should be a bang. "Sunday Morning Fever" did this job, so should go back to opening Act 2 from the get-go. The new song for Mother Superior also needs to go. It is not a bad song, but I feel as though it stops the show cold. Again, it does not tell us anything we do not already know, and it seems so out of character for a person of that stature to be getting drunk on communion wine (only then to be stone-cold sober 10 minutes later). These changes are definitely not for the better!

I also had an issue with Revel-Horwood's direction and choreography. This is a shame, as I very much enjoyed his production of "Fiddler on the Roof" a couple of years ago. There were times when the blocking just looked amateurish, with actors having their backs to the audience for extending periods of time, or actors standing blocking the view of what others were doing. His staging of the "Fabulous Baby (Reprise)"/"Sister Act" was a shambles and totally robbed those moments of their poignancy. Particularly during "Sister Act", Alexandra Burke was walking around, singing to nuns in random corners of the stage, whilst being blocked by other nuns. There was far too much movement in that song. What is wrong with just getting her to stand still centre stage and get her to sing it, exactly as it was in the London production? It was so much more emotional when done like this, rather than getting her to move everywhere, and gesticulate with her hands. Other staging decisions were equally as baffling! During Mary Robert's song, at one point Deloris and her playfully roll around the stage whilst she is singing. There is nothing wrong with this per se, but this would come to a natural end, only for them to mount one another again, and resume their frolics. I thought the whole ending of the show was going to change with Sister Mary Robert and Deloris starting a lesbian relationship. Such staging compromised the vocal quality, and this seemed to be a theme throughout the evening. The three goons girated their way through "Lady in the Long Black Dress", repeating a series of sexual visual puns that grew tiresome. Slow motion was also over-used throughout the show. I had no clue what was happening during the last chase scene in the convent. Line readings also missed some of the humour in the dialogue.

Surprisingly, the choreography was also very sloppy. I don't know whether this was because some were holding instruments, so this limited what they could do, but the routines (particularly with the nuns) did not look tight or together, and gave the impression that people were doing different things at different times (some moving hands, some not etc). It just looked untidy. The whole evening needs tightening up really. Transitions between scenes could be much quicker. There were times when the lights would come up, a character would walk on stage, and the audience would wait a minute whilst they found the spot that they were meant to be standing in and began to talk. Why can't they walk and talk? That would trim some time off, and make for a much more pacy evening.

Now I come to the performances and firstly, Alexandra Burke. Well, her acting wasn't as bad as I had feared. It wasn't amazing by any stretch of the imagination, and yes some of her line readings were off, and how she would stood and moved herself on stage was often very clunky, but she actually made a decent stab at it. The disappointments came with her singing and dancing. They have quite clearly lowered the keys for her. In principle, I do not like this, as alternating the original keys robs the songs of their impact, and they don't land in quite the same way. The songs often fell flat because the change in key didn't quite result in the same musical climax. Plus, I believe the songs are now too low for her. She becomes very breathy in the lower part of her register, and is practically inaudible. I do not know what has happened to her voice since X Factor, but it seems to have gone through quite a bit of strain. Her understudy maybe on more than the scheduled matinees later into the run. Why can't they cast someone who would do the songs justice? Especially when they were originally sung by Patina Miller who was such a power-house! Alexandra's dancing was also pedestrian. She muddled through, but it lacked any attack.

There was no one performance that really stood out. As I alluded to earlier, vocally I felt that it was a very weak evening. The cast just didn't have the voices to do the songs justice. In "Lady in the Long Black Dress", they struggled to flip between the lower register, and the high falsetto. Perhaps I am too used to the more powerful voices on the OLCR, but it just wasn't good. Sister Mary Robert didn't really have the necessary belt for the role, and "The Life I Never Led" suffered as a result. Her acting choices were also very lazy. When she sang about shouting, she would shout the line, when she sang about turning away, she would physically turn away. It got very boring, very quickly. The way she would also act surprised after every line, also began to grate after a while. The sound and miking still needs to be sorted out. There were times when characters didn't have the mikes turned on when needed, were too quiet or too loud. The lyrics often couldn't be heard as a result.

I did think that the actor-musician concept somewhat worked well, despite occasional lapses in tuning. This wasn't too intrusive, and often the characters not in the scene would be the ones playing instruments.

This may tighten up over time, so not to be avoided, Overall though, I just found it a bit of a mess at this stage.

2 stars.

AddisonMizner Mother Superior gets drunk? I really don't remember that in the Broadway/First UK Tour version.

Yeah but she didn't get drunk before did she? Or did she? I saw the UK Tour 6 times and I don't remember Denise Black drinking anything.

Yes, she gets drunk during "I Haven't Got A Prayer". Haven't seen the changes before, so could just be how it is staged for this production. I didn't like it anyhow.

Didn't CRH threaten that there was another X Factor contestant was to feature in this - or have I missed something?

AddisonMizner even though sad that you didn't enjoy it as much as you wanted too, thank you for such a detailed review!

Well....I have just got back from the matinee, after doing something I have NEVER done before, we left at the interval.

I had never seen the show before, heard a couple of songs and liked what I heard and we thought we would give it a go. I honestly don't know if it was the show, the staging or the performances but the show was just not for us. I found the first act (apart from the last ten minutes) extremely tedious. I feel as i can't really comment much on the show seeing as we didn't stay and see it all but i can definitely agree with EVERYTHING Addison says above in correlation to the first act.

Yeah, VERY disappointed in this.

Pretty sure this is it...

Act I

"Take Me to Heaven" – Deloris, Michelle & Tina

"Fabulous, Baby!" – Deloris, Michelle & Tina

"Here Within These Walls" – Mother Superior & Deloris

"It's Good to Be a Nun" – Deloris, Mary Patrick, Mary Robert, Mary Lazarus & Nuns

"When I Find My Baby" – Curtis, Joey, Pablo & TJ

"I Could Be That Guy" – Eddie & Homeless

"Raise Your Voice" – Deloris, Mary Patrick, Mary Robert, Mary Lazarus & Nuns

"Take Me to Heaven" (Reprise) – Deloris, Mary Patrick, Mary Robert, Mary Lazarus & Nuns



Act II


"Sunday Morning Fever" – Deloris, Mother Superior, Monsignor O'Hara, Eddie, Mary Patrick, Mary Robert, Mary Lazarus, Nuns & Workers

"Lady in the Long Black Dress" – Joey, Pablo & TJ

"Haven't Got a Prayer" – Mother Superior

"Bless Our Show" – Deloris, Mary Patrick, Mary Robert, Mary Lazarus & Nuns

"The Life I Never Led" – Mary Robert

"Fabulous, Baby!" (Reprise) – Deloris, Eddie, Nuns & Fantasy Dancers

"Sister Act" – Deloris

"When I Find My Baby" (Reprise) – Curtis

"The Life I Never Led" (Reprise) – Mary Robert

"Sister Act" (Reprise) – Deloris, Mother Superior, Mary Patrick, Mary Robert, Mary Lazarus & Nuns

"Spread the Love Around" – The Company

It's Joanna Francis I think, was she good in the role?