Sister Act - UK Tour

For people who have seen this, how does the Actor-Musician thing work? Is every single song done with the singers playing the instruments or is there a band/orchestra too and some songs done with no actors playing instruments that are seen?

Oh that's good, now I feel relived! I thought some dancing nuns would come in playing trumpets, guitars etc. and it would just look silly but if there offstage that's good. I've always preferred an orchestra pit to the band being on stage, don't know why!

Re Song List; there's also a Megamix at the end!

I may go to the matinee next Wednesday to see it and I haven't seen the previous version. Well, live anyway. I have heard the cast recording and watched a couple of clips but that is about it.

Not that it's an accurate judge of ANYTHING, but folks on Twitter are overwhelmingly positive. 

So much so that I wonder if they watched the same show as colleagues here.

Hope your group enjoys it! 

I was skeptical about Burke to begin with. It just annoys me when they alter keys to fit with a star (fabulous baby needs to be high for that top end belt Patina/Cynthia style). People on here I usually agree with are saying what I feared. Not good.

Evening

Just home from seeing this evening performance of Sister Act at Curve.

I had a blast, thoroughly enjoyed the show.

I'm a complete novice to the show, never seen a production of it or heard the score. Or indeed seen the inspiration in the form of the original film.

Was ten minutes late starting which got me a tad concerned. I was worried that there was a tech problem or that a cast member was touch and go with performing.

Anyway we got the slightly cheesy Craig Revel Horwood voice over advising against any naughty recording amidst a number of slightly cringey puns then we were off with the show.

So Alexandra Burke.

I thought she gave 100% percent in the role. Was pleasantly surprised that acting wise, for the most part, she was excellent some nice comedy moments and dramatic moments carried well. Maybe at times having a lower register voice meant on the odd occasion her vocal was swamped but that was a rare occurrence.
Must admit when the show was first announced I was a bit sniffy about it but I was proved completely wrong. Her name on the poster in future would get my money upfront.

I found the cast to be really cohesive, strong vocally too.
Usage of instruments by the cast was appropriate being augmented by band members of stage and also with other cast members on the set balcony. I expected it to be more full on like it was in CRH 'Sunset Boulevard' so was glad that the characters were playing instruments when it seemed they should be. Choregraphy all looked tidy enough, at times a lot of people on stage all in sync to my eyes.

I was on the second row, far right facing the stage and only had one moment when there was any problem with an actor blocking another for any length in a scene.

The 'controversial moments'
The 'incog-negro' moment for me fell completely flat and had me scratching my head at the inclusion. Where as the negro/African comments from the nuns felt appropriate, the time of the piece is repeatedly flagged up, it felt like a comment a woman of that age and time would have made. And made me smile at a character thinking that literally everything about Dolores was fake and being relieved that at least one thing wasn't.
The race comments didn't get belly laughs (are they even jokes or character pointers?), but it's Leicester and we're quite the racially sophisticated city but hey maybe it'll be the same reaction elsewhere what with it being 2016.

The fantasy dance sequence with the spoken intro about it being Studio 54 and gays boys. There's only one excessively 'mincy' dancer really whose really playing it up who got some laughs but they're hardly a troop of flamers. I'm quite territorial about Studio 54 being a huge disco fan, only been once and that was to see The Apple Tree with it back to be used as a theatre, if there are dancers performing with a singer there fantasy or not I'd expect them to be gay boys. There's a huge amount of representation of gay people in all kinds of media now, it's not the 70s/80s were they were so few that any in a piece was deemed to be having impact on peoples perceptions.

Pretty much an entire standing ovation, people on the front two rows bizarrely for the most part remained sitting.

I came out exhilarated and glad that I'd got that last minute ticket and made a rare solo visit to the theatre.

I didn't know someone had organised a Theatreboard coach trip....

Thanks for for the review Ruggerlad, it sounds like it's settling in. When is Press Night? 

I saw this last night. To my surprise none other that Craig Revel Horwood came and sat right in front of me a couple of mins before the show started with his associate! Anyway, i've not seen the show before and so can't compare to any other production, this is just based on what i saw last night. I really enjoyed it, it's a very fun show with lots of comedy and it's just a good night out. It doesn't take itself seriously. I mean you have nuns playing a saxophones and trumpets so.

The set i thought was very good. It was basically just the one main set of the convent which they turned into other locations through props, bit's and pieces coming on and the lighting. Though there is then a surprise to the set at the end when suddenly stuff happens with it that you never thought was there before. The music was great, some very catchy songs, which sounded really good and i enjoyed. It was quite a loud show which i do love.

The cast were great. Now i was sceptical about Alex getting this role but i think she is better in this than in The Bodyguard. I think her acting was better, she showed off a bit of decent comedy acting and her voice was great. I'd say there was still something missing in terms of her just not being a top notch  natural comedian and master actress and not making Deloris quite as fabulous as she could be, i can only compare her to Whoopie in the movie and so it's of course an unfair comparison but that's all i can go on.  The others were great. I especially enjoyed Rosemary Ashe as Mary Lazarus. Absolutely hilarious. Wasn't sure on the girl playing Mary Roberts but then she nailed her solo's. Karen Mann was a very commanding and impressive Mother Superior, not the strongest voice but she didn't need it. I really enjoyed the three sidekicks to Curtis as well who wee all very funny. I saw Jon Robyns in Legally Blonde and really liked him, thought he was less good in this but still fine.

On the nuns and cast playing the instruments...when i first found this out i really didn't know how that would work but it...just did. It just seemed to add to the fun of the show and added to it, it didn't even really seem out of place to me they would play instruments as well. I don't know what else was different about this compared to the other productions, some bits stood out to me as probably being new and different but i can't really be sure.  I mean a lot of ridiculous and silly stuff happens in this show, you have to kind of leave your brain at the door and just want a good entertaining night with laughs. I can see that some people might get a surprise when they see this and not get quite what they are expecting, i know i got something a bit different, it was a lot more silly and outrageous than i imagines it would be, but i still really enjoyed it.

Overall i thought it was a great show.

Just a bit of perspective on this.

Whoopi Goldberg is an Oscar, Grammy and Tony award winning actress; are we expecting all leading ladies in musical theater to be at this level? If we are, then good luck with Sarah Harding in Ghost.  It may be splitting hairs but I do think it's a stretch to compare a performance in a movie with a musical theater role, as stage acting for a musical is different and is inevitably 'hammier.' 

Also, to be fair, he didn't say that Alexandra doesn't 'pull off' the role, and he didn't see either Patina or Cynthia. Even for those who think Patina or Cynthia are better, that doesn't mean that Alexandra is not great in the role also,as outlined by previous posters. It's her first week of her second big musical, so the fact she isn't hitting Whoopi's level of perfection is not all that surprising. 

Just my own opinion, but the comparisons with previous productions, though inevitable, are somewhat tiresome; good to see that those who have come to it afresh have really enjoyed it. 

This closes in Leicester on Saturday and still no reviews to be found.

I think for certain cities this may be true but for other cities sadly stunt casting is very necessary. Without Alexandra Burke there is no way The Bord Gais in Dublin would have sold this, 2150 is a lot of seats to fill and star names are needed for certain shows.