Sister Act

Actor's Fund Benefit
Sunday, October 2, 8 PM performance

I've been putting off seeing this one for months because Trish saw the London production and didn't have much good to say about it.  But it came up on TDF for an Actor's Fund benefit performance, so I said, "What the hell, might as well give it a try and at least I'll have contributed some cash to a worthy cause."

So I'd have a frame of reference, I made Trish come along with me.

Well - brace yourselves - I actually enjoyed it.  It's no Follies, but it's got some really clever staging, an impressive physical design and a couple of great songs (as well as some mediocre ones).  It also has a near show-stopping performance by Victoria Clark as the Mother Superior.  Which only goes to prove that no, you do not need to belt a high E to send a musical theatre audience into a frenzy (please take note all you contemporary musical theatre composers who don't even acknowledge that the soprano voice exists).  Vickie does it with a beautifully held high note in her head voice.  Yes, her head voice.  And that says a lot considering she's competing against the soulfully sung Deloris of Patina Miller.  Check out her hilarious and - forgive me in advance for using the adjective - fierce performance of "Random Black Girl" below.



To be honest, it is a slight let down not to hear the songs from the movie.  But the Menken score (though not as instantly memorable as his many hook-friendly Disney scores), is appropriately 70s - the time period has been shifted for the musical. 

According to Trish, the book appears to be completely re-written (per Trish, it wasn't funny in London) and many London songs have been jettisoned.  It also seems they've added two songs for Victoria Clark including the aforementioned show stopper (Mother Superior doesn't have any songs in London).  So basically, the Broadway production is completely different than the London production.  Weird, right?

It was widely publicized that Douglas Carter Beane script-doctored the production before it opened in New York.  But it seems he just kept the story line and re-wrote the whole damn thing, to its advantage.

Granted, I did see an Actor's Fund performance and the audiences at these fund-raisers (the actors, musicians, crew and theatre staff all donate their time) are usually filled with theatre queens, actors and other Broadway insiders, so the energy and enthusiasm in the theatre feels like an opening night.  So perhaps the performance energy was knocked up a notch or two.  Though God knows they need that little something extra, given it's usually an added ninth show at the end of their performance week.  What 'evs, I still enjoyed myself and would recommend the show if you can't get into Mormon, Priscilla or Follies.

Sadly, the show's original songs will never come close to eliciting the same giddy excitement as Marc Shaiman's (composer of Hairspray) arrangements from the movie.