Associated Studios Performing Arts Academy – Sister Act

Picture: Sheila Burnett

Sister Act was performed by students from the Associated Studios Performing Arts Academy at the Vaults Theatre, London.

Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩

Justina Kehinde is glitteringly talented and I’m certain that in the future I shall, as they say, be remembering where I first saw her. Delores, the nightclub singer who has to be hidden in a convent where she teaches the nuns to sing, is a gift of a part of course, but Kehinde runs with it like no other Delores I’ve seen.

She struts, simpers, sings divinely, commands the stage and then, along with the comedy of incongruity, eventually finds all the right depth in a character who is much more multi-faceted than first appears. It’s a splendid performance.

But Alan Menken (music) and Glenn Slater (lyrics) ensure that Sister Act  is very much an ensemble piece and in this production – directed by Cameron Menzies with Greg Arrowsmith as MD and Sam Spencer-Lane as choreographer – we see a lot of accomplished support work.

Daniel N’Guessan Lopez as Eddie has a stonkingly good tenor voice as well as being a very watchable actor.

As Mother Superior, Becca Lamburn’s clear mezzo and sardonic manner make hers a compellingly convincing performance.

The chorus work is terrific too with some lovely sharp choreography as the nuns are gradually captivated by Delores’ charisma. The whole cast numbers zip along with energy and aplomb too.

This company and their director have lot of fun with accents (capitalising on natural ones in some cases?) and the development of a clear persona for the nuns too with Charlotte Louise Allan being especially funny as Sister Mary Lazarus.

I don’t care for Vaults Theatre as a venue though. Admired for its “edginess”, it is actually jolly uncomfortable – dark, drafty bar, iffy auditorium seating and woefully inadequate lavatory provision. Nonetheless it is novel – and rather good – to walk through the band area on the way into the theatre itself. And that works well: great sound from the six instrumentalists led by Arrowsmith.

Susan Elkin