Pictures: Roy Tan
Sister Act The Musical continues at the Eventim Apollo, London until 28 August 2022.
Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
When it comes to current musicals, there’s surely nun better than Sister Act. Re-born, re-cast and re-scheduled due to Covid last year, this newest resurrection is truly heaven sent.
Presented by Jamie Wilson and Whoopi Goldberg, with music by Alan Menken and lyrics by Glenn Slater, Bill Buckhurst’s production (with choreography by Alistair David) is a joyous, energetic and vibrantly colourful musical comedy boasting a fabulous lead cast backed by an ensemble that doesn’t put a foot wrong and is clearly devoted to the cause.
Comedy legend Jennifer Saunders is just immense as Mother Superior – one sideways grimace by her is worth a thousand words – while Beverley Knight as Deloris Van Cartier is not just a total joy to listen to and watch from the audience’s perspective, but surely also an inspiration to be on stage with, such is her peerless vocal and physical performance. It’s pretty rare to find a great singer who is totally in their comfort zone cracking one-liners and bouncing so adeptly off fellow cast members – Knight never looks uncomfortable and that’s the crucial ingredient of this show’s success. Teamed up with Saunders it’s the perfect Sister double act.
Given her marvellous comedy back catalogue it’s evident that Saunders brings a mischievous side to any role, perhaps going off-script a little, and that certainly adds another layer other musicals can’t match. Of course, her main prowess is not her singing, but her solo ‘I Haven’t Got A Prayer’ is perfectly executed, not so much Mother Superior as Mother Maudlin as she vocalises her woes to great effect.
The plot might not require a great deal of concentration – it makes an episode of Midsomer Murders seem highly complex – but that hardly matters. Not when you have the likes of Clive Rowe as (Steady) Eddie Souther pulling out surely one of the best individual musical comedy performances seen for a very long time, ‘I Could Be That Guy’ being not just a stand-out moment for Rowe, but a fabulous achievement too by costume designer, Morgan Large.
Add in the wonderfully versatile, superbly booming voice of Lizzie Bea as Sister Mary Robert and Lesley Joseph emanating total glee in her role of Sister Mary Lazarus and this production has crowd-pleaser written all over it. It also boasts some of the hippest hoodlums created on the London stage with Jeremy Secomb sporting a quite superb Jason King-style tash as Curtis and leading his gang in wonderful flares and with a real flourish.
As TJ, Joey and Pablo, Bradley Judge, Tom Hopcroft and Damian Buhagiar are three just wonderfully entertaining stooges. With the musical direction as tight as a drum throughout, some Sister Act movie devotees may have hoped the iconic tune ‘I Will Follow Him’ could have been snuck in, but when Deloris sings ‘Sister Act’ towards the end, such is her stellar performance, any omissions are forgotten in an instant.
On the way out, some people were overheard talking about booking another ticket for next week. The show programme needs to carry a health warning – watching Sister Act could be habit forming.
Derek Smith
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