Sister Act

By Author: Jamie Hanson
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Sister Act is based on the 1992 hit comedy film of the same name. The West End production was adapted by Stage Entertainment and produced by Whoopi Goldberg, the famous Hollywood star. It is a divine musical comedy.

Sister act begins with disco diva Deloris Van Cartier as a witness to a murder and to evade the police, goes into the custody of a convent and stays in the disguise of a nun, the last place for the police to search. She finds it difficult to adjust to the stringent life of the convent and the Mother Superior, who is equally strict. She tries to lessen the lifestyle of the inmates of the church by her disco dances and songs, which blows her cover very soon. The gang gives her a chase but is confronted by other nuns along with Mother Superior, the power of Sister Hood.

In the play you will observe two types of identity; firstly, within the convent the heavenly songs and secondly at the outside slightly offensive world. Deloris proves a rebel to the bondage of the convent. She takes the other sisters to a bar full of pole dancers, pt-bellied bikers and butch lesbians. She even teaches the nun to sing the ...
... choirs of the church in rock version. The change attracts attention and draws money for the church. Her ex-boyfriend also takes notice of it.

In the audience you will observe different reactions. Charles Spencer in The Telegraph comments, Sister Act "proves more enjoyable on stage than it did on film" and "the cheers and standing ovation at the end were both genuine and deserved." On the other hand Quentin Letts stated, in The Daily Mail, "Call me a miserable old monk but I hated Sister Act. I hated its artistic laziness, its predictability, its incuriosity, its idea that disco is divine and that spirituality can never be found in discreet and dignified worship . . . I know I may be taking it too seriously but I found myself recoiling sharply from this story's saccharine values and its bullying gaiety. The thing is as shallow as the Aral Sea".

The opinions of the audience are very mixed and critical. As a true Christian many people cannot accept the thought of the religious choirs mixed with disco. Similarly people with modern thought have praised the change. The play is an attempt to show the relaxation of the strict guidelines being followed by the church inmates. It also reverberates the woman strength and its unification to fight evil.

See the Whoopi Goldberg musical Sister Act tickets visit London Theatre Tickets