Musical Sister Act at Eden Court is a fun-packed glorious hymn to the feelgood
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REVIEW: Sister Act
Eden Court
5 stars
Sister Act is a musical that will take you to heaven – if you love gorgeous soul voices, a super-superior Mother Superior (Lesley Joseph) and a story that gives plenty of time to the resurrection of life dreams and second chances.
Sandra Marvin – you might remember her as Janet Dingle in TV soap Emmerdale – adds her own feisty sass as Deloris Van Cartier, the wannabe singer who got side-tracked and caught up in a bad relationship with scary gangster Curtis (played for Eden Court’s opening night by Mark Goldthorp).
“I’ve been told to sit down and shut up since 12th grade,” Deloris sings. “Too loud, too raw, too not right…”
Who knows, Deloris might never have found her niche in the most unexpected of places – a convent – if she hadn’t seen her boyfriend Curtis kill someone and have to run for cover in a witness protection scheme that will keep her safe. Hating to curb her larger than life ways and tone down her colourful personality, Deloris finds herself using her talents and helping the nuns find their voices and the way to rescue their ailing convent.
Whoopi Goldberg played Deloris in the 1992 movie that started it all. And Sandra Marvin more than lives up to our memories of the heroine of the box office smash – personifying the mantra and being “So damn fabulous” like the song says.
Meanwhile, back at the convent – which is made a wonderfully dark, dignified space – the nuns’ choir is making a truly terrible noise – and one of the delights of the show is being witness to that. And discovering some of the other wonderful voices in this show, Lizzie Bea as Sister Mary Robert being just one. ‘Her song’, The Life I Never Led is one of the show’s standouts.
Olivier Award-winning Clive Rowe makes for the quirky male lead.
“Guns make me nervous,” he says, as cop Eddie Souther, who knew Deloris in another life and still carries a torch for her.
But when Clive sings – as in I Could Be That Guy – the audience hear a voice that they just can’t get enough of and greet it with a huge roar at the end.
And the comedy in the show guarantees the laughs keep coming.
One prime moment comes with gangster Curtis’s sidekicks TJ, Joey and Pablo, deep in cheesy character, and rolling out Bee Gee-style falsettos in the comedy gold that is the second act’s Lady In The Long Black Dress.
And feeding into the good times this show rolls out are the amazing costumes from Morgan Large – the final scene with its full-on disco vibe, is a rainbow of stunning colour.
Holy Hell – it’s a glitter miracle!
It’s hard not to love this feelgood spectacle with voices to die for and a great big heart.
The super-large £7 programme is worth it just to read the story of this show that was hit by the pandemic, but has waited it out to land just when challenging times make it most welcome, packed with great Alan Menken songs like Raise Your Voice.
Sister Act is on until Saturday. TICKETS:
