Broadway’s Sister Act
WHAT: Sister Act: A Divine Musical Comedy
WHEN/WHERE: Check the Tour Map!
HOST: Broadway
OUR RATING: Do It!
The company of “Sister Act” (courtesy of sisteractbroadway.com)
It was a blast from the past: Sister Act — that classic 90’s feature — was back in full force on the Chicago Broadway stage in this one-of-a-kind musical adaptation that will leave you dancing in your seat. The fresh, hilarious performances, combined with excellent staging and direction, made Sister Act (a divine musical comedy) at the Auditorium Theatre a saintly diversion for young and old alike.
Based on the 1992 comedy starring Whoopi Goldberg, and featuring original music by 8-time Oscar® winner Alan Menken, Sister Act follows the story of Deloris Van Cartier, a club singer who goes into hiding as a nun after she witnesses a murder. While attempting to maintain her cover, Deloris can’t help but share her passion for music with her fellow sisters, helping them to find their voice while also fighting to save their church.
The joy of Sister Act is perhaps its ability to make you laugh at the littlest of things. This isn’t crude humor (they’re nuns after all), but still manages to create sideslipping fun which becomes habit-forming.
New songs with old faces make the audience comfortable with the changes that might not be welcome to some die-hard fans of the classic. However, everyone is soon grooving along, and on the night we attended the performance we noticed a couple of people even get up from their seats mid-way through and dance in the aisles!
We saw strong performances from Ta’rea Campbell (Deloris) and Hollis Resnik (Mother Superior), who bring some of the exceptionality to the production. We alternated from belting ballads to soulful serenades as we followed Deloris’ transformation from club singer to nun, and then the transformation of the nuns themselves. We even got a special guest appearance of the Most Holy type, an unexpected surprise.
Sister Act comes highly recommended by Storefront City, even if it has taken over 20 years to get it from screen to stage. It may no longer be on the Auditorium Theatre stage, but check it out if it makes it way back to the city. Alicia will even be seeing it again (purely by chance, however) on the Fort Lauderdale Broadway stage in the coming week!
P.S.: Can’t make it to the theatre? Then you can watch the original right here: Sister Act / Sister Act 2 – Back in the Habit
