Theatre Review (Singapore): ‘Sister Act’ the Musical from Base Entertainment

Base Entertainment brings Broadway’s musical Sister Act to the Marina Bay Theatres from May 9th to 28th 2017.

Sister Act the musical closely follows the plot of the 1992 movie of the same title, on which it is based. Only the songs are completely new.

Deloris Van Cartier (Dene Hill), a lounge singer, witnesses her married boyfriend shoot someone. She runs into her old friend Eddie at the police station when she goes to report what she saw. Eddie comes up with a plan to disguise her as a nun and hide her in a convent until they capture her murderer-boyfriend. At constant loggerheads with the convent’s Mother Superior (Rebecca Mason-Wygal), Deloris finds herself more useful when she turns the church’s terrible-sounding choir into one so noteworthy that more and more people start attending church services. This however doesn’t sit well with the Mother Superior, nor with Eddie who wants Delores to remain low-key.

The music, by eight-time Oscar and 11-time Grammy winner Alan Menken, is superbly haunting and yet energetically toe-tapping when it needs to be. The performers all sing very well, especially Hill and Mason-Wygal, both of whom have very powerful voices.

Hill’s acting feels a bit contrived in the beginning. Luckily she relaxes towards the middle of the production, and her portrayal seems more genuine from that moment onwards.

The set and costumes are impressive and glitzy and there are plenty of laughs and humorous references both in the dialogue and in the lyrics. Especially funny is the number “Lady in the Long Black Dress” where the three baddies sing about how they are going to seduce the Mother Superior in order to get to Deloris, using plenty of biblical references as double-entendres.

Overall, Sister Act is a fabulous musical you shouldn’t miss. Good acting, great music, wonderful costumes, funny lines and emotionally effective scenes are all reasons you’ll agree with Deloris when she sings, “Nothing’s ever gonna change that fact. I’m part of one terrific Sister Act.”