Sister Act The Musical, Dominion Theatre Review
Alexandra Burke and Company of Sister Act The Musical. Photo by Johan PerssonWritten by Franco Milazzo for Theatre & Tonic
Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in exchange for an honest review.
With its new faces Alexandra Burke and Lee Mead, Sister Act continues its barnstorming run at London’s Dominion.
This latest revival didn’t have the smoothest of starts. Whoopi Goldberg was persuaded to be the new Mother Superior before the pandemic knocked that idea on the head. When the nunnery finally opened its doors in 2022, Jennifer Saunders was wearing the wimple but Goldberg stayed on as producer, a sign of faith in a production that artfully builds on the foundation of Alan Menken’s soulful tunes.
Burke steps in as Deloris Van Cartier, a nightclub singer who accidentally sees her married gangster lover Curtis (Lemar) gun down one of his crew. Police officer Eddie (Lee Mead, who still harbours the high school crush he had on her back in the day) hides her away in a convent. A reluctant Mother Superior (Ruth Jones) comes around when she sees how Deloris’ musical talents bring the faithful (and their money) back into her church.
The late-Seventies Philadephia setting is the perfect excuse for high energy musical numbers. It was the era when disco metaphorically exploded before it actually exploded. Set within a magnificent set from Morgan Large that effortlessly shifts from gothic church to classic diner, director Bill Buckhurst explores this more through the songs than through dance or costume (at least until the bedazzling finale). The obligatory American accents go from the comically bad to the geographically wayward but a masterstroke is having Jones keep her wonderful Welsh accent and even slip out the occasional bit of home country slang. Her character even has her own backstory of sorts, having migrated to the US some decades ago from “Wales, England”; a line that might leave our friends across the pond scratching their heads and reaching for their phones absolutely kills in London.
So are Burke and Mead a blessing for Sister Act? Well, if they are, it’s one that is deeply in disguise. Taking over from Beverly Knight is never an easy ask but Burke struggles to fill the large auditorium on the bigger numbers and her acting and musical theatre talents pale in comparison to Jones and Bea. With his West End background, Mead should on paper be an improvement over his predecessor panto supremo Clive Rowe but there was something about Rowe’s overeager hamming and megawatt smile that brought real verve and joy to the highly underwritten character of “Steady” Eddie. For his part, Mead goes for disco-cool and ends up playing it as fridge-cool, such is the lack of passion he shows.
As in Joseph Howard’s 1992 film, the nuns are far more than just background extras. Lesley Joseph is exceptional, milking the wizened Sister Mary Lazarus’ charm for all the humour she can get. She may not be the only or even the best rapping oldster in town (Kit Green’s Ida Barr, purveyor of Artificial Hip-Hop, is arguably the finer creation) but that gleeful grin and sparkle in her eye is comedy gold. Lizzie Bea is a phenomenal Sister Mary Robert, the emotional core of Sister Act and responsible for an outstanding turn on her solo number “The Life I Never Led”. Lemar makes for a suitably thuggish Curtis who puts some real gusto into “When I Find My Baby”, detailing all the gruesome things he will do to Deloris when he catches up with her (disembowelment, drowning, stabbing, drilling and killing are all on his wishlist).
Since the turn of the millennium, the Dominion has been a bastion for musicals of the jukebox or screen-to-stage which have ranged from the mediocre (Grease, Dirty Dancing) down to the terrible (Elf) and the truly awful (We Will Rock You). Sister Act isn’t going to trouble the Oliviers but it is as heartwarming and fun a show as you’re going to find in the West End these days.
At Dominion Theatre until 3 August 2024.
☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
