Sister Act Review

4 Stars

Tonight, the packed out auditorium at the Derngate Theatre, Northampton was converted with exultant cries of Hallelujah and Amen as Northampton Musical Theatre Company, one of the country’s oldest amateur theatre dramatic societies in their country, brought the house down with their latest production of Sister Act. What’s not to love about an uplifting, feel good musical comedy written by musical theatre genius Alan Menken, who has penned so many world renowned musicals from Little Shop of Horrors to The Little Mermaid, a gospel choir of all-singing all- dancing, rapping nuns and even a sparkly Jesus.

The plot of Sister Act, based on the film of the same name starring Whoppie Goldberg, follows the story of up and coming nightclub singer Deloris Van Cartier, whose world is turned upside down when she witnesses her boyfriend murder a police informant and, for her own protection is forced into hiding. Within the sanctuary of the convent, Deloris, at first reluctant to follow the rules of Mother Superior, coaches the nuns into a global gospel sensation, that enables them to raise enough money to save the convent from being sold. When the world of liberty and order collide, each tempers the other and Deloris finds, for likely the first time in her life, a family, a sisterhood who believe and stand by her even at gunpoint.

If ever there was a character written for Northampton vocal coach Beth Hodgeson, this would be it. As a former pupil, it was a joy and pleasure to see Beth get the opportunity to shine and she can be proud, along with the rest of the cast, that their performances tonight were truly inspirational. What really brought the piece to life was the humour the cast brought to the production created through their comic timing, injections and characterisation; it was obvious to me that the cast had great fun putting this production together.

In the smaller group and solo numbers of act one, confidence and conviction was lacking at times and despite the music being practically faultless, the movement in these numbers needed to be bigger to reach the back of the auditorium. I felt the opening rendition of ‘Take Me To Heaven’ needed to be sexed up a lot more so the audience sees even more of a character shift post nun-trevention. I also believe ‘When I Find My Baby’ would benefit greatly from Curtis and the guys really enjoying, almost salivating over how he is going to kill her, just so even more danger and humour is created at this point. A couple of technical elements not being put into place correctly also meant that some of the transitions were slow and this did have a slight negative affect on pace. A few special mentions… the first for Sister Mary Robert (Lillian Thor) who really brought the house down with ‘The Life I Never Lead’ and always sang her heart out despite an intermittent stage mic. The second to Mother Superior (Mindy Robinson) who put in an incredibly tear-inducing performance of ‘ I Haven’t Got A Prayer’, highlighting the real moral conflict going on inside this characters mind.

Overall, a great production one that everyone involved with can be proud of and we at Live Arts Connect recommend if you can, to go to see it. Sister Act runs from 28th October 2015 every night at 7:30pm at The Derngate Theatre, Northampton. Tickets, between £10.00 and £21.00 can be purchased by visiting www.royalandderngate.co.uk or by calling 01604 624 811. For links for more information about the company search Northampton Musical Theatre Company, on Facebook and Twitter or go their website at http://www.nmtc.me.uk.