For those who like high energy and bright colors, Sister Act’s got it. For those who want to tear up at the sensitive parts, Sister Act’s for you too. And for just about anyone who longs to exit a show feeling happy, don’t miss this production.
Using the 1992 Whoopi Goldberg-starring film as a jumping-off point, this Sister Act is, in places, a bit grittier. Gangster moll and wanna-be disco queen Deloris van Cartier witnesses a murder and is squirreled away in a convent for safekeeping by police officer Eddie Souther, who’s had a simmering crush on her since high school. Deloris’s married lover and gang boss, Curtis, and his men set off to find her. To give Deloris something to do rather than complain about her circumstances and corrupt the sisters, Mother Superior puts her in charge of the nuns’ singing, if you can call it that at the onset.
Constance Jewell Lopez as Deloris is a powerful presence who is most noteworthy during emotional songs, especially “Sister Act,” when she pours out her heart about what her fellow sisters have come to mean to her.
Mary Gordon Murray (Mother Superior) is superb with “Here within These Walls,” lamenting the impending loss of her peace and quiet as loud-mouthed, alcohol-craving iconoclast Deloris comes on the scene. This is not the whimpering of a hermit who is unwilling to adapt to change but the plea of each one of us, conscious or unacknowledged, for respite from the crush and din of modernity.
Eddie (Anthony Manough) is Mother Superior’s counterpart in the outside world. He, too, is out of step, seen by others as a wimp at best and a loser at worst, that is, until he struts his stuff in “I Could be that Guy.” He transforms into a lady’s man in a knock-’em-dead ice cream suit, an anvil-on-the-head hint that he will eventually land the girl of his dreams.
Not to be outdone are Curtis’ henchmen, Joey (Spencer Rowe), Pablo (Elijah Reyes) and TJ (John Wells III). Wow, wow and wow, these guys need their own show. Their “Lady in the Long Black Dress” is cool, comic, silly and alluring all at once as they share their schemes to stun a nun with their manly charms.
The young apostate Sister Mary Robert (Ashley Ruth Jones) gives an angelic and poignant performance of “The Life I Never Led.” Again, this speaks to all of us and the countless paths we did not take.
Cathy Newman’s husky voice gives girth and gumption to her character, Sister Mary Lazarus, while Cindy Sciaccia’s Sister Mary Patrick is an absolute hoot with her effusive “It’s Good to be a Nun.”
Though most of the numbers are just a whole lot of fun, “When I Find my Baby” stands out as a disturbing exception. Via sultry jazz and sexy dance moves, Curtis (Gerry McIntrye) begins what might be a love song. One can imagine all kinds of sweetness that could finish that sentence: When I find my baby, I’m gonna kiss her all night long, let her know how much I missed her. Rather, it quickly assumes a stalker tone and progresses from cruelty to sadism and psychopathy as the man who had recently made love with her is now imagining her bludgeoning, stabbing and disembowelment.
My recommendation: Concentrate on the instrumentals and McIntrye’s sensuality, not the lyrics.
Sister Act continues at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center through Sunday, April 24. Performances are Fridays at 8pm, Saturdays at 2pm and 8pm, Sundays at 2pm (also 7pm on Sunday, April 17), and Thursday, April 21, at 8pm. Tickets start at $20. Tickets may be purchased online at musical.org or by calling (562) 856-1999, ext. 4. The Carpenter Performing Arts Center is located at 6200 E. Atherton Ave.
