If you haven’t been to Broadway — in New York, not on Capitol Hill — since 2011, you’ll think of Whoopi Goldberg’s movie when you hear about “Sister Act,” the musical currently running at the Vashon High School theater through Sunday.
Based on the 1992 movie starring Goldberg, “Sister Act” the musical was adapted for Broadway in 2011 with music by Alan Menken and lyrics by Glenn Slater. This Tony-award-winning version is a comic romp through gangsters, disco, the Catholic church and nuns in the sizzling 1970s. Directed for Vashon High School by Dr. Stephen Floyd, “Sister Act” is pure fun. In fact, as he opened the show’s Sunday matinee last weekend, Floyd characterized the play as a hopeful escape from current global tensions.
The story follows nightclub diva, Deloris van Cartier, played by freshman Sedona Deck, as she is torn from her disco life and thrown undercover into a convent as a protected witness to a gangland murder. Van Cartier’s foil at the convent is Mother Superior, played richly by Grace Brown, who is struggling with the pending sale of her church and worries about what to do with her family of nuns. As the two clash over their disparate values, van Cartier bonds with her fellow sisters, leads the shabby choir to performance fame and saves the church. Their musical success, however, draws attention from the nefarious Curtis Shank and blows van Cartier’s cover.
Floyd gave the cast of “Sister Act,” studded with 10 graduating seniors, considerable leeway in choreographing and staging musical numbers. The singing nuns beguile in rocking performances of “Sunday Morning Fever” and “Bless Our Show.” The chorus of nuns is strong with the varied voices of Louisa Moody, Madison McCann, Emma Rose DeSantis, Bella Kilpatrick and Alivia Jones. The three gangster boys — Xavier Ajeto, Joel Wegner and Gabriel Dawson — are hilarious as they feign seduction in the quirky “Lady in the Long Black Dress.” And, Hugh Davis, as the besotted police officer assigned to protect van Cartier leaves us wanting more of his Broadway-worthy singing voice.
While it’s hard to see evil in the face of Vashon theater veteran Isaac Hughes, he managed to pull it off last Sunday as his sinister gangster character evolved (Hughes traded roles with Xavier Ajeto, who’s normally cast as the evil Curtis Shank). And, Ellie Hughes dazzles in her show-stopping solo “The Life I Never Led.”
Phil Dunn’s clever set design moves deftly through scenes from night club to bar, police station, apartment and church with skillfully crafted mobile flats and simple props.
The whole package of “Sister Act” is a feel-good experience and the high school swan song for the VHS seniors in its cast. We’ll all be watching for what they do next.
See the musical
Sister Act runs at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday and at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Vashon High School theater.
Tickets are available at the door, and prices vary. For the Thursday show, tickets are $10 for adults and $8 for students and seniors. On Friday and Sunday, tickets are $15 for adults and $12 for students and seniors. Ticket sales for Saturday’s show will benefit the Vashon Rotary, and all tickets are $20.
