Extremley positive review from USA Today. (***½out of four stars)
This season's two most winning new musicals to date both put faith in the forefront with a mixture of satire and sweetness that can be embraced by the pious and non-believers alike.
The latest entry, Sister Act: A Divine Musical Comedy may be less giddily profane, and thought-provoking, than "The Book of Mormon," but it has its own distinct and surprising charms.
Composer Alan Menken and lyricist Glenn Slater provide original tunes that nod cheekily, but with genuine affection, to that pop era while also propelling the story with a style and exuberance specific to well-crafted musical theater.
Librettists Cheri and Bill Steinkellner, enlisting additional material from Douglas Carter Beane, adapt the screenplay with disarming wryness. It helps that the nimble veteran Jerry Zaks directs, and that his cast includes such reliable entertainers as Victoria Clark, pitch-perfect as the prickly but warmhearted Mother Superior, and Fred Applegate, as the more funk-friendly monsignor.
Patina Miller is a credible, endearing leading lady, giving this Deloris the right mix of sugar and spice. Chester Gregory is similarly likable as the police officer who becomes her love interest, while Sarah Bolt and Marla Mindelle lend more goofy humor and pluck as the habited Deloris' sisters in arms.
'Sister Act': Most entertaining nuns, bar none
Updated On: 4/20/11 at 10:23 PM