Sister Act: The Musical

Does anyone know if (and if so, WHAT) there will be changes made to the show between Pasedena(sp?) and Atlanta? I'm curious. I missed most of the threads where people posted reviews..who all saw it? The search feature isn't working for me.

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Am I the only one that thinks making this movie into a musical just doesnt make sense? Was the movie THAT good?

"Was the movie THAT good?"

I definitely think so.

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I dont think it will make it to Broadway, although the show is very fun, it definitely lacks a lot of the magic that the movie has.

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"I dont think it will make it to Broadway, although the show is very fun, it definitely lacks a lot of the magic that the movie has."

That's not very fair. There's lots of revision still left. You saw it's world premiere ad you have to go into those situations with that in mind.

Did I say it WONT make it to Broadway? It would be great if it does. This board is for OPINIONS...I just think it's more suited for something like off-bway.

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:: cough cough :: yourscreenname :: cough cough ::

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Oy...I've made myself heard on this matter, but here we go again:

The audience consists, the way I can see it from here, of two groups: a) Dawnn Lewis fans (a very limited group in and of itself, based on the response to her name here), and b) people who dug the movie (of which there are a lot more).

Group B is going to be the most likely buyer. What Group B are being presented with is a book based (in all but character names) on Paul Rudnick's earlier draft for a version to have starred Bette Middler, and an entirely new score.

Word of mouth from Group B will not be impressive, because they're not being presented with something that resembles the movie closely enough for them to remember (or like) it. "We saw the SISTER ACT musical and it was good" is probably going to be a rarely heard phrase once it hits New York...that is, if it stays in its current state.

My advice to whoever is the show doctor:

-- Bring in the Motown, and Marc Shaiman's arrangement of it
-- Keep the book because it's based on a draft that is structurally better than the film, but bring portions of it closer to the film where possible
-- Do a limited time only run in the slower season featuring Whoopi Goldberg as Deloris to really sell some of the higher-priced seats

Do this, and I can guarantee a hit for a Disney audience.

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Updated On: 12/26/06 at 03:28 PM

I'm hearing from many that Lewis can't really sing the material all that well, and that's great for the part, but she can't sing the big belty numbers that Menken has written.

Also, I've always thought Sister Act II would be much more apt for musicalization.

They probably will have to replace Lewis though with at least some one more NYC familiar.

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Just curious - who is producing this? Is it a Disney Theatrical production? If not, I wonder why and I wonder how that came to be (especially considering Menken's involvement). I would think that Disney would be fiercely protective of any of its properties.

Come to think of it, I wonder how High Fidelity came to be a Broadway musical without Disney's involvement. That was a Touchstone film as well.

And High Fidelity?

This is NOT a vehicle for Debora Cox. The lead has to have well-honed comic skills. Lilias White should do the role- she can be hysterically funny.

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A lot has changed in the show. They have redone the beginning...the nuns sing a little bit more to establish the nuns story...and Deloris has a new song at the beginning. It's called "Too much to live for." She calls back to it 2 other times in the show and it tells more of her back-story. They also added a big dance scene with Deloris and her back up dancers and some of the nuns. (it's like the good angel and bad devil on the shoulder)

Another big change is the "Going to Hell" scene...They have fixed it and it tells more of a story and includes the bikers more.