Review: Sister Act at The Lyceum, Sheffield

Sadly there was no divine intervention for the theatre industry when Covid struck, and everyone’s favourite nun on the run had to wait almost three years for her chance to seize the spotlight in one of the campest, craziest, most laugh-out-loud comedy musicals around.

Suspend disbelief as club singer Deloris Van Cartier witnesses a mob hit and is placed in protective custody in a convent – all whilst her murderous mobster boyfriend, against whom the cops have been building their case for five years, is let out on bail to plot her assassination.

Set aside too hopes of hearing favourite songs from the original 1992 Whoopi Goldberg movie on which the show is based – this is Sister Act the Musical, a sequin-encrusted glitter-dusted even more madcap and slapstick version of the feel-good film, and My Guy/God and I Will Follow Him do not feature.

Instead though come 14 new musical numbers composed by the legendary Alan Menken, the eight-time Academy Award winner who earned Oscars for Disney classics Beauty and the Beast, Little Mermaid and Aladdin. The tunes are so good you’ll wonder if they’re real old Motown hits you’ve forgotten you knew, and you’ll be humming Fabulous Baby and Take Me To Heaven for days afterwards.

The lead role of Deloris in this UK touring production direct from the West End is usually played by Sandra Marvin – Jessie Grant in Emmerdale – but on press night heaven-sent understudy Gabrielle Davina Smith took her place. She was incredible, and you would never guess wasn’t meant to be the star attraction.

Opposite her, as Mother Superior to the Sisters of Perpetual Sorrow in their crumbling convent of poverty and modesty, is Birds of a Feather legend Lesley Joseph, who played the role of Sister Mary Lazarus in the London run of the show at The Apollo last year. It’s a joy to watch her on stage and she steals every scene she’s in. Her comic timing is perfection, her precise delivery gives her lyrics emotion, and at 77 she can belt out a tune and boogie with the best of them.

Speaking of lyrics there are some which, even for a musical just 17 years young, feel a little surprising in 2023. When I Find My Baby by criminal Curtis in Act One is of course intended as a deliberate contrast between romantic melody and increasingly violent menace. But still. It felt slightly uncomfortable raising a smile whilst a killer sang of hunting down a woman in order to ‘give her skull a big dent with a blunt instrument’, after first shooting, stabbing, drowning and disembowelling her. Call me touchy.

Act Two is stronger than the first, once the nuns and the gangsters are all introduced and the apparent need for every character to be given their own solo is over and done with. After the interval the show is able to focus on the joyous, roof-raising gospel songs that Deloris teaches to the off-key warbling nuns, saving their convent from financial ruin in the process, and it’s a habit-forming celebration of sisterhood.

Theatre veteran Clive Rowe, as loveable police officer Steady Eddie, deserves special mention and not only for his jaw-dropping three-layered costume change in disco-inspired number I Could Be That Guy.

But the real hallelujah moment goes to Lizzie Bea as ankle-socked postulant Sister Mary Robert. Her character traces the well worn story arc of quiet timidity blossoming boldly into bravery, but Lizzie’s heavenly vocals are anything but predictable. She’s a powerhouse of a singer and it’s a pity she has only one number, The Life I Never Led, to showcase her star quality.Sister Act is at The Lyceum until Saturday, April 15