In my opinion, the lead actress, Patina Miller was amazing, and her performance lacked nothing. However, the stronger character was the character of the mother superior, although she had a simpler role; I felt it was played to its full extent. I think that Patina Miller cleverly expressed her character’s struggles to the audience, and she gave a clear example of how a person in the character’s situation would behave.
I felt that her performance was realistic, yet had the perfect balance of comedy, and drama. As for Sheila Hancock’s character, I thought she portrayed Mother Superior in an excellent fashion, and used her lines cleverly, and added her own sense of style to the character. She also pulled the audience into the story, and helped focus the plot. The male leads, also played their characters well, and both had excellent characterisations. The sheer amount of contrast between both characters was excellently portrayed to the audience, and helped to shape the STORYLINE. Finally, the characterisation from the minor characters also showed, and the sheer amount of talent in the cast was evident in this performance.
Furthermore, the costumes were one of the things that made the play. If the costumes had been similar, there would hardly be any contrast between the characters. However, the fact that in the convent, this was exactly what was happening was the spark of the whole play. In the scenes where Dolores was in her Cabaret singer personality, her clothes would be colourful, and very revealing, while at the moment she joins the convent, she is stripped away from the flashy outfits and told to wear a simple habit. This drags the audience in, as it presents the problem of identifying each nun, without resorting to looking at their clothing!
Furthermore, Dolores’s clothes seem to cause a lot of controversy with Mother Superior, however, in one scene, Sister Mary Roberts accepts Dolores’s shoes, showing that she has a much fuller personality than the beginning of the play suggested. Moreover, when Curtis attempts to kill Dolores, he has his men dress up as nuns, thereby showing what effect the costumes have on the storyline. Finally, each costume defines a person’s character in the play. For example, Dolores and her cabaret personality, as well as her nun personality, along with Eddie and his “nerdy” character, and his more outlandish and confident character.
My favourite scene was the climax and the last part of the play. Firstly, the scene where Dolores finally accepts her caring, nun-like personality. Especially during the song “Sister Act”, my favourite piece in the whole play, does the play seem to change along with Dolores. Even the minor characters seem to have a stronger personality. The scene that follows uses a combination of light, music and set that creates a masterpiece.
The moment that Dolores walks into the convent, and Curtis and his followers chase her is spectacular. This effect is mainly created by the opening and closing of the panels and the cast’s superbly rehearsed sequence. This really impressed me as it used the stage to its full potential, and used it in such a way it really stood out to the audience! Finally, when the sister’s defend Deloris, it is an awe inspiring moment, and the use of the sound effects was brilliant. It had the perfect balance between drama, comedy and action!
The only problem with the play was that it relied too much on gimmicky props and in my opinion, the play should have been a little more abstract, and I felt that it relied too much on pleasing the audience, rather than creating a more abstract piece which left the audience thinking. However, the amazing characterisations from the cast helped me to overlook this fact, and overall, I can’t say it was an un-enjoyable performance, or that it wasn’t amazing!
Overall, I loved the play, and if I could afford �125 I’d drag my family along too! I thought that it ranked among some of the best plays I’ve seen, and that there is rarely a play that is as good as this one! I thought that each and every member of the cast did an excellent job portraying their character, and that the teamwork among them was amazing. I would recommend seeing this to anyone I know as it is a musical which has to be seen at least once, or maybe twice if you can afford to see it again!
