Hallelujah! Musical is lively and full of fun

PLAY REVIEW ‘Sister Act’



FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT—Deloris Van Cartier (Daebreon Poiema), center, leads the sisters in a rousing number in “Sister Act,”a production of Cabrillo Music Theatre. The show closes Sunday at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza.

FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT—Deloris Van Cartier (Daebreon Poiema), center, leads the sisters in a rousing number in “Sister Act,”a production of Cabrillo Music Theatre. The show closes Sunday at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza.

What is it about nuns and Broadway? First you had “The Sound of Music,” the sugary sweet Rodgers and Hammerstein confection that became a classic. Then came the hilarious hijinks of Dan Goggin’s “Nunsense” franchise. And most recently there’s “Sister Act,” a 2012 updating of the 1992 Whoopi Goldberg film that had been marinating in regional tryouts around the world since 2006.

Cabrillo Music Theatre is staging “Sister Act” through Sunday at the Kavli Theatre in Thousand Oaks and its production can be likened to pouring root beer quickly into a glass: You have to go through a lot of froth to get to the substance.

If the plot seems familiar to you, it’s because it’s based on a number of tried-and-true Broadway formulas. It’s Philadelphia, in disco-mad 1977, and streetwise Donna Summer wannabe Deloris Van Cartier is on the run after witnessing a murder at the hands of her thuggish, hulking lover, Curtis Jackson. This scenario, about an on-the-run murder witness, is similar to “Sugar,” the musical version of “Some Like It Hot.”

Deloris’ torch-carrying former high school chum Eddie, who is now a desk chief at the local police station, gets her into a witness protection program and hides her in a convent where she becomes “Sister Mary Clarence” (Deloris calls it “going incog-Negro”).

She proceeds to transform the convent’s pious, tone-deaf nuns into a world-class gospel choir, all the while fearing that Curtis will find her and bump her off. The fish-out-of-water and outsider-transforming a-stultifying-society concepts have been seen in everything from “The Music Man” to “Footloose,” but the joy of “Sister Act” is the sisters themselves.

Daebreon Poiema is a far cry from Whoopi Goldberg, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Poiema not only has a knack for wisecracks, but can also sing up a storm. Book writers Cheri and Bill Steinkellner, who penned numerous episodes of TV’s “Cheers,” have turned Deloris from a has-been on the slide to a rising star looking for an opportunity.

In a show where most of its characters are drawn with broad strokes, Poiema adds nuance and detail, combining tangible ambition with a tenderness and affection for her newfound friends that is quite touching by show’s end.

As the brutish Curtis Jackson, Dedrick Bonner is a cartoonish Super Fly, with an overhanging Afro that reminds you you’re in the ’70s, yet he’s delightfully light on his feet during the threatening number, “When I Find My Baby,” accompanied by his henchmen Joey (David Kirk Grant), Pablo (John Paul Batista), and TJ (Kenneth Mosley).

Composer Alan Menken and lyricist Glenn Slater’s score is an accurate manifestation of the 1970s, with heart-thumping disco/ gospel numbers for the nuns and the sly, “hot-buttered soul” sound of Isaac Hayes for Curtis and Eddie. As “Sweaty Eddie,” Wilkie Ferguson III is extremely likable, especially in his solo, “I Could Be That Guy.”

Debbie Prutsman is outstanding as a doubting Mother Superior, Deloris’ antagonist inside the convent.

In a chorus full of nuns, it’s hard to distinguish oneself because of the personality-hiding habits, but several stand out: the fabulous Francesca Barletta, who plays the clucking, giddy Sister Mary Patrick; Karla J. Franko as Sister Mary Lazarus, a whining mash-up of Jean Stapleton, Jimmy Durante and Arnold Stang; and Chelsea Morgan Stock as the timid, uncertain postulate, Sister Mary Robert (Stock understudied the role on Broadway).

The plot progresses like a sitcom, with plenty of sight gags and clever quips (specialties of the Steinkellners), but the real highlights are the rousing choral scenes, accented by Michelle Elkin’s imaginative choreography (fancy footwork is not easily noticed with floor length costumes) and Kyle C. Norris’s supercharged pit orchestra.

“Sister Act” has its flaws and will never be a classic, but it is still a fun-filled, lively musical that deserves attention. Who knows? It could be habit-forming.

“Sister Act” runs through April 30 at Civic Arts Plaza’s Kavli Theatre, 2100 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd., T.O. For information, call (805) 449-2787 or visit www.cabrillomusictheatre.com. Tickets are available at the box office or cabrillomusictheatre.com.


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