SISTER ACT
DIRECTOR: Janice Honeyman
CAST: Candida Mosoma, Kate Normington, Keith Smith, Judy Ditchfield, LJ Urbani, Zano, Phumi Mncayi, Mervin Marvey, Brenda Sakellarides, Elizca Coetzer, Toni Jean Erasmus and ensemble
CHOREOGRAPHER: Nicol Sheraton
VENUE: The Mandela in Joburg Theatre
UNTIL: August 16
RATING: ****
This one is a real crowd-pleaser with stars-in-the-making ready to shoot off into the stratosphere. And it’s a thrilling merry-go-round of a musical that ticks all the boxes.
And it has to tick a few to make it work.
Honeyman starts it all with clever cast choices including the two leads, Mosoma and Normington, who penetrate their characters with more than just a pinprick, adding weight to what might have been a flighty affair.
From the madcap nuns whose inner wildness has been unleashed by Deloris (Mosoma), Sakellarides (Sister Mary Lazarus), Coetzer (Sister Mary Patrick) and Erasmus (Sister Mary Robert) all hit the rafters with their solos and rock the auditorium with their style; to Zano (Detective Sweaty Eddie) with his soulful lament, Mncayi (Curtis the gangster) with his swag, Urbani (Joey) who sheds his character’s skin as a hip swinger steps out and Smith as the Monsignor; it’s these many moments allowing individuals to step up and claim the spotlight for just that moment so majestically.
Setting the tone are Normington and Mosoma. It is obviously the latter’s time as, dressed in Roberts’s glitz and ’70s flash, she inhabits a sassy woman with the name of Deloris van Cartier, making magical music while claiming the Mandela stage as her own. It’s the voice and then she adds the strut and the star quality. Normington is the smartest choice as the bossy and often belligerent Mother Superior who has some of the funniest lines, but you need someone who knows how to hit that particular comical mark. Normington does and it’s fun to see her relish the power of her play.
As these two women lead the close-knit pack, they’re set in the fun world of Declan Randall whose touch with lighting doesn’t need much else as he paints colourful and sometimes monochrome worlds of such spectacle, but this time he also adds the set design which is playful as it kicks this musical into a contemporary world where animation and multimedia add new dimensions.
Roberts, with fashion tongue firmly in cheek, does a cheekily comic turn with ’70s fashion as only she could, although to be fair, it’s probably one of the best to poke fun at – think fake fur, hotpants and what is now called onesies, but back then called jumpsuits.
Musically and choreographically, all step in time as Honeyman marches her soldiers through this one with a huge smile. It is treacly sweet with messages and morals tripping over one another, but nothing comes between the fantastic cast, the music and the way they tell the story.