Moonlight staging heavenly ‘Sister Act’
Moonlight Stage Productions opens its 36th summer season with the regional theater debut of “Sister Act,” that is, for the most part, a truly heavenly experience.
Based loosely on the hit 1992 movie starring Whoopi Goldberg, this stage version has been set back to 1976, when disco was king and leisure suits were in style. The talented Moonlight cast manages to recover from sluggish first few minutes to generate a memorable evening of comedy and song.
Singer Deloris Van Cartier (Daebreon Poiema in her Moonlight debut) finds herself performing in a second-rate Philadelphia nightclub when she witnesses her gangster boyfriend Curtis Jackson (Rufus Bonds, Jr.) shoot and kill another bad guy. Jackson isn’t crazy about his main squeeze remaining in the picture and goes after her. Deloris runs to the cops and finds herself in front of Eddie Souther (Cornelius Jones, Jr.) as a cop who had a high school crush on her. Eddie has the perfect spot to hide Deloris – the Queen of Angels convent run by a very conservative mother superior (Victoria Strong.) Much of the show involves the sisters adjusting to the new addition and on how Deloris adjusts to them. By the end of the first act, the convent’s raggedy choir has been miraculously transformed into what the mother superior calls a group of “celibate nuns shakin’ their buns.” Word of the transformation gets out, filling the once-empty church with appreciative audiences and, toward the end of the show, the pope. But the attention also proves to be troublesome for Deloris when Curtis and his goons discover where she’s been hiding.
The show is written by Cheri and Bill Steinkellner (with Douglas Carter Beane) with a wonderful score by Oscar-winning composer Alan Menken and lyricist Glen Slater. Musical highlights include “Raise Your Voice” and “Take Me to Heaven,” which closes Act I, “I Haven’t Got a Prayer” (a nice moment by Strong) and the heartfelt “The Life I Never Led” by Sarah Errington as the novice Sister Mary Robert.
Poiema, Jones and Strong lead the excellent cast and Bonds does a fine job as the boyfriend.
The plot is fun but the real reason to make the trip over to Vista is to enjoy the singing, the costumes, the live orchestra (conducted by Lyndon Pugeda), the dancing and the lights. If you aren’t old enough to remember disco – or if you do and want a nice trip down memory lane – you won’t want to miss “Sister Act.”
The show runs through July 2. Performances are at 8 p.m. Tickets are $23-55 for fixed seats and $8-$20 for lawn seating. (The chairs are provided.) Details and ticket sales at moonlightstage.com or call 760-724-2110. The Moonlight Amphitheatre is in Brengle Terrace Park, 1200 Vale Terrace Drive, Vista. Bring a sweater or light jacket as it can get a little chilly after sunset.
