SISTER ACT - THEATRE REVIEW

SISTER ACT (WBOS) AT THE WOLVERHAMPTON GRAND THEATRE

Theatre Run: Tuesday 13 - Saturday 17 May 2014
Performance Reviewed: Tuesday 13 May 2014 (Press Night)

Reviewed by Kyle Pedley

Amateur theatre and local operatic societies continue to thankfully be plentiful in number and ever evolving in regards to the professionalism, ambition and scope of the productions they put on, something which is plenty evident within the West Midlands. The West Bromwich Operatic Society/WBOS are one such organisation who, with their latest production, Sister Act, further blur the boundaries between professional productions and amateur with an extremely accomplished, technically audacious and supremely enjoyable adaptation of one of musical theatre’s more recent success stories. Following on from a celebrated original stint in London, a subsequent Broadway run and UK national tour, Sister Act is a musical adaptation of the 1992 Whoopi Goldberg comedy movie of the same name. There’s some tweaks to character and plot, most notably (but understandably) dragging the whole thing back 20 years so it nestles comfortably with the disco stylings of the 1970’s, and the score is entirely original as opposed to the collection of jukebox hits from the movie, but otherwise those familiar with the original will have a strong idea of what to expect here.

PRISCILLA: QUEEN OF THE DESERT - THEATRE REVIEW

PRISCILLA: QUEEN OF THE THE DESERT THE MUSICAL AT THE NEW ALEXANDRA THEATRE, BIRMINGHAM

Theatre Run: Monday 18 - Saturday 30 March 2013
Performance Reviewed: Wednesday 20 March (Press Night)

Reviewed by Kyle Pedley

The jukebox musical, i.e. one where the soundtrack consists of a variety of pre-existing songs and hits as is the case with Priscilla: Queen of the Desert, can be a deceptively difficult thing to pull off well. Whilst a good lineup of known hits will help engage and familiarise an audience immediately, too often the lack of a concise and tailored original score and repertoire of songs can find shows scrambling for their own identities or, even worse, leaning on it’s catalogue of pre-existing tunes to mask a dirth of character, plot or original thinking and creativity (for a perfect example of this see the current shambles of Viva Forever! in the West End).

Fortunately, Priscilla: Queen of the Desert, which rolls into Birmingham this week as part of it’s UK tour, is an outrageously entertaining example of the jukebox done very, very right.  Based on the modestly successful 1994 comedy which has since gained quite the cult following (and rightly bagged an Oscar for Costume Design), this musical adaptation is a wonderfully extrovert, gloriously camp and relentlessly enjoyable celebration of disco, drag queens and unconventional daddy dilemmas.