Hollywood superstar Whoopi Goldberg is back in London in 2022 for a blink and you miss it four week run in Sister Act the Musical.
Reprising the role that she first played in the motion picture of the same name, the Academy Award winning actress will also take on production duties for the new show.
Sister Act tells the story of lounge singer Deloris Van Cartier (Goldberg). Forced to enter the witness protection program when she witnesses her boyfriend, mob boss Vince LaRocca, commit murder, Cartier ends up having to lay low in a nunnery.
Immediately causing havoc in the buttoned up world of the convent, Deloris is assigned to the institution’s choir, to keep her out of trouble. However, the nuns are quickly forced to do a reassessment of the feisty singer, as she begins to turn the choir into a top class musical act.
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The story was first produced for the cinema by Hollywood giant Disney. Released at the end of 1992, the film quickly became a massive hit. A sequel was commissioned and in 1993, Sister Act: Back in the Habit was released.
This musical version of the story hails from 2006. The show features music by Academy Award winning composer Alan Menken (Aladdin) with lyrics by Glenn Slater and a book by award winning screenwriting duo Bill and Cheri Steinkellner.
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Opening at the Pasadena Playhouse in California to a storm of critical acclaim, the show was an immediate success, quickly breaking the venue’s box office takings records.
Los Angeles Times journalist Charles McNulty wrote that Sister Act the Musical had “Broadway blockbuster written all over it” while The Hollywood Reporter pronounced the show “hugely entertaining… likely to become a classic”.
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Joining Goldberg in the new production will be BAFTA Award winning actress and comedian Jennifer Saunders. The comedian, star of the BBC1 comedy series Absolutely Fabulous, will take the key role of Mother Superior in the show. The star is no stranger to the stage, having appeared in a variety of successful productions including the recent Oscar Wilde comedy Lady Windermere’s Fan.
Sister Act the Musical will appear at the Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith from the 19th of July 2022 until the 28th of August 2022.
For information on other great musicals in London, please click here.
