Musical on `Sister Act` gets mixed response

London, June 03: `Sister Act` got a standing ovation on its opening night, but critics were less enthusiastic Wednesday about the nunnery stage musical based on the 1992 movie starring Whoopi Goldberg.Goldberg is a producer of the show and was in the audience for Tuesday`s opening night at the London Palladium, a razzle-dazzle event preceded by performers in nuns` habits rappelling down the building`s facade.

The musical stars West End newcomer Patina Miller as a singer who goes into hiding in a convent after witnessing a murder, and soon teaches the holy choir how to sing with secular soul. Veteran British actress Sheila Hancock plays the strict, skeptical Mother Superior. The musical, directed by Peter Schneider, has a score by Alan Menken (music) and Glen Slater (lyrics), who collaborated on Broadway`s "Little Mermaid." The book is by Cherie and Bill Steinkellner, who wrote for television shows such as "Cheers." The Daily Telegraph`s Charles Spencer was enthusiastic, saying the story was "more enjoyable on stage than ... on film." "What`s not to like, especially when you`ve got a chorus line of jiving nuns singing their hearts out ecstatically?" he wrote. He called Miller a real discovery: "She has all the comic vitality of Whoopi Goldberg in the film, but she`s sexier and sings up a storm." The Times of London`s Benedict Nightingale agreed that Miller was "the show`s great plus" but felt a "sweet, sentimental film has been hyped up, coarsened" in its transition to the stage. The Guardian`s critic, Michael Billington, also thought the story had been "vulgarized," and said the show "feels less like a personally driven work of art than a commercial exploitation of an existing franchise." The Daily Mail`s Quentin Letts criticized the show`s "artistic laziness, its incuriosity" but conceded it "will doubtless be a solid summer hit." "Sister Act" had its world premiere at the Pasadena Playhouse in California in 2006 and later played at Atlanta`s Alliance Theatre. Bureau Report