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</div><div style="text-align:center" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2821" align="center"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Hurry Up"" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2822">S I S T E R I C A L</span></div>
<div style="text-align:center" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2823" align="center"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2824">By Tom Wachunas</span></div>
<div style="text-align:center" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2825" align="center"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2826"> </span></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2827"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2828"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2829"> </span>Oh my flabby abs! Be still, my Philly soul!
If I have one complaint about the current Players Guild Theatre production of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2830">Sister Act, </i>it’s that I split a gut
laughing so much, all the while stinging my hands from so many spontaneous
outbursts of applause. I hereby charge director Jonathan Tisevich,
choreographer and co-director Michael Lawrence Akers, music director and
conductor Steve Parsons and his orchestra, scenic designer Joshua Erichsen,
lighting and sound designer Scott Sutton, costume designer Stephen Ostertag,
the entire cast, and crew, with first-degree felonious exuberance. Yikes. Who
do they think they are, Broadway professionals?</span></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2890"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2828"><br></span></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2831"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2832"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2833"> </span>And well they should. This business of the
Players Guild mounting sprawling stage musicals with crazygreat local talent
continues to be a very good habit in these parts. Nun but the best, I always
say. Bless me Father, for I have punned.</span></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2896"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2832"><br></span></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2834"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2835"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2836"> </span>Based on the 1992 film comedy starring
Whoopi Goldberg (and debuting on Broadway in 2011), the setting is 1977
Philadelphia, and tells the story of a vivacious night club entertainer and
rising disco diva named Deloris Van Cartier, “as in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2837">Cartier’s</i>,” says the sassy singer with a snap of her fingers. After
she inadvertently witnesses bad-guy club owner, Curtis, commit a murder, she
needs to enter protective custody and hide. “You mean I gotta go incognegro?”
she wryly asks Eddie, the timid cop who harbors <span style="mso-spacerun:yes" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2838"> </span>romantic feelings for her. He promptly whisks
her away to the unlikeliest of places - Queen of Angels Church and convent.
There, life will fast become raucously… unconventional for her and newfound
sisters, initially much to the dismay of the righteous Mother Superior.</span></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2898"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2835"><br></span></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2839"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2840"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2841"> </span>Mother, however, begrudgingly finds a way
for Deloris, disguised as Sister Mary Clarence, to temporarily fit into the
community by letting her sing with <span style="mso-spacerun:yes" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2842"> </span>the
choir. When the eager Deloris asks if the sisters sing well, the weary Mother
replies simply, “There are no words.” Indeed, when we first encounter this
apparently tone-deaf ensemble, we hear arguably the scariest aural cacophony to
ever grace a stage. Hey, it requires great skill to sound <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2843">this</i> horrific. But Deloris dutifully transforms the group into a
veritable choral phenomenon that can regale us with heavenly harmonies, as in
the song “Bless Our Show,” as well as execute electrifying disco dance gyrations
in the show-stopping “Raise Your Voice.”</span></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2908"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2840"><br></span></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2844"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2845"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2846"> </span>Speaking of a vocal phenomenon, watching Joy
Ellis in her role of Deloris is to be immersed in a marvelously radiant
presence. She is eminently gifted with a very refined technical prowess along
with a finessed and invigorating emotive power. In her facile joining of those
aspects, her fervor becomes infectious, generating all the dimensionality of,
appropriately enough, a spiritual experience.</span></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2910"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2845"><br> </span></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2847"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2848"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2849"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2850"> </span>The
show is consistently enriched by many remarkable passages. Among them, Meg
Hopp, as Mother Superior, is a genuinely gripping character throughout, and no
more so than when, with urgent <span style="mso-spacerun:yes" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2851"> </span>warmth,
she intones her frustrations in “I Haven’t Got A Prayer.”<span style="mso-spacerun:yes" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2852"> </span>Likewise, playing the sweetly nervous
postulant Sister Mary Robert, Sarah Marie Young is riveting and robust when she
questions her decision to be a nun in “The Life I Never Led.” <span style="mso-spacerun:yes" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2853"> </span>Julie Connair, as Sister Mary Patrick, leads
her giddy cohorts in the hilariously biting “It’s Good To Be A Nun,” and is
otherwise all bubbly mirth when she’s on stage. <br></span></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2911"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2848"><br></span></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2854"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2855"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2856"> </span>Both Demetrius Rodriguez as Eddie, and
Willis Gordon as Curtis, smoothly render sinewy shades of classic Soul and R&B
music. Rodriguez’s ballad, “I Could Be That Guy,” is utterly heartrending.
Curtis’s “When I Find My Baby” is a chilling study in malicious intent.
Meanwhile, Curtis sends his trio of inept thugs - played to the hilt by Micah
Harvey as Joey, Brandon Talbert as TJ, and Russell Jones as Pablo - to find and
eliminate Deloris. Their schmaltzy, fumbling postures as would-be seducers in
“Lady In The Long Black Dress” is itself a piece of comedic genius.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2857"><br></span></span></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2913"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2855"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2857"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2858"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2859"> <br></span></span></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2860"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2861"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2862"> </span>If ever there was a benevolent Players Guild
conspiracy to rattle our funny bones, warm our hearts with unfettered glee, and
brightly illuminate the astonishing abundance of serious theatrical and musical
talent in our own back yard, this is it. Here’s to wondrously raised voices and
spreading the love around. I rest my case. </span></div>
<div style="text-align:center" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2863" align="center"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2864"> </span></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2865"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2866"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2867"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2868">SISTER
ACT, </i>at Players Guild Theatre, 1001 Market Avenue N., Canton, Ohio /
THROUGH MARCH 12 / Shows at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday / Tickets
$27 adult, $24 seniors 55 and older, $19 ages 17 and younger / Available
at<span style="mso-spacerun:yes" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2869"> </span></span><a href="http://www.playersguildtheatre.com/" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2870"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2871">www.playersguildtheatre.com</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2872"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2873"> </span>or
call box office at 330- 454- 8172</span></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2915"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2872"><br></span></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2874"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2875"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2876"> </span>For other commentaries by Tom Wachunas on
the performing and visual arts in the greater Canton area, please visit ARTWACH
at </span><a href="http://www.artwach.blogspot.com/" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2877"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2878">www.artwach.blogspot.com</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1488222679278_2879"> </span></div>
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