NUNS MAKE WHOOPI IN SHENFIELD

AS IF TO ORDER, Shenfield Operatic have launched another ambitious project by putting on the hit musical Sister Act.
It will be at the Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch in February next year.
The group plan an introduction night for Wednesday September 3, at 7.45pm at St George’s Church Hall, Ongar Road Brentwood, and auditions on Sunday September 14.
Taken from the blockbuster film, Sister Act, the script started life 1987, with Bette Midler the favourite to take the lead but turned it down and Whoopi Goldberg took the role of Deloris Wilson, the rest is history.
The film was released by Touchstone Pictures in 1992 and starred Goldberg (right),

Maggy Smith, Harvey Keitel (below left), Kathy Najimy, Wendy Makkena, and Mary Wickes. It also inspired the stage musical, Sister Act, that came to the UK in 2009 opening at the London Palladium, Broadway at the Broadway Theatre in April 2011, and now Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch.
A story of American gangland at its best, the comedy centres round Goldberg who has been put under protective custody in a San Francisco convent and has to pretend to be a nun when a mob boss puts her on his hit list.
The film opens in 1968 at St. Anne’s Academy, a California Roman Catholic school, where the young Deloris Wilson is scolded for wisecracking and disobedience. The setting then changes to the present day, where Deloris Van Cartier is a lounge singer in a 1960s-themed act called The Ronelles (a parody of The Ronettes), who sing at The Moonlite Lounge of the Nevada Club in Reno, Nevada run by her boyfriend, the mobster Vince LaRocca. After Deloris walks in on Vince having his chauffeur Ernie executed, Vince orders his men to kill her too. Deloris flees Vince’s casino to the local police station where Lieutenant Eddie Souther suggests she testify against Vince, and take refuge in a Convent until the trial.
Deloris is taken to St. Katherine’s Parish in a seedy, run-down neighbourhood of San Francisco. Both Deloris and Reverend Mother object, but are convinced by Souther and Monsignor O’Hara to go ahead with it. Deloris “becomes” a nun, habit and all, and under the hand of Reverend Mother, who gives her the religious name “Sister Mary Clarence” to complete the disguise.
A great story and an equally great musical, something Shenfield Operatic take within their stride.
The show will run at the Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch, from Wednesday February 25 to Saturday February 28, 2015. For tickets call 07734 817418 or to join Shenfield Operatic for the show. email : membership@shenfieldoperaticsociety