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In November last year, the confirmation that Sister Act the Musical would be taking over the Palladium from The Sound of Music took the theatre world by storm.

The original 1992 movie is a comedy classic, as is, to a slightly lesser extent, its 1993 sequel. With fantastic comic performances from Whoopi Goldberg, Kathy Najimy and Mary Wickes and the stellar presence of Dame Maggie Smith and Harvey Keitel, the lighthearted story of a Las Vegas lounge singer taking a terrible convent choir by storm while under witness protection was an instant hit.

The musical also proved a hit when first staged in Pasadena in 2006 despite mixed reviews but its transfer to Atlanta was not a success, closing after just a single month. As a result the show’s planned Broadway run was shelved indefinitely.

Suffering apparently from an ‘identity crisis’, too many changes had been made in the screen to stage transition with the action being moved from the early 1990s’ Reno and San Francisco to the mid 1970s’ Philadelphia in order to accommodate the stage show’s new disco-flavoured score, eliminating the classic gospel songs that made the movie’s soundtrack album such a huge hit in itself. While it was assumed that fans of the film would flock to see the show, it was simply missing too many elements that made the film so popular. However, the show still has much to offer, so Sister Act’s search for salvation began.

Sister Act the Musical’s new score, while not attracting the movie’s many fans to the theatre, was easily its strongest point from the critics’ point of view, written as it is by eight-time Oscar winning composer Alan Menken, whose credits include the Disney films and stage shows The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Numerous changes have been made to the structure of the show as well as casting criteria, based upon the criticism received in Pasadena and Atlanta.

However, it has been this week’s announcement of the show’s London cast that has suddenly made the theatre-going public sit up and take notice. The role of Deloris van Cartier, made famous in the films by Whoopi Goldberg, will be taken on by West End newcomer Patina Miller, most famous in the US for her regular appearances in daytime soap All My Children. The Mother Superior will be played by beloved British actress Sheila Hancock, who most recently played Fraulein Schneider in the West End production of Cabaret, for which she won an Olivier award. Joining Miller and Hancock are Dad’s Army and Eastenders star Ian Lavender as Monsignor Howard and Katie Rowley Jones, who originated the role of Nessarose in the London production of Wicked, will be playing Sister Mary Robert.

While the cast was clearly not a priority in the US, with the line-up of unknowns being almost unanimously panned by the critics, in London, producers have been more selective. The drastic rewrites the show has undergone must have met the approval of such a strong cast.

Will Sister Act the Musical find salvation in London? It remains to be seen, but the producers must hope they can maintain the public’s current clamour for the red-hot production of the moment, Oliver!