The stage was pulsing with megawatts of flash and polish on the opening night of Sister Act, showcasing the red-hot moves of two dozen singer/actors, plus a 12-piece band in the pit. A musical update of the wildly popular 1992 movie starring Whoopi Goldberg, Cabrillo Stage’s version excels in a tightly choreographed ensemble playing the nuns of Queen of the Angels convent. These women are guided in quiet and cloistered lives by a Mother Superior played by the magnificent Jennifer Taylor Daniels and her earth-shaking pipes. The central ensemble is so good, you can barely process just how good they are. Singing, emoting, gesturing, dancing, rapping (yes, rapping) with smart and exuberant stagecraft (by Babe Payne), they form the joyful core of the main action.
The show opens with glitzy, booty-shaking nightclub hopeful Deloris Van Cartier (ace’d by Karriyma Pekary, who all but stole last season’s In the Heights), accompanied by her backup singers (the magnificent Melissa Martinez and Haley Clarke), belting out the smokin’ signature tune “Take Me to Heaven”. That opening number is without a doubt the apex moment in a show filled with some juicy tunes. Turns out that Deloris unwisely vamps around town with a low-life gangster (Bobby Marchessault) and his lower-life nephews. When Deloris witnesses her gangsta lover gun down a rival, police chief Eddie Souther (David Jackson) rushes Deloris into witness protection—in a convent! And before you can say “what could possibly go wrong?” Deloris has managed to rub the Mother Superior the wrong way while encouraging her new sisters to more worldly aspirations.
Delighted by their new jive-talking sister, the nuns waste no time getting into the groove and proceed to get down with some hip hop dance moves Bad Bunny might envy. One of the great pleasures of this show is watching a tight ensemble of 12 women dancing and singing up a storm, in deep tissue sync with each other. Opening night’s audience went ballistic with approval. Terrific voices, and some stunning retro-to-raunchy dance moves, notably by the loose-limbed Kiki Lipsett busting serious hip hop moves as the snarky Sister Mary Lazarus. And while the song and dance production numbers knocked me out the first half dozen or so times, the sheer quantity of over-the-top musical numbers proved exhausting. (Director Clark could trim the show by dropping a couple of these routines, especially “Spread the Love Around,” which is frankly unworthy of the talent and energy on the stage.)
While Deloris schemes ways to exit the cloister, the nuns beg her to stay. Meanwhile, her homicidal boyfriend sends his nephews out to bring her back. This incredibly funny/silly point in the action leads to one of the show-stopping moments. Utterly out of the blue, the three guys outline their plans with “Lady in the Long Black Dress” to put the moves on the nuns. After all, the guys reason, they’re women. Tight harmony, delicious lyrics, and out of the blue, Pablo (Carlos Joel Gonzalez) lets fly with some breathtaking falsetto that just about punches a hole in the ceiling.
The powerhouse performances and sensitive acting of Pekary and Daniels nail down the entire production, although it’s worth the price of admission to watch Marcus Cato (as a Monsignor!) attempt to boogie. Shoutout to David Jackson, whose spectacular vocals on “I Could Be That Guy,” wishing he was cool enough to win the heart of Deloris, were nothing short of Broadway.
Maestro Daniel Goldsmith kept his orchestra driving the action from start to the blockbuster ending. Sister Act, the musical, works on a different vibe than the 1993 movie. So set your expectations on classic musical comedy frequency, and you’ll come away high on the amount of skill, enthusiasm, and energy of this 2026 Cabrillo Stage production.
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Sister Act, music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Glenn Slater. Cabrillo Crocker Theater. Produced by Cabrillo Stage, directed by Rebecca Haley Clark; through August 2. cabrillostage.com/
