Theatre Under the Stars to August 22, 2026
Tickets from $35 at 1-800-514-3849 or www.tuts.ca
Posted July 17, 2026
The forecast was for an evening shower the night we had our annual family picnic in the Rose Garden followed by Theatre Under the Stars, so we came prepared with raingear. But Sister Mary Clarence aka Deloris Van Cartier in Sister Act must have had some pull with the big boss upstairs because we only experienced a few drops. It was on the way home that we ran into a cloudburst and thanked our lucky stars it hadn’t happened half an hour earlier.
So, what happens at TUTS if it rains? The show goes on unless it puts the performers at risk. Umbrellas are not permitted because they obstruct the view, a cover is moved over to protect the band and the show goes on; free plastic ponchos are handed out if it really starts to pour. There’s also a $5/Ticket Exchange insurance available at the time of purchase so while you can’t get a ticket refund, you can change your date if your plans change or the weather is truly foul. Obviously, you will not get the seats you originally purchased.
Sister Act is based on the 1992 film starring Whoopi Goldberg and it went on to make its musical debut in London in 2009 and on Broadway two years later, winning multiple awards along the way. While it doesn’t really have any songs that leave you singing as you make your way home, it’s entertaining, uplifting and good fun.
Director/choreographer Peter Jorgensen has breathed fresh new life into this musical and it’s a real hoot seeing more than two dozen performers singing and dancing their wimples off on the Malkin Bowl stage. Ryan Cormack provides a beautiful, functional set that shifts back and forth between a cityscape and a convent with handsome gothic windows rolled in and moved around in various configurations. Lighting by Ben Paul – especially on these windows – is beautifully evocative, very ‘churchy’. Costume design by Christine Reimer features black and white habits on the nuns, outrageous, sparkly dresses on Deloris/Sister Mary Clarence and she throws in a huge, colourful surprise late in the show. Sister Act goes Technicolor.
Lounge singer Deloris (Kat Reynolds) has been waiting for a break into the bigtime promised her by Curtis (David Johnston), her married, gangster boyfriend. When she witnesses him shooting someone, she’s whisked off by the police to the Queen of Angels convent for her own protection until the boyfriend goes to trial. “Jesus freaking Christ, what have I done?” she wonders. Indeed. A quiet cell. Simple food. No booze. No fun. She’s constantly being reprimanded by Mother Superior (Angela Donahue) for her outrageous behaviour. And although the other nuns don’t know who she really is, they have their doubts when Deloris intones, “Howard be thy name” when it comes to reciting Psalm 23.
The nuns have an unbelievably dismal, off-key choir causing Mother Superior to say, “God loves us when we sing – even like that.” That’s not good enough for Deloris and, you got it, she works miracles once she becomes the choir mistress. Church attendance skyrockets. The possible sale of the convent property is called off. Everyone is happy but the court appearance at which Deloris must testify against the badass gangster boyfriend looms large.
Into the mix is Eddie (Andrew J. Hampton), a tongue-tied cop who’s smitten with Deloris but too shy to make a move. You know where that’s going to go.
No surprises but lots of fun and great singing and dancing. Kat Reynolds really rocks the Malkin Bowl with “Fabulous, Baby”: “Look at my style, could it be more glam?/Look at my look, can you say, hot damn? . . . Me, I’m fabulous, baby.” And, although it’s easy to be critical of uptight Mother Superior, our hearts go out to her when Angela Donahue sings “Here Within These Walls”. It’s a dangerous world outside those convent walls.
Like Salvation Army’s Sarah Brown in Guys and Dolls, Sister Mary Robert (Alyson Vance) undergoes a transformation when Deloris smuggles a few of the nuns into a late-night bar. Vance sings a soulful “The Life I Never Led” and delivers the shows best line when, in the bar, she says wistfully, “This must be how Protestants feel.”
Another real winner in this show is Andrew J. Hampton as Eddie Souther, the lovelorn cop known as Sweaty Eddie who finally gets his mojo on. He’s quiet, he goes from un-cool to so cool; he’s got the moves. Hampton has a smooth, chocolatey voice and he does a dynamite job of “I Could Be That Guy” accompanied by an I-didn’t-see-that-coming costume change.
Eventually the show has “celibate nuns/shaking their buns” and “bikers and addicts in the pews”; to quote Deloris, this show “puts the ‘sis’ back in Genesis”. It’s a disco musical with lots of heart, served up enthusiastically by director Peter Jorgensen and his cast of more than twenty under the musical direction of Sean Bayntun with his 12-piece band. Rain or, god willing, shine, the show goes on. Hallelujah!