The Associated Press
LONDON - ``Sister Act'' got a standing ovation on its opening night, but critics were less enthusiastic Wednesday about the nunnery stage musical based on the 1992 movie starring Whoopi Goldberg.
Goldberg is a producer of the show and was in the audience for Tuesday's opening night at the London Palladium, a razzle-dazzle event preceded by performers in nuns' habits rappelling down the building's facade.
The musical stars West End newcomer Patina Miller as a singer who goes into hiding in a convent after witnessing a murder, and soon teaches the holy choir how to sing with secular soul. Veteran British actress Sheila Hancock plays the strict, skeptical Mother Superior.
The musical, directed by Peter Schneider, has a score by Alan Menken (music) and Glen Slater (lyrics), who collaborated on Broadway's ``Little Mermaid.'' The book is by Cherie and Bill Steinkellner, who wrote for television shows such as ``Cheers.''
The Daily Telegraph's Charles Spencer was enthusiastic, saying the story was ``more enjoyable on stage than ... on film.''
``What's not to like, especially when you've got a chorus line of jiving nuns singing their hearts out ecstatically?'' he wrote.
He called Miller a real discovery: ``She has all the comic vitality of Whoopi Goldberg in the film, but she's sexier and sings up a storm.''
The Times of London's Benedict Nightingale agreed that Miller was ``the show's great plus'' but felt a ``sweet, sentimental film has been hyped up, coarsened'' in its transition to the stage.
The Guardian's critic, Michael Billington, also thought the story had been ``vulgarized,'' and said the show ``feels less like a personally driven work of art than a commercial exploitation of an existing franchise.''
The Daily Mail's Quentin Letts criticized the show's ``artistic laziness, its incuriosity'' but conceded it ``will doubtless be a solid summer hit.''
``Sister Act'' had its world premiere at the Pasadena Playhouse in California in 2006 and later played at Atlanta's Alliance Theatre.
