Sister Wendy Beckett - that charming nun whose wide-eyed admiration of art made compulsive television viewing in the early 90s - the subject of a musical? Preposterous! So of course we went along last night to see it for ourselves...
Marcus Reeves' Postcards from God - the Sister Wendy Musical at the Hackney Empire Studios was a wonderful surprise. Excellent songs and brilliant performances - the story of the hermit nun’s catapult to international fame, and her struggle between devotion to God and the jet-set world of "celebrity" adulation was a real treat, and a great evening’s entertainment.
Gay Soper (who was the voice of The Flumps, among her long list of stage and TV appearances) was at once hilarious and sympathetic as Sister Wendy, drawn, blinking, from her caravan at the convent to the dizzy heights of stardom - first the BBC, then ultimately the madness that is American media (her appearance on Touch a Celebrity is particularly hilarious).
Each of the artworks about which Sister Wendy enthuses is cleverly portrayed by actors (the characters from each portrait sing and dance the numbers), and vignettes about her relationships with her agent, her family and the media are similarly all portrayed in song. And you ain’t seen nothing till you’ve seen the Sister Wendy Rap-ture!
Skilfully done, well choreographed and sung, and as camp as tits - this was a really really good show, and one that I highly recommend!
Sister Wendy Musical on MySpace
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