Sister Act

'Sister Act' is definitely a Marmite musical. You'll either love its effervescence, its razzle-dazzle set design and its shimmying chutzpah or they'll drive you to distraction. I am happy to be in the former camp ñ it would have been a long two hours and 35 minutes otherwise.

Inspired by the 1992 film of the same name, the bawdy and cantankerous lounge singer character Deloris Van Cartier (played in the movie by Whoopi Goldberg) is given a glitzy Donna Summer-style makeover by outstanding 24-year-old newcomer Patina Miller who injects sass, sex appeal and an almighty set of pipes.

Some comedy is lost. And out, too, goes the early '90s setting and Deloris's Italian mobster boyfriend: director Peter Schneider transposes the action to late '70s south Philly ñ presumably to make way for a rollicking disco soundtrack of new songs by Disney composer Alan Menken and designs by Klara Zieglerova and Lez Brotherston which look like Holy Communion at the Vatican as directed by Hype Williams and Donatella Versace. The dodgy love interest becomes a Shaft-inspired gangster named Shank. And it's witnessing his act of murder that forces Deloris to go into police protection in a convent, disguised as a nun, where she sets about breathing some holy spirit into the ramshackle choir.

Yes, Cheri and Bill Steinkellner's book is a little slight, the characters are paper-thin caricatures ñ the fat nun, the old nun, the young virgin who isn't sure she should be a nun ñ and it's by sheer will that Sheila Hancock manages to force any kind of dignity into her Mother Superior character. But only the most pious of musical conservatives could avoid being swept along with this ludicrously enjoyable show. 'Sister Act' is simply divine.