WHOOPI’S BACK IN THE HABIT!

Whoopi Goldberg will join the cast of the hit musical comedy SISTER ACT this summer to play the role of Mother Superior.  She will open on TUESDAY 10 AUGUST, with her last performance on TUESDAY 31 AUGUST, playing an exclusive 23 show season.  No stranger to stages around the world, the role however marks Whoopi’s West End debut in Sister Act at the London Palladium.

Whoopi follows the hugely popular Sheila Hancock, who created the role and has played Mother Superior since the show opened last May.  She is joined on stage by the critically acclaimed Patina Miller in the lead role of Deloris Van Cartier (Whoopi’s role in the original movie), recording artist Simon Webbe as Curtis Shank and Dads Army star Ian Lavender as Monsignor. 

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Whoopi Goldberg is among the most well-known performers around the world.  She shot to international fame with her Oscar-nominated performance in Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple, before embarking on a prolific Hollywood career with films such as Jumpin’ Jack Flash, Soapdish, The Lion King, How Stella Got Her Groove Back and, of course, Sister Act and its sequel.  She has had success in virtually every area of entertainment, from film and television, to stage and recording, to radio host and best-selling author.  In addition to the critically-acclaimed one-woman show that launched her career and the 20th anniversary production of that show in 2005, Whoopi starred on Broadway in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and, most recently, Xanadu.  She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Ghost in 1991 and is one of a very elite group of artists who has also won the Grammy, the Golden Globe, the Emmy and, as producer of the original Broadway production of Thoroughly Modern Millie in 2002, a Tony Award.  She is currently moderator of the award-winning, top rating daytime talk show The View in the United States.

Bill Taylor, Stage Entertainment UK CEO, said:

“The Sister Act journey has been an incredible one so far, and Whoopi’s input from the development stage onwards has been invaluable.  Now, back in her habit and on stage with our company at the beautiful Palladium, theatregoers get to see a comedy legend at work.  To say the Sister Act family is excited might be something of an understatement!
 
This is also a chance to say a goodbye to the indomitable, multi-talented and unspeakably wonderful Sheila Hancock, who has been a mother figure both on and off stage.  I can never thank her enough for her part in making the show the success it is today.”

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The principal cast also includes Ako Mitchell as Eddie, Katie Rowley Jones as Sister Mary Robert, Claire Greenway as Sister Mary Patrick, Jacqueline Clarke as Sister Mary Lazarus, Nicholas Colicos as Bones, Thomas Goodridge as TJ and Ivan De Freitas as Dinero.

[posted by Vitek, 14:53, 07/07/2010]