Hayley Bamford, centre, in rehearsal for Sister Act The Musical with York Musical Theatre Company director Kathryn Addison, right
YORK Musical Theatre Company will perform Sister Act The Musical at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, next Wednesday to Saturday under the direction of Kathryn Addison with Hayley Bamford in the sassy role of “novice nun” Deloris Van Cartier.
As you will recall from Emile Ardolino’s 1992 film, the story is centred on club singer Deloris, who witnesses her partner, nightclub owner Curtis Jackson (Zander Fick), commit murder, forcing the police to hide her in a convent, where she meets the Mother Superior (Kirstin Grififths) and an ensemble of 22 nuns. Cue multiple upbeat numbers as friendships grow and the convent is saved from financial ruin. Hallelujah!
“The company chose this show, and they did ask me for my thoughts,” says Kathryn of Alan Menken’s musical with its 1970s-inspired score. “I think it’s a super piece of theatre that’s even better than the film. It’s ideal for this company. It has everything in it you want in a musical.
“There’s a real depth to it, beyond the music, with real emotion to Deloris’s story, but it’s also fun and the music is fabulous. The voices are phenomenal. It has a beautiful original score for a show that needs the right style vocally and physically to retain the essence of the movie’s jukebox musical hits.”
Director Kathryn Addison in the rehearsal room with her cast for Sister Act The Musical
Deloris Von Cartier will forever be associated with Whoopi Goldberg’s tour-de-force movie performance and was played by Cleopatra girl group singer, I’d Do Anything finalist and West End musical actress Cleopatra Rey in York Stage Musicals’ York premiere at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre: a September 2014 production on which Kathryn worked.
Explaining her choice of Hayley for the role, she says: “Hayley never stops. From the moment she rocks up, it’s an absolute powerhouse performance.
“We had some amazing auditions for the part, and they all really delivered. I had no preconceived ideas about who should play Deloris, but I needed a special spark and that’s what Hayley brought to the room. That energy.
“It’s an instinct. You can’t necessarily say what it is, but there’s a combination of things that strike you. It’s about having the right style and being able to adapt to the demands of this part, understand what you have to do, and Hayley has done that.”
Hayley Bamford, front, centre, and fellow cast members for York Musical Theatre Company’s Sister Act The Musical
Hayley has long contemplated auditioning for Deloris. “I saw that production at the Opera House, and had considered doing the show with Ripon Operatic Society,” she says. “I thought, ‘I’d love to audition for it’, but the timing wasn’t right, but now it’s come about naturally for me to do it in York, as if it was meant to be.”
Hayley auditioned last autumn and began singing rehearsals in January, followed by floor rehearsals since March. “It’s been such good fun to do,” she says. “It’s a dream come true. I’ve toyed with it for some time now, because I’ve had it in my mind that Deloris is played by a very famous black actress [Whoopi Goldberg].
“But when John [musical director John Atkin] said it wasn’t written specifically for a black actress, but was first offered to Bette Midler, then I could see Deloris as just a club singer where you have to put your own take on it.
“Deloris is a woman with dreams, and she has her ups and downs as we all do, but it’s what she learns from her experience that’s important.”
“Like Deloris, we all have dreams to fulfil to work in theatre,” says York Musical Theatre Company actress Hayley Bamford
Hayley has loved the challenge of playing Hayley. “I did The Addams Family a few years ago, but it wasn’t as big a role as this. It’s been good for my brain. Teaching myself things again. Like Deloris, we all have dreams to fulfil to work in theatre.
“Luckily my voice is naturally quite a low voice, the Whoopi Goldberg level, so I can do the American voice like that, but I think I’m camper than Whoopi – and you don’t want to be a copycat.”
Kathryn rejoins: “What Hayley is very good at is being able to use her physicality in scenes, and it’s very definitely not like Whoopi! It’s Hayley’s interpretation; we get the whole character because she gets the movement right. Hayley is tall with long limbs and that brings individuality to her performance.”
Picking up on Kathryn’s assessment that “Sister Act has everything in it you want in a musical”, she highlights why: “It has humour; it has pathos; wonderful music and movement; it’s family friendly and it’s fun. It takes everyone with it from start to finish, going through everything that Deloris does, and it has something that other musicals don’t have: it has heart.”
Sister Act director Kathryn Addison
Hayley concurs: “It’s one of those shows where you walk out at the end thinking, ‘that’s ticked all the boxes’ and you leave on a high.”
Kathryn adds: “It gains momentum but then there are moments of stillness in the convent too…and there are moments of doubt for the Mother Superior, who has lived without doubt in her life until now, when she ponders whether everything she believes in might not be true after all.”
Sister Act shows how life can be hard but it can turn around at any time, suggests Kathryn. That moment when we need a lift. “Like Hayley thinking the part of Deloris might have passed her by, but now getting to play it with us,” she says.
“I wasn’t expecting it,” says Hayley.
York Musical Theatre Company in Sister Act The Musical, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, May 21 to 24, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.