Entertainment

Alexandra Burke certainly has X factor in Belfast production of Sister Act

Alexandra Burke, who won The X Factor in 2008, demonstrates just why she did so in the current production of Sister Act at Belfast's Grand Opera House
Alexandra Burke, who won The X Factor in 2008, demonstrates just why she did so in the current production of Sister Act at Belfast's Grand Opera House Alexandra Burke, who won The X Factor in 2008, demonstrates just why she did so in the current production of Sister Act at Belfast's Grand Opera House

Sister Act at The Grand Opera House

ALEXANDRA Burke heads this multi-talented cast. They sing, they dance and they play instruments on stage as the show bounds along.

Many people will have seen the film starring Woopie Goldburg so it’s a brave company that takes on the stage version, in this case produced by Craig Revel Horwood and he does a great job.

This is a brave company and they succeed in holding the audience from the word go. Storyline is simple: showgirl Deloris (Alexandra Burke) witnesses her boyfriend (Aaron Lee Lambert) murder one of the mob. She has to go into hiding and where better than a convent, where she becomes Sister Mary Clarence one of the Little Sisters of our Mother of Perpetual Faith?

She takes the discordant choir in hand and turns them into stars. Even the Pope comes to their church to hear them – and it's not often the Pope puts in an appearance in the Grand Opera House!

It’s always easy to enjoy a show when you know the people on stage are enjoying playing to their audience and this is the case with Sister Act. The individual singers are of a very high quality and the choir, once they are transformed, are a joy to hear – and Alexandra Burke certainly has that X-Factor.

The set is excellent with a gallery above the stage where the nuns contemplate and take up their instruments and play. There must be a cast of about 20, one minute gangsters, then show men and women, then nuns – some looking speciously like gangsters...

It’s a real mix-and-match production and most enjoyable with such a reputation that it’s almost sold out for the week. Make an effort, give the box office a ring and try to get a ticket – you will feel all the better for it.

:: Until Saturday November 12; for tickets see www.goh.co.uk