By Zach Dunkin
She flew through the air and refused to grow up in “Peter Pan,” did what comes natur’lly in “Annie Get your Gun” and looked “swell” in “Hello, Dolly.”
Now, after sharing a few of her “favorite things” with Maria as Mother Abbess in “The Sound of Music,” longtime Beef & Boards favorite Suzanne Stark slips on the nun’s habit again as Mother Superior in “Sister Act,” Feb. 11 through March 26 at the northwest side Indy dinner theater.
“I enjoy playing a nun partly because we know what her religious position is and, therefore, I can make deliberate acting choices based on that,” said Stark, a former 20-year Carmel resident who now resides on Indy’s north side. “I loved playing Mother Abbess, but making Mother Superior multi-dimensional will be the challenge, especially given the short amount of time she will be in front of the audience and what her ‘role’ is in the moving the story along.
“Right now I am not clear yet ‘who’ Mother Superior since is, especially since this is the first time I’ve played this role. However, the script is definitely giving me clues. At the outset, I think I can say she is more a bit more rigid than the Mother Abbess. Is it possible that Mother Superior will learn just as much as Deloris does in the course of the show? I think we can count on it.”
The “Deloris” Stark is referring to is Deloris Van Cartier, a 60s disco diva in a witness protection program at a convent in the St. Katherine’s Parish. As a witness to a murder by her mobster boyfriend, her life is in danger. Despite her and Mother Superior’s objections, she “becomes” a nun – habit and all – and is given the name Sister Mary Clarence. Using her song and dance talents, Deloris inspires a choir of nuns to create new energy in the church and community.
Nominated for five Tony Awards including Best Musical, the stage production was inspired by 1992 film of the same name, starring Whoopi Goldberg as Sister Mary Clarence and two-time Oscar winner Maggie Smith as Mother Superior.
“I adore Maggie Smith,” said Stark of the British actress, who at age 81 is one of the stars of television’s “Downton Abbey. “I think she is brilliant, and there is no one like her. I keep thinking of her as I work through the script even though the stage musical is different from the movie. If I could only do what she does … alas, no one can.”
This is the first time “Sister Act” is being done at Beef & Boards. Director Doug Stark, who also has a small role in the show as the Monsignor, says the show transcends to the stage very well.
“Some of the people who know only the movie will be very pleased with how this looks on stage,” said Stark, Suzanne’s former husband. “The flavor is exactly the same, and the characters are very close to the same.”
However, the stage production uses music differently than the movie did. Songs in the movie don’t replace dialogue the way they do in the stage musical where the numbers move the plot along. Some of the songs are used to illustrate character purpose, struggle or thought process, and often result in action or are the action itself. The joyous, movie-ending “I Will Follow Him” isn’t in the stage version, but Doug Stark said there are some very high octane numbers that will replace it.”
Heading the cast of nuns and playing Sister Mary Clarence is Zuri Washington, who stood out among the 200 Doug auditioned in New York. Washington recently starred in the national tour of “Memphis, the Musical” as Felicia. Other credits include “Bring It On: The Musical,” “Rent,” “M33” and Jim Steinman’s “Bat Out of Hell.”
“This young lady just knocked my socks off,” said Doug Stark. “She’s just part of a great group of nuns who are going to rock the house and bring the walls down.”
Sister Act
When: Feb. 11 through March 26
Where: Beef & Boards Dinner Theatre, 9301 Michigan Road, Indianapolis
Tickets: $41-$66, including dinner, 872-9664, www.beefandboards.com
