Miller Plays Broadway Sister, UK Tour Opens Sep

Whatsonstage.com Award winner Patina Miller will reprise her role as disco diva Deloris van Cartier in the Broadway transfer of screen-to-stage musical Sister Act, which opens on 20 April 2011 (previews from 24 March) at New York’s Broadway Theatre. In the UK, where the original West End production finished at the London Palladium this past weekend (30 October 2010), producers have announced that the new touring version will launch from Manchester in September 2011.

The musical comedy premiered on 2 June 2009 (previews from 7 May) at the Palladium, where it has now made way for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s new production of The Wizard of Oz. Transplanted to 1970s Philadelphia, Sister Act tells the story of disco diva Deloris, who, after witnessing a murder and being put in protective police custody in a convent, brings some soul to the church choir, much to the initial consternation of the Mother Superior.

The musical has an original score by Alan Menken with lyrics by his long-time collaborator Glenn Slater. Patina Miller won the 2010 Whatsonstage.com Award, and was nominated for an Olivier, for Best Actress in a Musical for the part played in the original 1992 film by Whoopi Goldberg, who is co-producing the stage version and who made her West End debut this year stepping into the role of the Mother Superior (originated on stage by Sheila Hancock and played on screen by Maggie Smith) for a limited season.

No casting, venues or further dates have yet been announced for the UK tour.