TribLIVE: What goes on beneath the habit and within convent walls has long fascinated fans of literature and drama.
In the 14th century, Chaucer included two nuns among his band of story-telling pilgrims in “The Canterbury Tales.”
Seven centuries later, they remain a subject of fascination and fantasy as TV audiences tune in to see what's going on with Sister Jude and Sister Mary Eunice in the recently concluded dark and often disturbing FX series “American Horror Story: Asylum.”
6 comments:
I think this musical is a successful example of taking a well known theme and putting some pretty funky (in a good way) twists on a story. I personally have never seen the show, but I have only heard great things. The nun theme is commonly put in many contexts for example, The Blues Brothers, The Three Stooges, as well as a myriad of horror movies. Ive also seen off off Broadway shows with nuns, taking place on a convent. I think it is really cool that Sister Act is able to still able to engage an audience with such a widely used theme.
I agree with Simone this is an example how something well know can always take a new spin on things. I personally am a huge fan of Whoopi Goldberg as well as the Sister Act series. I have not seen the show but will definitely be very interested in seeing the show. I think the problem with taking something from a film or anything for that matter is a thing that is hard to live up to. I find nuns always able to find a place in shows as well but I think it's an interesting way to give perspective to theatre.
I never really though about how often nuns were in our media. Along with Sister Act and american horror story, there is also the sound of music and parts of pushing daisies, the blues brothers (as simone noted). Even our school added to the nun theme with Scraton Siren. I'm glad sister act is doing well, but I am curious as to why Nun's are such a big theme since many people never even come into contact with them. I also wonder if peoples interest in the theme might start to petter off as nun's become less noticed in society?
Anybody interested by the choice to move the Sister Act story from Reno and San Francisco in the 90s to Philly in the 70s? I haven't seen the movie of Sister Act, but the move seems to be motivated largely by the ability to provide some musical context by infusing the disco and R&B musical styles into the story. For someone unfamiliar with the story but seeing the show this past week, latching into those preconceived notions of Philly in disco time helped me to draw a distinction between the convent and the outside world and really showed aurally Deloris' impact on the nuns. Would someone more familiar with the movie provide some context with how the 90s impacts the storytelling, in what ostensibly could take place at any time period with a difference between the loose morals of the outside world and the church?
It didn't occur to me before but nuns do make quite an appearance in the media. I guess they make an easy gimmick for things. I think most people don't know that much about them beyond what we see in movies. A quick search finds that some of the stereotypes we might believe to be true are completely wrong. Such as nuns always being in full habit all the time. I also bet the nun leader always being mean is probably not all the accurate. On a different note this musical looks pretty funny and I'm certainly a fan of such genres of music. I hope its run continues to be successful
I had the pleasure of seeing this show on Broadway with Patina Miller about a year ago when I interviewed at Unifieds. It is definitely true that this show was eye popping and a lot of fun to watch. I definitely didn't think about the time period change, but now that I know it is definitely more clear to me and I love it more for that. I like how they took the original story and changed some of the concepts and made it fit. This seems like the kind of show that could be manipulated to many time periods. Also, when looking at nuns, I think it is really interesting to see how they are portrayed in all of these popular social interactions, such as broadway and television. Each perspective of them brings something new to the table that may not have been inspected before and that is what I find really really cool
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