I am friends with Peter Filichia of The New Jersey Star Ledger and theatermania.com. I had lunch with him around Thanksgiving, and we discussed his views on SISTER ACT. I'm sorry to say I'm not encouraged by what I heard. First of all, they took the show out of present day and set it in the 1970's. Why? What's wrong with setting the musical in the here and now?
I floated this theory with Peter: They wanted to fit in as many self-referntial 1970's jokes in an obvious "Aren't we being clever?" manner that might insult an audience's intelligence. Peter said that I was right on the money.
Normally, I pay no heed to critics, but Peter's tastes and my tastes run pretty consistently. It's too bad, because I love Alan Menken's music in general. I think the book is going to torpedo this one.