Prologue Lyrics - Sister Act The Musical

Song Overview

Sister Act Prologue is the curtain-lifter of the West End musical Sister Act, voiced here by Sheila Hancock as Mother Superior on the Original London Cast Recording. It’s brief, almost a sung prayer, but it establishes the stakes: a struggling convent, dwindling parishioners, and a plea for mercy. The track appears on the UK album released in 2009 and later on the US edition from Ghostlight Records in 2011.

Review and Highlights

As openers go, this one whispers instead of shouts. Hancock’s Mother Superior carries a measured, almost liturgical delivery over sustained, church-tinged underscoring - the calm before the disco-flecked, Menken-sized storm that follows. In less than a minute, the piece sketches the convent’s dire finances, thinning ranks, and shrinking congregation. Then the record kicks into Take Me To Heaven and the show’s groove arrives.

Creation History

Composer Alan Menken and lyricist Glenn Slater built Sister Act for the stage after the 1992 film’s success. The London production opened at the Palladium on June 2, 2009, with Hancock as Mother Superior and Patina Miller as Deloris. The cast album initially surfaced in the UK in 2009, then received a wider US release via Ghostlight in March 2011.

Song Meaning and Annotations

Plot

The Prologue is a short petition. Mother Superior addresses God directly, naming the convent’s problems and asking for deliverance. Dramaturgically, it plants the seed that salvation might arrive in an unexpected form - cue Deloris’s entrance in the next number, upending the cloister’s routines.

Song Meaning

It frames the show as a story about community repair. The prayer catalogs concrete issues - money, attendance, membership - yet the emotional subtext is leadership strain. The message: faith asks for help, but change will still require action. The mood sits devout and slightly anxious; the context is pre-transformation, right before Menken’s 70s-inflected palette takes over.

Annotations

“Sister Act starts with Mother Superior praying for her church to gain more sisters (nuns) and to somehow raise the money to not close the doors of the church.”

Style and rhythm

Unlike the show’s later dance cuts, this opener leans recitative: sustained organ-tinged chords, minimal movement, speechlike phrasing. It acts as a tonal foyer before the album’s bright funk-disco hybrids.

Emotional arc

It starts stoic, almost administrative in its list of woes, then softens into supplication. That arc sets up the friction between tradition (Mother Superior’s order) and renewal (Deloris’s sound).

Cultural touchpoints

The number nods to Catholic liturgy as theatrical device, then hands the space to a 1970s club vocabulary - a staged echo of the 1992 film’s sacred-meets-secular joke, now re-scored for West End scale.

Text details

“[MOTHER SUPERIOR] Blessed Father, our convent is in need... Where, dear Lord, oh where is our salvation?”

Key Facts

• Artist: Sheila Hancock (as Mother Superior)
• Composer: Alan Menken
• Lyricist: Glenn Slater
• Release Date: June 27, 2009 (UK album); March 22, 2011 digital US release
• Album: Sister Act: A Divine Musical Comedy (Original London Cast Recording)
• Label: Stage Entertainment UK Ltd. (2009 UK); Ghostlight Records/Sh-K-Boom (2011 US)
• Producers (record): Alan Menken, Doug Besterman, Michael Kosarin
• Genre: Musical theatre; liturgical-intro leading to 70s-influenced pop/funk palette
• Length: 0:23 (cast album track)
• Language: English
• Music style: Recitative-style prayer over sustained harmonic bed
• Context: West End original production, London Palladium (opened June 2, 2009)
• © Copyrights: 2009 Stage Entertainment UK Ltd.; 2011 Ghostlight Records editions

Questions and Answers

Why open with a prayer rather than a splashy chorus?

To establish moral and financial stakes cleanly, and to give Deloris’s first song a sharper contrast when it lands.

Is the Prologue identical in all productions?

No. The London version flows into Act I differently than Broadway, where Mother Superior later gains the solo “Haven’t Got a Prayer,” shifting some structural weight away from the reprise in London.

Does this track chart on its own?

Individual tracks did not chart, but the UK Original London Cast album entered the Official Charts in August 2009.

Where can I hear the recording legally?

It’s on major platforms (Apple Music, Spotify) and library services carrying the Ghostlight edition.

How does it connect back to the 1992 film?

Thematically: sacred community revitalized by secular sound. The musical retools that premise with new Menken/Slater songs.

Awards and Chart Positions

Awards/Nominations: Sheila Hancock received an Olivier Award nomination in 2010 for her performance as Mother Superior.

Album charts (UK): Sister Act - Original London Cast peaked at no. 99 on the Official Physical Albums Chart and no. 8 on the Official Independent Albums Chart in August 2009.

How to Sing Sister Act Prologue

Vocal range & placement: Low-to-mid mezzo speaking pitch, sitting around comfortable speech-level tones. Keep resonance forward but unforced.

Issues to watch: Diction over sustain - the text carries the scene; avoid over-vibrato. Support the longer lines with quiet, low breath, then release the ends of phrases without sagging pitch.

Tempo & feel: Andante prayer - don’t rush; allow tiny silences after problem statements so the “petition” reads.

Acting notes: Name specifics (falling attendance, repairs) as real burdens, not abstract theology. Let one flash of doubt color “where is our salvation?” before regaining poise.

Additional Info

The musical’s London premiere opened June 2, 2009, and the Prologue functions as a hinge into the Menken/Slater sound-world that mixes liturgical textures with 70s club language - a pivot the cast album preserves neatly.