STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

They’re making a joyful noise unto the Lord this weekend at the Community School Theatre.

Rocking nuns. Shimmying gangsters. All fodder for a match made in heaven as St. Thomas Playhouse presents the cathedral roof-raising musical comedy “Sister Act.”

The musical will be staged at 7 p.m. tonight through Saturday, June 23, at Community School Theatre.

It tells the story of aspiring disco diva Deloris Van Cartier who is forced to hide out in a convent after witnessing her gangster boyfriend commit a murder. There she finds a parish that has fallen on hard times.

Turns out they need her as much as she needs them.

She turns the tables on the Holy Order of the Little Sisters of Our Mother of Perpetual Faith, breathing fresh life into an order that had become set in its ways as she teaches them to groove against the backdrop of stained glass windows.

And the nuns, in turn, offer her a sisterhood she’s never had before while coaxing her to shake off her self-centered ways.

“The play, at its core, is about an exchange of energy between people who come from different worlds. They make a connection and Deloris teaches the nuns to be fun, as they teach her to be kind and humble and virtuous,” said Director Kevin Wade.

“It reminds us that while the world needs the church, the church needs the world, as well,” said the Rev. Ken Brannon, rector at St. Thomas Episcopal Church.

This musical is unusual in that it was based on the hit 1992 film of the same name, rather than the other way around.

But don’t expect to hear the numbers Whoopi Goldberg popularized in the film, including “Rescue Me,” “I Will Follow Him,” “Shout,” “Heat Wave” and “My Guy” turned into “My God.”

The play version features original Motown and disco-like tunes by songwriter Alan Menken and lyricist Glenn Slater.

“It’s fun music to play because it evokes Donna Summer, Kool and the Gang, all of them,” said pianist Dorinda Rendahl.

“It’s like relieving high school,” said drummer Michael Kelly.

“And you’ve got a Disney flavor from Alan Menken,” added keyboard Grant Carey.

The play features a cast of 20—fourteen of whom are dressed in nuns’ habits.

“It’s weird seeing all my friends in nun’s habits—you can’t recognize them,” added Sarah Feltman. “But it’s a fun story about how music can help connect you with other people and how people can come together and improve one another.”

Christina Gales-Brooks, a 19-year-old student at Bloomfield College in New Jersey, was recommended for the role of Deloris by Sun Valley’s Freddie Harris, who is teaching there.

“It was a big step of faith coming all the way across the states, but the tap water here is the best,” she said. “I’m not too fond of the pollen and cotton, though.”

Savina Barini plays Mother Superior; Annabel Webster, sister Mary Robert; Sarah Feltman, sister Mary Patrick; Spenser Pfau, sister Mary Lazarus; Sherri Egoavil, Sister Mary Martin-of-Tours, and Julia Ott, sister Mary Theresa.

Jon Tatterson plays Monsignor O’Hara and Ernie; Andrew Garratt, the gangster Curtis; Kagen Albright the police detective Eddie; Isaac Brannon, Sam Fauth and Wyatt Root, the gangster’s henchmen; Annabelle Lewis and Anik Zarkos play the nightclub dancers and nuns, while Lexi Black, Emma Desserault, Sophie Harder and Annabelle Lewis, Priya Merchant and Alaylia Norton fill out the rest of the nuns.

Lexi Black is making her first appearance with St. Thomas Playhouse since “West Side Story” several years ago.

“It’s fun because a lot of the girls in this were kids when I was here,” said Black, who went to a boarding school back east and is now studying world politics at Hamilton College in New York State. “Now they’re grown up. And I’ve seen the movie ‘Sister Act’ a bunch of times and loved it. It’s so comical and super entertaining.”

Tickets are $12 and $20, available at https://tickets.vendini.com and at the door.