There’s fun, if not musical comedy heaven, to be found in Sister Act, the new Broadway musical adaptation of the hit 1992 movie starring Whoopi Goldberg. Featuring plenty of talent both on and off stage, the show boasts some terrific performances, an engaging ‘70s era-style soul-flavored score, and a few raucous laughs. But its relentlessly juvenile humor eventually proves more wearisome than soul lifting.

The book by veteran TV comedy writer Cheri and Bill Steinkellner (Cheers, The Jeffersons, Who’s the Boss?) and featuring “additional material” (read, more jokes) by Douglas Carter Beane hews closely to the film’s plotline about an African-American nightclub singer,  Deloris Van Cartier (Patina Miller), who witnesses a murder by her gangster boyfriend Curtis (Kingsley Leggs). To avoid their star witness being similarly dispatched before she can testify in court, the police sequester her in a convent populated by a gaggle of nuns led by a prim and proper Mother Superior (Victoria Clark).   

Much of the show’s all too predictable humor derives from the earthy Deloris’ shaking up the stodgy convent, in particular her transformation of its ramshackle choir into a roof-raising R&B singing group that electrifies the services and promises to restore the institution’s depleted finances.

For this musical version produced by Goldberg, a subplot has been added involving a burgeoning romance between Deloris and Eddie (Chester Gregory), the cop assigned to her case who turns out to have had a crush on her since high school.

Director Jerry Zaks has apparently punched up the show considerably since its London incarnation, and it certainly moves along at a zesty pace. And some of the musical numbers written by composer Alan Menken and lyricist Glenn Slater are indeed terrific. “Take Me to Heaven” is a rousing opener; “When I Find My Baby,” a love song that takes on sinister implications, is an amusing imitation of the Philly soul style; “I Could Be That Guy,” in which the nerdy Eddie discovers his inner lothario, benefits from Gregory’s charismatic singing and dancing and some dazzling quick costume changes; and the ballad “Haven’t Got a Prayer” is a fine showcase for Clark’s vocal talents.

Miller, a relative newcomer who received an Olivier nomination for her performance, is a real find, displaying estimable comic chops and a powerhouse singing voice as the sassy Deloris. Gregory, so wonderful as Jimmy Early in the recent revival of Dreamgirls, is winning as the lovestruck cop; Clark makes the most of her stock role as the conservative Mother Superior; and Leggs is both fearsome and funny as the revengeful hood.

But the talent extends even to the supporting roles, with solid comic turns by Fred Applegate as a beleaguered monsignor; John Treacy Egan, Caesar Samayoa and Demond Green as Curtis’ henchmen; and Marla Mindelle, Sarah Bolt and Audrie Neenan as a trio of nuns who fall under Deloris’ spell.

While the jokes miss as often as they hit (“You mean I gotta go incognegro?” asks Deloris in an example of the former), there are enough amusing one-liners to keep the evening flowing painlessly.

Much amusement is also provided by Lez Brotherston’s costumes, including the outlandishly gaudy, sequin-covered habits that the nuns sport in the stirring closing number “Spread the Love Around.”

Broadway Theatre, 1681 Broadway. 212-239-6200. www.Telecharge.com.