She is supposed to be silent, humble and naive before Deloris comes to the church. Then she changes as seen/heard in "Life I never led" which is her song that really describes it best. But the change is continuous throughout the whole story and "Life I never led" is the breaking point for herself - she realizes that she wants to live her life differently. In that song she becomes self-confident and realizes it is her who should decide how she should live her life. "Life I never led reprise" (seen in this video at 0:59 - 1:59) just confirms this change as she stands up and opposes Mother Superior because of her own belief of doing the right thing. If she hadn't changed she would just silently stand in the choir leaving her thoughts and feelings for herself. For me this musical is about Mary Robert - she is the main character of the story for me. I'm glad they gave her so much space in the musical - more than in the movie. And Marla Mindelle? Apart of the truly amazing vocals... I believe her - she IS Mary Robert. What a shame I couldn't see her live at Broadway.
Nah in the show it was never in the script, they added it in the soundtrack so the song actually had an ending, same as take me to heaven in the club (in the show Curtis interrupts the song randomly but in the recording it has an actual ending) and trust me Mary Robert has the range alright, that top note is nowhere near the highest note she has to sing, listen to raise your voice or Sunday morning fever and you'll see. Also no hate but this is Broadway, they don't cut things for actors benefit, if it's in the script they have to do it 99% of the time, if the actress couldn't maybe she'd opt down or something but they simply wouldn't hire someone who wasn't vocally capable of playing the role.
