Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

 

 

 

This rather deadening musical certainly seems to be doing the rounds at the moment, a testament perhaps to the popularity of its breezy charms and the seemingly timeless appeal of the choice of pop music accompaniment. Despite the twin horrors of this being a jukebox musical (shudder) and powered along by backing tracks (groan), X-Rays made a virtue of the show’s tawdry inconsequentiality by ramping up the feel good party atmosphere, giving the audience exactly what they seemed to want. This is a particularly demanding show from a technical and staging point of view and I think it is worth pointing out at this early stage in the show report that the society created all their own costumes: when you consider what a mammoth undertaking that is for a show such as this, Victoria Connolly should be praised to the skies for such an impressive feat. Decking out the entire cast in array of fancy, flouncy outfits (this show is pretty much one long series of costume changes, interrupted only very occasionally by the seemingly inconvenient necessity to have a bit of plot thrown at us) is a Herculean achievement. 

The show hangs its trawl through pop music’s back catalogue on our three heroes’/heroines’ trek into the outback on the titular bus. The X-Rays team obviously relished the chance to tackle this technically demanding show and the entire company really threw themselves into proceedings with a good deal of vim and vigour. I’m not altogether sure that the minimalist take on the scenery and staging really worked for every scene but taking pride of place on stage (as is only proper) was Priscilla herself, a lovingly crafted charabanc which looked the part magnificently. The need for frequent costume, hair and makeup changes were achieved very successfully indeed and most of the cast did a great job of playing multiple roles throughout the evening. As the show plods it’s weary way from one rather tediously repetitive scene after another, the ensemble at least  managed to suggest the benefits of whizzing things along sharpish before the audience could realise just how thinly written each stage of the theatrical bus journey actually was. The decision to treat the show as a kind of hen party entertainment or Sixth Form skit was a wise decision from the production team: clearly revelling in the ‘school disco’ atmosphere conjured up, the audience reaction spoke for itself.

The tale before us is that of Anthony ‘Tick’ Belrose and his mission to meet up with his estranged wife and son in Alice Springs, taking along a couple of pals - transgender Bernadette and up and coming young entertainer, Adam Whitely - with whom he can put on a drag show at his wife’s casino. Connal O’Reilly was a sympathetic Tick, providing very agreeable company for the evening: I found his down to earth approach to the character most welcome. Michael Haworth was a stately and dignified Bernadette, adding a touch of class to the role. If there were occasional flashes of Michael’s signature ‘panto dame’ in his characterisation, I’m sure the Bacup audience was more than forgiving! This was a polished and witty reading of the character and Michael’s confident performance helped to act as very much the guiding hand for his two travelling companions. Rounding off our trio of gender-bending entertainers, Grant Bromley’s brought a much harder edge to Adam Whitely than I was expecting which was all the more welcome as I felt that such a treatment worked in his favour. Grant managed to express the combination of the character’s mixture of  arrogance and vulnerability very well indeed. 

Although our central threesome take centre stage for much of the evening, another important triumvirate play a vital role in moving the action along in the form of The Divas. Jess Dillon, Jade Harman and Jess Callan did a superb job of sharing the singing duties and impressed in a number of vocal displays. There were more than a few eye catching little cameos to be had in this production: Joel Brown was a most amusing Miss Understanding (amongst other roles); David Rhodes brought an inner life and a spark to Bob, the helpful mechanic; Eileen Melling really threw herself into the role of Shirley and the tireless Victoria Connolly was - almost literally - a riot as Cynthia. Lori-Mae Hooley brought a calm and reassuring presence to the stage as Marion and Zack Rishton was an assured presence as young Benji. Tick’s son Benji is never an easy character to play well as he is not much more than a cipher to give the show something approaching a happy ending, so full marks go to Zack for putting flesh on the bones of this particular character. 

The two standout performances of the evening for me came from two performers of whom we shall hopefully see much more of on stage in future. Tom Connolly’s appearance as a youthful basso profundo priest gave way in Act Two to a marvellous routine as the youthful Bernadette in a spellbinding flashback. In the same vein, Ric Ormerod’s every appearance on stage was a sheer joy: here was a one-man Bananarama pop video made flesh with Ric really throwing himself body and soul into every second of the evening. This pair of stellar performances highlighted   something of the dichotomy with regard to the unequal overall tone of the treatment of some of the show’s more important thematic content for me however... I felt that on occasion, some of the performances were a little too insincere and that there was a sense abroad onstage of finding the whole affair a rather vapid and ridiculous journey through pop music’s camp back catalogue. Worse than that, I felt that there were times when certain members of the cast found the whole enterprise something it was hard to disguise from sneering at: Tom and Ric brought that unfortunate atmosphere into sharp relief as both of their performances seemed to much more effectively capture the true mood of the piece than the general mood on stage would sometimes suggest. However, having said that it would be great to see more from Tom and Ric in future, had we seen any more of Ric on stage in this show, he would probably have been arrested!

Although I’m no fan of backing tracks being used in a live stage show, I have to admit that X-Rays obviously chose them well. Sound quality, vocal work and the musical standard generally were of a high standard across the board. Staging and blocking was thoughtful and effective and Jenny-May O’Reilly had obviously given careful thought to her production, with Millie Hall’s choreography using the large stage at the Royal Court Theatre very well. I did feel with regard to scenery and props that the fine line between ‘minimalist’ and ‘bare’ may have been crossed now and again (something of a vague hint that the finale was taking place on Ayer’s Rock would have been nice for example) but on the whole, the technical standard was very high and I was particularly taken with the fruit machines which doubled as dressing room mirrors: this was a very clever touch indeed. Those tricky Australian accents were, for the most part, well maintained (there was only the occasional drift into some hitherto unknown land somewhere between Swansea and Belfast) and overall, the sense of fun and lighthearted musical mayhem carried the day.

This is a show which seems to revel in its own frilly inconsequentiality but which has a thing or two to say which is worth saying hidden beneath all the fluff and feathers. This production may have concentrated on the ‘out and out entertainment’ side of the equation but it was none the worse for that and a packed auditorium of cheering fans had a great night out as a result. Each musical number was expertly performed and the whole show bounced along like a neon kangaroo. I look forward to the next offering from this talented society and my thanks go to all at X-Rays for making my first ‘official’ NODA visit such a warm and welcoming one. 

 

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