Priscilla Queen of the Desert

This is one of my favourite juke box musicals and it would take a pretty poor production to ruin it for me. Luckily this was an excellent production and I enjoyed it immensely.

This show presents a challenge on a number of levels for any group. The subject matter is not to everyone’s taste, the casting can be a challenge, and the bad language can put some people off, but everything is presented with such humour and good nature that it is very hard not to like the end result.

A further challenge of this piece is to explore the more subtle moments and to discover the tenderness and feeling beneath the brashness. It can be easy to fall into the trap of placing too much emphasis on the humour and turn the show into a sort of grotesque Pantomime.

Casting was very good indeed and I particularly enjoyed David Pappin’s performance as Tick /Mitzi. He resisted the call to be too camp and we saw the challenges this character has to face. He was at his best in the more sensitive scenes involving his son Benji (beautifully played by young Piran Wills). Ticks first meeting with Benji always produces a few tears with me and these scenes were very sensitively handled. Myles Le Blanque gave a wonderful performance as the infuriating Adam / Felicia. This is a character I always want to give a good slapping but once again we get to see more of the character and the challenges he faces and Myles captured this well. However for me the absolute star of the show was Sean Caunter who was very natural as the transsexual Bernadette, my favourite role in the show. Sean’s performance was simply superb. He retained just enough masculinity to make sure we didn’t forget this characters roots but was feminine enough to ensure we related to him as a woman. Sean had worked very hard on his performance, and as a performer who is often happy to play a cameo role, this was certainly the pinnacle of his local stage career so far.

These characters are on a journey and their challenges and the more sensitive scenes in the story are of course the central core of the show and to ignore this it to ignore the theme of the show which is to be yourself and follow your dreams.

The relationship between Bernadette and Bob was nicely handled and I liked Gary Abraham’s performance as Bob. My other favourite role in the show is that of Cynthia, Bobs Filipino wife who likes firing ping pong balls from errrr unusual places. This role was played with glee by Harriet Loveridge.

Linking everything together are the three divas, played with relish by Rachel Lake, Jo Button, and Theresa Pappin. Their vocals were superb and their initial entrance through the auditorium was effective and got the show off to a good start as they threw ping pong balls into the audience.

This is a show where you can see another side to local performers and it was a delight to see Peter Fletcher in a tutu at the funeral of Trumpet and in all his/her glorious show girl attire as young Bernadette.

Staging and choreography were excellent and there was great pace. All roles were handled well with no weak links. The stage never looked crowded. My only small criticism was that some of the ensemble men looked a little uneasy with some of the choreography but this really was a small criticism as I know guest choreographer Elaine worked very hard with them.

Costumes can present a challenge in this show, especially if not much space side stage, but this was handled well and the Costumes looked great.

The first rate orchestra really supported the production and the singing of the principal cast was excellent and suited the pop nature of the piece. Thankfully the budget allowed for most of the cast to be miked so vocal balance in the well known numbers was good.

This was a great challenge well met by a clearly confident and well rehearsed company and it received a great and well deserved rapturous reception from the full house audience. This Noda Rep loved it so much that he went to see it for a second time.

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.