Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

Question: how many directors/choreographers prefer the sort of scenario found mainly in older musicals whereby members of the chorus are kept safely out of the way in their dressing rooms whilst the principals spend time with dialogue or song (e.g. Higgins/Eliza in My Fair Lady, the 12 minute bench scene at the start of Carousel or those between Emile and Nellie in South Pacific)?  Or how many prefer a juke box musical such as this in which the only thing which prevents the chorus being in everything is the need to change costumes from time to time?  I expect the answer will depend on how much he/she enjoys a challenge.

I have no doubt that the director here prefers the demands of this latter category and has relished her task. The result was a collection of well-known songs all performed with great energy and exuberance. Even those which started with only a few of the cast soon seemed to involve almost everybody, often sporting some outrageous and colourful costumes.

There were some excellent cameo performances such as Carly Howarth as Shirley and Lauren Dickinson as Cynthia, whilst I enjoyed Dan Stanford’s portrayal of mechanic Bob, to whom falls the task to rescue not only Priscilla the bus but also Bernadette, a transgender woman on something of a journey.  Jack Moran as Miss Understanding gave the whole show a lively start and throughout the whole thing a trio of divas act as a sort of Greek (or maybe Aussie) chorus to lead several numbers. The voices of Kirsty O’Sullivan, Charlotte McCamley and Nicole Connor blended very well throughout their various contributions.

The plot concerns the adventures of two drag queens and the aforementioned transgender woman as they travel across the Australian desert from Sydney to Alice Springs.  Luke Wilby gave a fine performance as Adam/Felicia, the more confident and outspoken of the two queens, making a good contrast with the quieter, more mature Tick/Mitzi whose wish to be reunited with his son was the reason for the journey.  Ben Walton impressed in this role and his thoughtful rendition of the Burt Bacharach favourite “I say a little prayer”, coupled with a request from his estranged wife, Marion (Susannah Todd), left us in no doubt that he should certainly make the trip.  Clive Kirkham, although making his debut with this society, has considerable and varied stage experience, but his performance as the transgender Bernadette was quite outstanding.  He completely inhabited the role, so convincingly that I was almost asking myself “I thought Clive was taking this part so who’s this then?”        Lucas Macleod had to wait until late in act two before appearing as Benji, Tick’s son but the scene in which the two of them are re-united in a clever combination of a reprise of the Bacharach song with “Always on my mind” made all the troubles of the journey worthwhile.

Much of the appeal of this show comes from the sort of zany treatment it received here, especially when this is delivered at a pace seldom seen in amateur productions.  The music is familiar from a catalogue of music which goes back to the days of Fred Astaire (“A Fine Romance”) through Petula Clark (“Colour my world”) to Kylie Minogue (we’re in Australia, after all), although I see that even her material is almost 30 years old now.  The songs were well delivered, a task which the cast must have found relatively easy with the backing of   Jim Lunt’s excellent band. The stage crew managed scene changes with great expertise, especially in handling the bus and the frequent changes of those often extravagant costumes was another memorable feature.

After all those songs, the finale brought the audience to its feet in the sort of standing ovation which has become a regular feature these days but was entirely deserved here.                     

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