Priscilla Queen of the Desert

Last Friday night we looked forward to a fun night of disco anthems! And we got it!! Your audience where ready and waiting for you and they were there with you all the way to the end. From the first wonderful song by three very accomplished ‘Divas’ (Leanne Hardy-Wall, Grace Newton and Mariah Young) we were in for perfect interludes from these three ladies and they didn’t falter once to give powerful performances.

The film of Priscilla released in 1994, now a stage musical, as the Australians turned it into a musical in 2006 and it was produced in the West End in 2009 and later on Broadway in 2011. It is still having success in community theatre all over the country, I myself have been in it. So, I knew what was going on up there, with those costumes (Triple C Costumes) - fabulous. Well done to Linda McCann for securing this and the endless job for you and your dressers, very slick indeed.

Cheryl Marksford directing sure knows how to direct this camp frolic, and it couldn’t have been in any better hands than Cheryl’s, her cast choice was great. The story of Priscilla is a celebration of drag, camp and friendship. We follow three friends (two drags and a transgender woman) that take a journey across the Australian outback. As they ‘Go West’ they face tolerance and acceptance but also prejudice and bigoted behaviour .As well as a lot of make-up, outrageous costumes and some fabulous dancing, choregraphed by Courttney Jones, the message shone through the entire show.

Tick (played by Matt Clayton) planned to travel across Australia to finally meet his wife and son. With friend and fellow Drag Queen Felicia (Paul Tracy) and Transgender woman Bernadette (Peter Barnett), they plan to put on an amazing show. These three worked well together, and gave solid performances, perhaps a little less to the audience from Adam/Felicia but all in all, as I said, solid. Little did they know that their pink bus (named Priscilla) will take them on a journey that had the audience singing standing and laughing and also crying at one point. This being the scene between Tick and Benji (Coby Lucas). Coby is a talented young man both in acting and song. Well done. This heart-warming tale had the most fabulous costumes. The set was clever, with a bus that was turned so the audience could see the outside and inside. The story was serious at times, at one point the trio meet some homophobic locals that graffitied their bus. Classic songs such as ‘It’s Raining Men’ and ‘Hot Stuff’ plus some pretty vulgar jokes (all taken in good spirits) keep the audience laughing! The supporting players Chris Perkins (Bob), Charlie Ellen(Marion), Louise Dekker (Shirley) and many more made this Priscilla an exciting piece of musical theatre. The whole cast gave us a great show with some fantastic singers and Musical Direction from Jacqueline Frances and her band of four, from the three Divas and period dancing from the ensemble. Congratulations go out to you all for a great evening at Priscilla Queen of the Desert.

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