Musicals can be a little camp, sometimes
intentionally, sometimes accidently. There’s certainly no doubting which side of the
yellow brick road Priscilla falls on though. The whole thing makes Julian Clary
look like Bear Grylls on steroids. There’s a plot of course – the everyday take
of a gay man’s trip across the outback in a knackered old bus to meet his son
for the first time – but it’s really just a shameless excuse to plunder disco’s
greatest hits. And what huge hits they are (oooooh errrr missus), kicking off
with a simply fabulous version of It’s Raining Men (I've made no secret of my lurve for this track over the years) performed by ‘The Three
Divas’ who descend from the rafters in the first of a series of gloriously OTT
frocks. That’s just for starters of course...Don’t Leave Me This Way, Venus, Go
West, I Love The Nightlife and I Will Survive all come out of the closet...and that's before before
the interval.
The story revolves around the show’s core trio, Tick
(Jason Donovan), Bernadette (Richard Grieve) and Felicia (Graham Weaver) and
whilst this isn’t the kind of night that’s necessarily overly concerned with character
development there’s enough in there to get a flavour of Tick’s struggles with
his sexuality and Bernadette’s transsexual transformation. Grieve makes a
particularly convincing post op and it’s easy to imagine that he/she does
indeed keep his/her manhood in a jar in his/her purse (ready to stuff down the
throat of younger rival Felicia). Donovan of course is by far the biggest name
in the show and given his well documented (and false) outing by The Face
magazine back in the 90s it’s particularly good to see him embracing his camper
side with such joyful abandon. It’s the quieter numbers that suit his voice the
best though and Act Two’s bedtime scene with son Benji featuring Always On My
Mind was one of the show’s more touching moments. Naturally there are a few
Donovan related lines scattered in there too with Tick mentioning a crush he
had on Scott (the character that Donovan played in Neighbours). Kylie’s in
there too of course with Felicia in particular worshipping at the temple of La
Minogue culminating in a suitably camp Confide In Me.
Vocally it’s actually The Three Divas (Emma
Kingston, Ellie Leah and Laura Mansall) that steal the show and their frequent
appearances always ramp up the party atmosphere a notch or two. There are a
number of fine star turns from the supporting case too with Francis Mayli
McCann bringing the house down with her Cynthia (the things that girl can do
with a ping pong ball...) and Ellie Leah (taking a break from being a Diva) as
the pendulously breasted Shirley.
Whilst the set’s basic but effective the producers
have wisely gone all out on the costumes, filling the stage with a retina
scorching burst of colour and glitz and it’s frankly impossible not to get
swept along with the whole thing. The main characters might’ve spent the show
in drag but the evening most certainly didn’t...
Priscilla
Queen of the Desert is at the New Alexandra Theatre until Saturday 30th
March.
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