Review – Priscilla – Congress Theatre, Eastbourne

 

Although the original 1994 film, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, may have been a low budget affair, rest assured that there is nothing low budget about the stage musical version. With 500 costumes, 200 hats, 100 wigs and 150 pair of shoes together with a lifesize minibus and a whole host of disco mirror balls, Priscilla, the musical is a high budget, high camp, festival of drag queens and 80’s disco hits.

We know we are in for a treat as soon as the curtain opens when, singing Petula Clark’s mega-hit Downtown, three divas (Lisa-Marie Holmes, Laura Mansell and Catherine Mort) appear suspended high above the stage and, while they sing, Duncan James, as Tick, takes centre stage, strips to his pants and, within just a few seconds, reveals the most amazing transformation by turning to face the audience in full drag.

The producers of the show are obviously very aware of the audience that they are attracting to the show and, at every oppotunity, they give them exactly what they want, million selling songs like Go West, Hot Stuff, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun and Boogie Wonderland, stunning drag outfits, some wonderful comic one-liners and, of course, a group of stunningly handsome backing dancers (Richard Astbury, Peter Cumins, Martin Harding, Ricky Lee Loftus, Adam Lyons, Robin Mills and Craig Ryder) who seem more than happy to join in with the huge amounts of gratuitous semi-nudity in the production.

Of course, Priscilla, is not just a story about Australian drag queens on a bus, it also dips into the lives of each of the three main characters and, in a series of very poignant scenes, each one reveals just a little of the heartache, danger and sense of loss that, all too often, is par for the course for gay, bi and trans people all over the world.

Adam Bailey plays Adam, who spends almost all of the show as his superb drag persona, the unbelievably bitchy, Felicia. As “she” is always there with a witty retort or a flirty dance number, it makes the scene where he breaks down in tears after a gay-bashing incident, so much more effective, and he plays the part beautifully.

Despite her feisty outward appearance, transexual Bernadette, played by Simon Green, is barely holding herself together as she contends with a life that is full of loss, dashed hopes and seemingly unatainable dreams. As an ageing drag performer she comes out of retirement to join the boys on the bus for another chance to shine as a diva, and one last chance to look for some sort of happiness along the way. Green certainly makes this role his own and gives all he has to the more dramatic scenes that he gets to play.

Duncan James is quite simply a revelation as Tick / Mitzi. His crystal clear voice shines through in numbers like I Say a Little Prayer and Macarthur Park and, in the scene where Tick sings Always On My Mind to his estranged six year old son Benji (on opening night played just perfectly by Frankie Milward) the laughter that has permeated the entire performance turns to tears for many in the audience.

Priscilla, Queen of the Desert – the musical will never change the world, but that’s not what it’s there for. It’s there to show us that diversity is great and that we only get one life, so why not make it a wonderful, colourful, song-filled party!

*****              Five Stars

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