MUSICAL THEATRE REVIEW: PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT: THE MUSICAL
26 Oct'10

JOHN COULBOURN - QMI Agency
Rating: 4.5 out of 5

TORONTO - There are eight buses a week out of this town -- and you should be aboard one of 'em. We're not talking the Red Rocket or even Greyhound, however.

We're talking a bus named Priscilla, also known as the Queen of the Desert, made famous in the hit movie that bore her name, as in PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT. Now, she's back on the road, playing in musical theatre form, at the Princess of Wales Theatre, where -- having conquered Australia and London's West End -- she launched herself Tuesday on the road to Broadway. The production sported enough glitz and feathers to re-upholster a decade worth of Pride Parades, and more six packs than your local beer store.

Adapted by Stephan Elliott (who wrote and directed the movie) and producer Allan Scott, PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT: THE MUSICAL is true to its roots in much the same way as the old Classic Comics were to the novels that inspired them -- which is to say, it hits all the high notes of the tale in a highly visual way. Anyone expecting nuance or subtlety should know to avoid drag shows, in much the same way they no doubt avoided Classic Comics.

Classic Comics, however, never came with soundtracks and it is the music in this particular jukebox musical that fans are almost certain to enjoy -- a medley of '80s hits from Madonna (Like a Virgin), Cindy Lauper (Girls Just Wanna Have Fun), The Weather Girls (It's Raining Men), Gloria Gaynor (I Will Survive) and Alicia Bridges (I Love the Night Life), with a bit of swing, a bit of opera and a bit of country thrown in for good measure. Some of it is lip-synched, performed by Jacqueline B. Arnold, Anastacia McClesky and Ashley Spencer and mimed by drag queens determined to make it their own, but a lot of it is actually sung as opposed to merely channelled.

For those unfamiliar with the turf, PRISCILLA tells the highly episodic story of three drag queens -- Bernadette, an aging transsexual played by Tony Sheldon; Tick, a reformed bisexual played by Will Swenson; and Adam, a young gay Lothario played by Nick Adams -- travelling across the Australian Outback to Alice Springs in the bus of title. At the end of their trip, there is a gig at the local casino, and a reunion between Tick and his young son, conceived, it seems, back in the days when his gate swung both ways.

Bernadette, for her part, is grieving the loss of a lover, while Adam has long had a fantasy involving a frock, a rock (in this case Uluru, formerly known as Ayers Rock) and a -- well, we'll leave the rest to your imagination. Along the way, the trio encounters and fabulously faces down a few demons, both personal and societal, with Priscilla playing inadvertent matchmaker when she breaks down and requires the ministrations of a courtly mechanic named Bob (C. David Johnson) who's about to make like a ping-pong ball and bounce right out of his marriage.

Under the direction of Simon Phillips, with choreography by Ross Coleman, this is the granddaddy of all drag shows, dressed up like its grandmammy, thanks to the costumes of Tim Chappel and Lizzy Gardiner, who in the main eschew the female impersonation of 'classic drag' in favour of a sort of performance androgyny. Reviewed here in preview, this is, not surprisingly, a show that delights in the outrageous and the flouting of convention -- but it also remains oddly chaste for all that, a nod perhaps to too tender middle class sensibilities that can ultimately make or break a musical like this.

All four of the principals thankfully prove to be very dab hands at fleshing out sketchy characters, supported by a hardworking ensemble featuring performers such as J. Elaine Marcos and Keala Settle, each of whom comes close to stealing the show with small but memorable turns.

Shiny as a zirconia sunburst, and deep as a dime, PRISCILLA turns theatrical convention into theatrical confection at every turn -- a show that gives you a good time but still makes you think you might want to take her home to meet mama anyway. Assuming, of course, that mama has a broad mind and a great sense of humour -- or a very good pacemaker.