On Friday night the gang and I went to see Priscilla, Queen of the Desert at the Palace Theatre in London's glitzy West End.
The show is billed as an Australian 'musical' based on the film The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. I'd stay that this is only partly true - it's probably more of a drag show than a musical. But don't let that put you off. It's probably the best drag show I've ever seen - and I've seen a few.
The show's story follows that of the film fairly closely - three drag queens hop aboard a battered old bus (named Priscilla) and take their show to the middle of the Australian outback travelling from Sydney to Alice Springs (changing from Sydney to Alice, geddit?) They even end up on Ayes Rock in drag - "a frock with a cock on the rock" as they put it.
The three leads (Tony Sheldon, Jason Donovan and Oliver Thornton) give excellent performances as does the £1m scene-stealing bus, the 500 outrageous costumes (from the film’s Oscar-winning designers Tim Chappel and Lizzy Gardiner) and rest of the cast too.
The songs in the show are things like I Will Survive, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, Shake Your Groove Thing, Don’t Leave Me This Way, Finally... you get the picture, hen night stuff. Although pretty much all of the songs are sung live, there is some lip-syncing (a la drag stylee). Thankfully this lip-syncing itself is done to someone else singing live though (if that makes sense).
The script is pretty spot on; witty, bitchy and at times heart-warming.
Best line: We two are off to have drinks, darling. So if you feel the urge to join us... fight it!
Go see.
oh mr green how could you? How could you give your hard earned cash to support a jason donovan vehicle. The man is a homophobe who broke The face magazine in his desperate need to deny he could be gay. What is wrong with being gay and what was wrong with people thinking that? Donovan could have taken a stance and perhaps if he had, his career wouldnt be in the doldrums he is in now. He has even been caught in clubs in Birmingham telling people about what he and kylie got up to in bed. I think the sound of the musical sounds good but you should have waited till donovan left before seeing it. and woohoo btw - welcome back.
ReplyDeleteMore confessions I'm afraid. I still listen to Donna Summer (and Chris Moyles). Oh the shame.
ReplyDeleteah well - at least you admit to it.
ReplyDelete