If you're a fan of the film 'The Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert', the stage incarnation will most likely impress you greatly. If this is a new experience for you all together... Be prepared for a true feast for the senses.
Something I noticed quite quickly is that set design throughout this show is relatively simple but this is fine. More than fine, in fact, when you consider the extravagant drag queens inhabiting the stage from start to finish. Casting is impeccable... Tony Sheldon (Bernadette), David Harris (Tick) and Euan Doidge (Felicia) are picture-perfect as the three main characters and the iconic Ray Meagher (Alf flamin' Stewart!) is simply gorgeous as Bob... His treatment of the two queens and transgender woman Bernadette is beautiful. The music and costumes in this show are essentially part of the cast. They tell parts of the story that a script cannot, which is impressive and a credit to the people behind-the-scenes who put this together. To use one example, the lyrics of 'MacArthur Park' by Richard Harris (“someone left the cake out in the rain”) are used hilariously literally in one scene and 'Colour My World' by Petula Clark serves the same purpose at another point, where giant dancing paintbrushes crowd the stage in one of many camp, vibrant musical explosions that fill out this wonderful production.
Oliver De Los Santos deserves his own paragraph here. Playing Tick's son Benji, the little time he spends on stage is enough to melt even the coldest of hearts. It's a small insight into the simple mind of a child who has much more important things to worry about than his dad being a drag queen, and Oliver communicates this with an impressively high level of professionalism.
'Priscilla''s ensemble cast members are all credits to the final product, too. Too often it's quite easy to feel as though an ensemble has melted into the background of a show; become part of the furniture. But not here. They all shine thanks to the huge setlist of musical numbers and the boundless imagination of 'Priscilla''s costuming. Instead of focusing on who is front and centre, you're almost forced to visually explore the stage, and when you do you'll likely find things that genuinely make you question the hours, days and weeks put into crafting all the elements that bring this story to life.
Whether you're grooving along to the beat of songs like 'Finally', 'I Love The Nightlife' or 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun' or you're marvelling at the multi-dimensional storyline, 'Priscilla Queen Of The Desert The Musical' doesn't hold back when it's introducing itself. Instead it invites you in, drapes a feather boa around your neck and soon enough you can't help but be swept away on a journey of self-discovery, friendship and fun.
★★★★★
