Fans of the 1994 Australian flick The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert can rejoice. A 2006 Australian stage adaptation, Priscilla Queen of the Desert—The Musical, is now a big, sold-out London hit at the Palace Theatre. ( Photo by Simon Annand. )
Yet for die-hard musical theater fans ( you know, uppity ones who hold Stephen Sondheim sacred ) , the arrival of Priscilla prompts this response: "No more f*@king jukebox musicals!"
Sorry to rain on Priscilla's big gay parade, but I'm one of those curmudgeons in the latter category. Much like the stage adaptation of Dirty Dancing ( another Australian jukebox musical export ) , too much effort has gone into slavishly duplicating key movie moments and recycling disco hits instead of making Priscilla its own original stage creature. This approach satisfies die-hard fans who quote regularly from the film, but it doesn't make a cohesive stage show.
Priscilla is in a tight bind, since all of the film's iconic drag costumes by the Academy Award-winning team of Tim Chappel and Lizzy Gardiner are expected to be seen ( I particularly awaited the appearance of the Sydney Opera House skirt combo ) . Chappel and Gardiner have magnificently re-imagined and expanded their designs for the musical, but the outlandish costume parade seems to take more precedence than the storytelling ( Allan Scott and original screenwriter/director Stephan Elliott are responsible for Priscilla's glib and flimsy book ) .
Take, for instance, the bit when the Guy Pearce character of Adam/Felicia operatically rides the Priscilla tour bus atop a giant high-heeled shoe. It's a stunning film visual, but on stage it adds nothing dramatically and halts the plot.
There are changes from the film ( Kylie Minogue songs replace ABBA numbers, probably due to Mamma Mia rights issues ) , but the additions don't always help the plot. The "Macarthur Park" green cupcake costumes are extremely clever, but that number proves pointless in the overall scheme of things.
At least Priscilla doesn't resort entirely to pre-recorded song tracks, since a trio of floating pop divas ( Zoë Birkett, Kate Gillespie and Emma Lindars in flying harnesses ) appear out of the ether to sing the songs that the drag queens lip-sync to ( an exception is Wezley Sebastian, who amazingly sings his own Tina Turner as Miss Understanding ) .
And there's no faulting Priscilla jaw-dropping stagecraft and the top-notch performers assembled by director Simon Phillips. Set-designer Brian Thomson's rotating realization of the bus, Priscilla, is a technical marvel, especially when it turns pink and other animated colors.
London's Priscilla also has a casting coup with Jason Donovan as Tick/Mitzi ( Kylie fanatics know Donovan as her one-time soap opera co-star and former boyfriend ) . Other strong work comes from Tony Sheldon as the mourning transgender artist Bernadette, Clive Carter as Bob, Bernadette's outback love interest and Oliver Thornton as the insolently young and beautiful Adam/Felicia.
On stage, Priscilla is a visually fun gay feast. But when compared to a far more original screen-to-stage show like Hairspray ( still playing in the West End ) , Priscilla pales with its cut-and-paste script and shoehorned pop hits.
There's no word yet if Priscilla is planning a North American transfer yet, so the place to catch the show is in London at the moment. The same goes for the amazing 2007 children's play War Horse, which unfortunately appears like it won't be transferring stateside anytime soon.
Based upon Michael Morpugro's children's novel, Nick Stafford's adaptation of War Horse tells the story of a boy named Albert who raises a magnificent horse, Joey. When World War I arrives, Joey gets sold into service, prompting Albert to join up so he can find his beloved horse.
War Horse's plot may sound corny, but the magnificent stage craft of directors Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris, especially in collaboration with South Africa's Handspring Puppet Company and production designer Rae Smith, reduced quite a few audience members to tears ( myself included ) .
While the acting company is near-perfection, it's the horses that stick in the memory. Manipulated by team of three puppeteers, the horses were amazingly lifelike and stunningly realized ( so much so that actors could even ride atop them ) .
You couldn't ask for a better show than War Horse to introduce children to the power of live theater. It also reignites the childhood imaginations of grown adults.
Despite War Horse's two sold-out holiday runs at the Royal National Theatre and its hit open-run transfer to the West End's New London Theatre, it probably won't see Broadway. The cast is so large and the theater requirements are so specific that it would be unlikely for a team of commercial producers to bring War Horse to the States ( unless the non-profit Lincoln Center Theater took the risk ) .
So if you do cross the pond anytime soon, make it point to see War Horse while it's still alive and kicking in London. Priscilla might need some more cosmetic surgery before it crosses the Atlantic, but the odds are that this big drag show will eventually make it in.
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