Priscilla Queen of the Desert is on at The Civic in Auckland until October 4.
Priscilla Queen of the Desert: The Musical
The show opens with three divas descending from the heavens, lowered on wires from high above the stage. When they stop, they are still high enough that a fall would be catastrophic, and there they remain for the duration of the opening number It’s Raining Men, which they not only sing brilliantly, but also dance to, hilariously.
It’s an incredible feat, given they are presumably strapped into restrictive harnesses somewhere beneath their big, fabulous costumes. Your first thought is, “I can’t believe they’re going to perform an entire song from up there”, so you will be shocked, as I was, to discover they perform every one of their songs the same way.
It is an incredible feat of courage, control and physicality, and it really elevates the show, and if you find that pun painful, you definitely shouldn’t watch Priscilla, which is so chock full of double entendres you can barely handle it.
For It’s Raining Men, the ensemble appears on stage below the divas, dressed in Drizabones and Akubras, moving their hips in time to the music, then the chorus hits and they fling off their coats to reveal that underneath they’re wearing nothing but budgie smugglers adorned with the Aussie flag.
The choreography is wildly, hilariously sexual, full of grinding and body rolls and elaborate floor work, and the whole number sets the stage for a show that is an onslaught of outrageousness and excess.
Narratively, the show hews tightly to the structure of the hit movie on which it’s based, which is now 31 years old. It tells the story of two drag queens and a transgender woman travelling across Australia in a bus (Priscilla) performing for a variety of crowds and bigots, encountering love and hate, and doing an enormous amount of singing and performing.
The three central characters, played by Andrew Allemora (Tick/Mitzi), Jason Parker (Adam/Felicia) and Nick Hall (Bernadette) are all excellent. Hall, also known as drag queen Anita Wigl’it, was a star in the first season of Ru Paul’s Drag Race Down Under, where he won the title of Miss Congeniality, but this show is his introduction to acting. It does not show.
Bernadette is not an easy role: she’s a complex character, far more so than the outrageous Felicia and straight man Mitzi, embodying strength, anger, sadness, disappointment and grief as well as fabulousness. Hall does it all brilliantly and he’s funny too.
For the audience, the show is immersive from the moment you take your seats. Drag queens wander through the theatre working the crowd, and a hen party takes place in one of the boxes. You’re part of the story, which is apt, since this is a show about inclusion.
It’s also a celebration – a big, opulent, wild dress-up extravaganza in which the sheer quantity of costuming is as overwhelming as its excess. Big ballooning gowns and pants, wigs and shoes in colour combinations that will make your eyes water. One costume was so large that when its wearer walked on stage, I thought it was one person sitting on another’s shoulders. You’re unlikely to see another show that has invested so much of its budget into its costumes. Truly, they are characters on their own.
The show is not relentless pop anthems, extravagance and joy, of course. It does not shy away from the bigotry and hate shown in the movie and does not pretend that it is gone, 31 years later. But its thematic centre is love and friendship, not just between the three main characters, but in their outside relationships as well.
The show’s emotional climax takes place when Tick is reunited with his 8-year-old son and together they sing the Elvis Presley hit Always on My Mind, while sitting on a racing-car bed on an otherwise unadorned stage. It’s a deeply moving moment and is followed directly by the cathartic final banger We Belong. By that time, you will be on your feet, clapping and dancing and believing it’s true.
Priscilla Queen of the Desert: The Musical is on at The Civic in Auckland until October 4.
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