(L to R) Wade McCollum as Mitzi, Scott Willis as Bernadette and Bryan West as Felicia in the number “I Love the Nightlife”
PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT the musical: Book by Stephan Elliot & Allan Scott based on the Latent Image/Specific Films Motion Picture The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert. Directed by Simon Phillips.(Based upon the Original New York Direction by David Hyslop).SHN Orpheum Theatre, 1192 Market Street (at 8th) San Francisco, CA 94102.Call (888) 746-1799or www.shnsf.com.
August 21 – 31, 2013
PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT the musical a smash hit at SHN Orpheum Theatre.
Priscilla, Queen of the Desert the musical based on the 1994 movie The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert arrived in San Francisco last night, rocking the rafters at the SHN Orpheum Theatre and earning a standing ovation. The entire show is an extravagant theatrical event that should not be missed. There is no need to have seen the original movie since this production takes the basic story and surrounds it with fantastic costumes, technical effects, non-stop choreography and a stellar cast creating a memorable evening.
The ‘Priscilla, Queen of the Desert’ of the title is an aging bus that takes two drag queens Tick/Mitzi (Wade McCollum), Adam/Felicia (Bryan West) and Bernadette (Scott Willis) an aging transsexual on an unforgettable journey from Sydney across the inland Australia desert to Alice Springs. The red curtain has a cartoonish outline of Australia with a dotted line starting at Sydney circuitously crossing the inland and ending at Alice Springs.
Before the story begins three gorgeously dressed divas (Emily Afton, Bre Jackson, Brit West) are suspended above the stage to do their singing (“It’s Raining Men”) while Mitzi is performing on stage and when he leaves to take a call from Marion, opportunist Miss Understanding (spindly legged, Nik Alexzander) steals the stage (“What’s Love Got to do with It?”) going through an impossible series of dance contortions to start out the hilarious comedy.
Tick, because of his homosexuality is separated from has a wife Marion (Christy Faber) and their eight year old son Benji (Shane Davis or Will B) who live in Alice Springs. Marion runs a gambling Casino. She needs an act to fill an empty slot in the entertainment schedule and calls in a favor from Tick to bring his show to Alice Springs and re-unite with his son. Tick entices flippantly gay, over-the-top Adam and former lip-sync drag queen Bernadette to accompany him and the journey begins (“Go West”) Itis a hoot and a howl with more than a bit of pathos thrown in.
The pathos involves the question of what will be Benji’s reaction when he discovers Tick’s true nature and his life as a homosexual entertainer. Then too, Australians may be a tolerant lot but homophobia is rampant in the Outback and in the Middle of Nowhere the bus is desecrated with graffiti. This doesn’t faze the intrepid Felicia who undertakes to paint Priscilla pink and add a huge slipper to the top of the bus. Would you believe that Tim Chappel & Lizzy Gardner have created costumes for the ensemble resembling huge paint brushes as they cavort about. From this point on the lighting effects become unbelievable as the entire bus becomes an ever-changing plethora of neon light. To inaugurate the new slipper addition to Priscilla there is a lip-sync opera aria “Sempre Libera” that Felicia performs with the Divas again descending from on high with the ensemble kicking up their heels surrounding the bus.
Along the way to Alice Springs, the bus breaks down and local Aussie Bob (Joe Hart) comes to the rescue. Sadly for him he has a young wife Shirley (Babs Rubenstein) who likes her drink and has ambitions to be a performer (“I Love the Night Life”). She has an act involving ping-pong balls that has the audience in hysterics. Love blossoms between Bernadette and Bob and you can figure out the rest of the story.
The entire show is non-stop entertainment with lip-sync songs interspersed with the fine natural voices of the cast and exhausting dancing (choreography by Ross Coleman recreated by Joshua Buscher). The costume designers won an Olivier Award in London and a Tony Awards on Broadway for their imaginative costumes.
Not being satisfied that the audience is sated with their most entertaining show, the ‘curtain-call’ is practically a summary of the action and songs that had graced the stage for nigh onto two hours (excluding intermission). Get you tickets now even though this reviewer suspects it will be back.
[PR Notes: The Broadway show used 175 tubes of lipstick, 75 pots of eye shadow, 2 pounds of glitter each month and there are 500 costumes, 150 pairs of shoes, 200 hats and headdresses. They needed 12 rolls of packing tape per week to remove glitter from lips!!)
Kedar Adour, MD
Courtesy of www.theatreworldinternetmagazine.com
