Lopez Blogs

As i mentioned yesterday, I had a lovely weekend away with Darren - the highlight of which (after seeing Simon and Mark of course) was catching the preview show of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (The Musical). It opened on Tuesday 10th March and thus is still in it's infancy, but is bloody marvelosity from start to blooming euphoric finish. We had great seats, front and centre. In fact the only annoying thing about the seats was the far too up herself woman behind who kept loudly proclaiming things like:

"Oh i love the gay homosexuals. Aren't they just so much fun" (Um, as a species?)
"Oh these seats are absolutely super aren't they? Oh well done me" (!!)
"Oh i saw Bros in a limo once when I lived in Olympia - or Limps as I called it - and I shouted 'oh f*** off Bros, I love Jason Donovan' No I did. I really did" (Oh great. one of those who thinks telling you where she lives makes her a more interesting person. Fact - it does not!)
"Oh remember when i saw a drag queen in Fiji. Super people" (Shoots self in ear)

!! Speechless!! Anyway, the musical is super fun (sorry!) and obviously based on the 1994 film of the same name and clearly the 2006 Sydney musical. The story features around 3 drag queens who journey across Australia to perform in a casino in Alice Springs and to be reunited with one of the characters (Tick) son. The musical is marginally more fleshed out with a clear outline of the loneliness their lives have bought and while it is generally hilarious from start to finish (it's jam packed with innuendo and visual gags), there are some moments of great pathos. I won't spoil it too much in case you are off to see it, but needless to say Jason Donovan as Tick did an outstanding job and the entire cast is excellent. Here are my highlights:

• The choreography in the show is brilliant from the start. The perky Downtown is played while punks, drug addicts, thugs and prostitutes menacingly walk around Jason Donovan's Tick. Also brilliantly menacing are the unfriendly pub regulars during Hot Stuff.
• Jason Donovan quite rightly strips down to his undies within about 2 minutes of being on stage. He is quite buff. As are the majority of the cast. Oliver Thornton (from theatre boyband Teatro fact fans) plays Felicia and has a stomach you could bounce lovewee of. He also looks disturbingly like Austin Drage at various parts of the play.
• While the 3 main characters mime along to various disco classics (see my cd review here), the Divas sing the real versions above their heads bestowing our heroines with music and song like gaydian angels. One of them is Zoe Birkett - back from pop purgatory after Treat Me Like A Lady! She is rather good.
• Tony Sheldon who plays Bernadette (both here and in Oz) is literally flawless from start to finish. Bought a real dignity and warmth to the character.
• The funeral scene during Don't Leave Me This Way is both amusing and sad. Plus you get to learn the real reason that Bernadette's boyfriend was called Trumpet (he has an enormous foreskin! So large he could fit it around a ginger biscuit! Oh my lord)
• The bus is a marvel - and as the cast sing Go West the audience are showered with ticker tape for a ridiculously long amount of time. They, quite rightly, go bonkers. Later the audience are showered with ping pong balls during the lovely Cynthia's artistic performance of Pop Muzik.
• It's not hard to go from humour to heartbreak without it feeling forced (surprisingly I think that Xena Warrior Princess was very skilled at accomplishing this - really!), but after a night on the town (to I love the nightlife), the gang get back to see their bus vandalised. Their gloriously harmonised rendition of Both Sides Now was haunting and lovely. It really made me want to smooth down the bed covers and dab my eyes :( (bonus points if you guess that reference)
• The story is changed a little to have Felicia want to sing a kylie medley in full drag on Ayre's Rock (prompting huge cheers for the famous line "a cock in a frock on a rock") and during one of the early 'on the bus' moments, Felica and Tick (JD) sing various Kylie songs and Tick confesses to fancying Scott from Neighbours. It gave me a certain thrill to have Jase singing The Locomotion :)
• The double whammy of Colour My World (where the bus gets painted pink right before your eyes) and I Will Survive (complete with aboriginal remix) are both deliciously endorphin making. Colour My World sees the ensemble come out dressed as paintbrushes while I Will Survive turns into a tourist romp with every stereotype under the sun (I was just waiting for an inuit to be perched over a blowhole waiting for some fish).
• Talking of "colour" my world, Jase the face wears an increasingly colourful array of jeans when he is out of drag that James Leon and his burgandy slacks would be jealous of. And a nifty line of footwear that Simon Curtis would kill for :)
• Because of the above bullet point, you often don't know where to look on the stage. There is so much going on alongside the little in jokes, the innuendos, the road signs, the dancers, the costumes, the teletubbies (really!) et al. Perhaps that is to force people like myself who are easily distracted by one thing to go again?!
• There is a lovely father son moment for Tick and um, the little boy (who is freaking adorable) whose name i forget right now. They do quite a nice medley of Always On My Mind and I Say A Little Prayer.
• The finale is party time. The theatre will make an absolute fortune on all those pink feather boas they were selling!! The ladies-who-go-with-gays -to-things loved them! And a medley of Finally, I love The Nightlife and I Will Survive (all with iconic costumes from the film) literally (and by literally i mean figuratively) bought the house down. I haven't felt that uplifted for ages. Must go again!

Only we booked to go and see Sister Act The Musical in May instead, but I'm sure that will be lovely too :)

OTHER THEATRE REVIEWS:

• Chess (May 2008)
• The Sound of Music (June 2007)
• Little Shop of Horrors (March 2007)
• Joseph and His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat (Mar 2007)
• Beauty and The Beast (Oct 2006)
• Dirty Dancing The Musical (Oct 2006)
• The History Boys (Sept 2006)
• Wicked (Sept 2006)