Steve On Broadway (SOB)

Priscilla Opens Down Under

Priscilla Opens Down Under

One week ago today, the stage musical version of one of Australia's campiest films ever opened at Sydney's Star City Lyric Theatre. The creators of the new $4 million production of Priscilla Queen Of The Desert - The Musical reportedly have their sights set on London's West End, Broadway and even Las Vegas.

So how is its initial run faring with some critics?

According to the Manly Daily, it's a winner: "The much-loved and hugely successful film has been adapted into a musical and it is absolutely fabulous....[I]t is funny, moving, often confronting and definitely uplifting.The three leading ladies, Bernadette (played perfectly by Tony Sheldon), Mitzi/Tick (Jeremy Stanford) and Felicia/Adam (Daniel Scott) are wonderful and remain true to the characters in the film....The show is enhanced with some real Australian talent in Michael Caton, who is brilliant as the under-stated Bob....But it was Geneviève Lemon who almost stole the show with her hyped up version of a Broken Hill pub owner named Shirley."

Noting the show's promise, Bryce Hallett of the Sydney Morning Herald writes: "Director Simon Phillips' bold, exuberant and colourful production celebrates the film's spirit of defiance. Though thin on plot, it is big on scene-stealing costumes and the pluck of the drag trio Bernadette, Tick/Mitzi and Adam/Felicia as they travel into Australia's vast interior....Priscilla is as much a showroom extravaganza as it is a musical....Priscilla needs further development but it's good fun and magical in its crowning moments. It has the makings of a hit."

The Australian's Deborah Jones is less enthusiastic, saying: "In Priscilla what's lost -- not completely, but in large measure -- is the complex texture of characters and relationships that give the film its heart and soften and accommodate its crude edges....This picaresque journey is now accompanied by one of the many pop and disco songs that have been cleverly selected so they have some passing relevance to the plot even if they're too lightweight (well, duh) to carry much narrative weight....Of the performers, only the peerless Tony Sheldon's transsexual Bernadette and Michael Caton as her rough-hewn and unexpected admirer consistently break through the cartoony surface."

Even Variety has weighed in on the show, with Michaela Boland rendering a mixed verdict saying Priscilla "...is much like a preening drag queen: brash, glittering and a towering achievement, but upon close inspection her bones are not as fine as might be expected....But the celebration of camp Australia that was fresh and contemporary in 1994 is somewhat passé in 2006, and the rich national flavor that will enchant local auds could limit the production's export potential."

Blogosphere buzz suggests the show is a winner with the audiences who have taken in this Priscilla. The current production is slated to run through November 26, although I've heard word from sources in Sydney that it may run longer.

This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).

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Related Stories:
Finally! Stage Musical Version of Priscilla - Queen of the Desert to Roll into Sydney (July 5, 2006)

Labels: Australia, Critics' Capsule, Film, Musical, Priscilla Queen Of The Desert

posted by Steve On Broadway (SOB) @ Saturday, October 14, 2006