PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT – The Musical
Isaac Theatre Royal, Christchurch
24/03/2017 - 08/04/2017
Production Details
500 costumes, 3 flying divas, 1 spectacular bus – Priscilla arrives in Christchurch
Priscilla, Queen of the Desert rolls into town on 24 March for what will be the first production in Showbiz Christchurch’s 2017 season. Utilising over 700 costumes, wigs and headdresses from the UK touring show, Showbiz’s production will be the first New Zealand theatre company staging of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.
The show opens at the Isaac Theatre Royal on 24 March until 8 April. Translating the iconic movie to a stage musical setting required significant changes by the authors of the film, Stephen Elliot and Allan Scott, and the musical’s writer and first director, Simon Phillips. The musical has evolved considerably since the first production left Australia eight years ago, there are now several stage versions, all different yet all preserving the audience focus on the show’s three unique characters and their personal and physical journey.
The show’s enormous success has seen versions staged from South Korea to Sao Paulo and in just about every language including French, Portuguese, Spanish, Greek and Swedish. Priscilla, Queen of the Desert is without doubt Australia’s most successful theatrical export.
The Showbiz version of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert directed by Stephen Robertson will be a new interpretation of the show using the costumes and script that recently toured the UK and was last staged in Auckland. The title role of Priscilla is not played by an actor but is instead a bus which is being built in Christchurch by Scenic Solutions – along with a myriad of other set pieces designed by Harold Moot, including a nightclub, a casino and two outback pubs. Priscilla is set to be a visual feast on stage, with another Christchurch business, Lightsite, designing the lighting effects which will transport the audience from an inner city Sydney flat into the wide open spaces of the Australian outback.
Robertson has cast Cameron Douglas in the principal role of transsexual Bernadette, the oldest in the trio. Douglas has enjoyed a busy career since graduating NASDA in 2002, including performing in over 20 musicals and as the lead singer and guitarist in NZ’s premiere skiffle rock and roll band, The Goldonies.
The two other lead roles will feature Isaac Pawson (Tick/Mitzi) and Tom Worthington (Adam/Felicia), both graduates of the National Academy of Singing and Dramatic Art (NASDA) who are carving out careers in musical theatre.
Providing many of the pumping disco hits that Priscilla has become synonymous for are the three flying Divas: Emily Burns, Naomi Ferguson and Jane Leonard accompanied by a rocking live band lead by New Zealand’s leading musical theatre maestro, Richard Marrett. Also joining the cast at the end of February will be Auckland actor Melinda Joe who will play Cynthia, a woman with some unique talents!
Garry McQuinn of RGM Productions, the shows lead producer, is immensely proud of this version of Priscilla which will be staged by Showbiz. “The show is in better shape in every way – including dramaturgically, scale, production-wise, book and music – than the version we took from Sydney in 2008,” says McQuinn. “It’s a production I’m proud of in every respect.”
At the heart of the story is a message of tolerance, diversity and anti-bigotry. Its producers are committed to seeing the bus journey continue for as long as possible – not only on the world’s largest stages but in regional theatres as well. “I am really delighted that Christchurch will host the first season of the show produced by a New Zealand theatre company,” says Showbiz Christchurch President, Di Brodie.
Priscilla, Queen of the Desert – The Musical
Isaac Theatre Royal 24 March – 8 April 2017
Web page: https://www.showbiz.org.nz/priscilla-queen-desert
Ticketek page: http://premier.ticketek.co.nz/shows/Show.aspx?sh=PRISCILL17
Cast:
• Bernadette: Cameron Douglas
• Tick/Mitzi: Isaac Pawson
• Adam/Felicia: Tom Worthington
• Diva 1: Emily Burns
• Diva 2: Jane Leonard
• Diva 3 & Shirley: Naomi Ferguson
• Cynthia: Melinda Joe
• Bob: Markham Lee
• Marion: Greta Casey-Solly
• Miss Understanding & Ensemble: Jeremy Hinman
• Young Bernadette & Ensemble: Olly Humphries:
• Benji: Ollie Bubb
• Ensemble: Craig Lough, Fergus Inder, Alistair Davies, Brett McPhail, Taylor Roche, Hayden Joseph Withers, Jenna Morris Williamson
Production Team:
• Director and Choreography: Stephen Robertson
• Musical Director: Richard Marrett
• Set Designer: Harold Moot
• Project Chair: Markham Lee
• Sound Designer: Ben Rentoul (BounceNZ)
• Lighting Designer: Grant Robertson (Light Site)
• Head Mechanist & Build Manager: David Bosworth (Light Site)
• Head Flyman: David Gill
• Set Builders: Scenic Solutions
• Stage Manager: Gavin Bailey
• Wardrobe Manager: Di Brodie
• Wigs & Make-Up Manager: Sarah Greenwood Buchanan
• Properties Manager: Catherina Hengst • Production Manager: Johnny Morris • Project Manager: Mandy Perry
• Production Secretary: Sue Beardsley, Nickie Wellbourn
• Repetiteur: Sam Jury
• Lighting Operator: Darren McKane
• Follow Spots: Scott Partridge, Erin Thorne
• Sound Operator: Glen Ruske
• Assistant Stage Managers: Chloe Ellis, Jenny Lyle
• Assistant Fly: Robert Van Der Water, Fiona Bennets, Jareth Paulsen
• Wardrobe Assistants: Violet Blay, Fiona Buckley, Annette Bunting, Linda Burr, Julie Collender, Allison Collins, Alan Collins, Jan Cosgrove, Avril Davies, Wendy Harris, Mary Kirby, Marie MacGibbon, Charlotte McNulty, Adrienne Montie, Vicki Morris-Williamson, Liann Scott, Marcelle Sherwood, Pam Stephens, Bernie Taylor, Gabby Whalls, Anne-Marie Gilmore, Bronwyn Rate, Roz Ellis, Bryony Jamison, Sue Beardsley, Chris Finnie
• Props Assistants: Judy Bish, Bernie Ball, Jennie Knox, Dave Britten, David Stott, Lydia Foote
• Floor Crew: Graham Davies, Diana Hinterleitner, Steve Taylor, Suzanne Rivers, Eden CotterLongworth, Frank Connor, Don Gillanders, Mathew Fagan, Robert Bryce, Shaun Gilmore
• Makeup Assistants: Marie Huston, Margaret Ackroyd, Nickie Wellbourn, Deirdre Fell
• Wigs Assistants: Michelle Raasch, Jeny Shepard, Laura Stills, Amelia Ward, Patrice Hammond, Scott Campbell
• Chaperone: Phillipa Chilvers
• General Manager: Michael Bayly
• Production Manager: Johnny Morris
• Administration and Front of House Manager: Sandi White
• Front of House Assistants: Sue Eade, Sally Wilson, Tania McHugh, Rhonda McLeod • Communications Manager: Wendy Riley
Theatre , Musical ,
Amid the gloss, most – but not all – comedy rooted in truth
Review by Erin Harrington 25th Mar 2017
Showbiz Christchurch does spectacle really, really well. Their production of Aussie jukebox musical Priscilla, Queen of the Desert plays to their strengths; it is a glitzy, glamorous, camp, high energy carnival that really pushes its cast to deliver an outrageously over-the-top evening of entertainment.
Priscilla is an adaptation of the Oscar-winning 1994 Australian film, and while retaining the film’s rough narrative scaffolding, it stitches action and whip-smart, bitchy dialogue together around a series of bold karaoke belters, gay anthems and glossy, excessive floor shows.
Sydney-based drag queen Tick (Isaac Pawson) is contacted by his estranged wife and asked to perform at her Alice Springs casino, which will offer him an opportunity to finally meet his young son. Under not-quite-false pretences he convinces classy, haughty trans woman Bernadette (Cameron Douglas) and immature, impulsive drag queen Adam / Felicia (Tom Worthington) to join him.
Bernadette is an aging drag legend who is grieving for her recently dead husband (and her chance at true love), and Felicia’s dream is to perform a Kylie Minogue medley on the top of Uluru / Ayers Rock. This sets the scene for a conflict-ridden road trip across the desert in a clapped out, glammed up bus nicknamed Priscilla, and the trio burn off out west in a cloud of sequins, feathers, and false eyelashes.
The action across the desert, and various encounters with rural communities who aren’t exactly sympathetic to the rainbow cause, is framed and underscored by three divas (Emily Burns, Jane Leonard, Naomi Ferguson). They fly in at the beginning, looking like glorious, red-haired silver mermaids from an interstellar cabaret, and their powerhouse vocal work is a highlight of the evening. They are joined by a hard-working, mostly tight singing and dancing ensemble who playfully fulfil a variety of increasingly bizarre and often very funny roles. Things are marred a little on opening night by a few hiccups with sound and inconsistent levels, but this will no doubt be rectified quickly.
One of the constraints around staging this show is in being able to access the production’s multi-award-winning costumes and wigs – hundreds and hundreds of extraordinary, ridiculous, funny, artful creations that turn this musical into a flamboyant negotiation between a concert and a wearable art parade. [This production uses the costumes from the show that recently toured the UK and Auckland.] Core performances and technical flair aside, this is what makes the show worth seeing at this price point. This is obviously a demanding and well-executed production across the board, and a credit to the design, technical and backstage teams, but my MVPs are the dressers and hair and makeup staff who are whipping costumes on and off the cast at a dizzying rate.
While the original film is a more bittersweet affair, dealing with entrenched homophobia and the tail end of the AIDS crisis, the musical itself doesn’t always know where best to overlay outrageous theatrics with serious undertones. It’s frustrating that those more complex parts of the source material that have made it to this adaptation don’t always translate well.
On one hand, the three leads offer terrifically pitched performances. Bernadette, Felicia and Tick are by turns strong, bold, vulnerable, fierce, funny, heart-breaking, crass, sassy, and powerful. These characters are always rooted in something very truthful, and for all the bitchy one-liners and the sharp physical comedy, the performances offer a great amount of light and shade – something especially commendable given the raucous, swirling, fantastical backdrop of colour and movement. The culmination of Bernadette and Tick’s arcs are beautifully realised, and each present moments of welcome restraint. Theirs are deeply humane and genuinely moving stories, and this complexity – which harkens back to the nature of drag-as-political-act itself – anchors the show. The three actors are very impressive.
This is almost undermined by scenes that play other forms of vulnerability for laughs. The point at which Felicia puts herself into a horrendously dangerous situation and nearly falls victim to an appalling hate crime is presented in a manner that just doesn’t scan properly. I’m cringing when the people behind me find one of the key traumas of the musical hilarious: the moment when the trio find that someone has spray painted nasty, homophobic graffiti on Priscilla. (“Oopsies!” one of them giggles inanely.)
Scenes involving Cynthia, an Asian mail order bride who is stuck in the outback, hit the racist / misogynist / vulgar trifecta. Her character is a vicious source of derision that really taints the experience of an otherwise very entertaining show.
Incidentally, in the film there is a very fraught tension between the travelling trio and issues of sexual tolerance and violence, and then the racism and sexism that surrounds figures such as Cynthia and the aboriginal characters who haven’t made it to the stage show. These are different layers of exclusion and marginalisation whose ambivalence seems unwelcome in this frothier setting, even though a good portion of the story’s depth is connected to it.
The inclusion of the misjudged scenes as they are written isn’t the fault of the company – a quick google reveals that Cynthia’s crass, tone deaf presentation has been a point of contention in a lot of productions. Nonetheless, it feels a bit jarring that a production that often offers it leads so much empathy, and that is so invested in the way that drag expresses pain and pathos through outlandish performance and gender play, can so garishly, cruelly rescind it in other areas, without being at all mindful of the reason for these scenes’ inclusion. They highlight the very real everyday threats to the trio, and the injustices and acts of violence against which ‘I Will Survive’.
These issues don’t seem to get in the way of sections of the audience getting to their feet at the end, and in terms of overall impact – and especially given the wonderful animal-themed finale – this is a highly successful show. For me, though, I’d love a night out where my overall goodwill and enjoyment isn’t suddenly doused with what feels like a bucket of cold water; to loosely paraphrase Bernadette, if I’m promised sweet, I don’t want sour.
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