‘I Say a Little Pray for You…’ Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Churchill Theatre, Bromley 25.10.2021
I was so excited to be returning to the Churchill Theatre, having a special part of my heart when I performed Sunset Boulevard on that very stage. Tonight I was in the audience for opening night of Priscilla Queen of the Desert.
Based on the 1994 MGM cult classic film of the same name, the musical tells the story of two drag queens Tick and Adam and a transgender women, Bernadette. The three head west from Sydney in their bus, ‘Priscilla’ to perform in a drag show at a casino in Alice Springs that Tick’s ‘wife’ manages. For Tick its a journey to finally meet his son Benji, worried about what he would think of his father Tick finds support from his fellow queens, who all come to for forefront of a comedy of errors while during their travels, encountering a number of strange characters, as well as incidents of homophobia but along the way they widen their comfort zones and find new horizons they never thought they would! With classic disco songs that gets everyone dancing, ‘It’s Raining Men,’ ‘Hot Stuff,’ ‘I will Survive,’ the list goes on!
This show main focus is acceptance and how to celebrate and excel inbeing who you want to be, today the art of drag is not a stranger within our entertainment with tv shows such as Ru Paul’s Drag Race, and musicals Kinky Boots and Everybody’s Talking about Jamie’ people are falling in love with it every day. Priscilla is one that helped start it all, but also shows the difficulty that those had to go through to feel accepted within the community. It is a lovely message and its great to see how todays society has improved and moved forward – that’s not to say it doesn’t still come without its troubles however.
The current tour is a brand new revamp so to speak from the past productions, produced by Jason Donavan (who played Tick in the Original London Cast), directed by Ian Talbot with choreography from the mind of Tom Jackson Greaves this production shows a triple threat of talent, fun, and glamour! From the beginning the cast display the amazing disco moves, the full emotions of the story and it is clear that they are loving what they are doing. The costumes full are full of colour, feathers and sequins complimenting the staging that is limited but allows the focus to be on the queens and the story being told. In past productions ”Priscilla’ has been a full bus that took up the stage, for this production it was cleverly broken down, fitting together like a jigsaw which helped with the scene changes to flow easily – all created from the clever minds of Charles-Cusick-Smith & Phil R Daniles.
Edwin Ray leads the cast tonight as Tick/Mitzi, having seen this show a previously Tick is usually that of an known name but tonight Edwin knocked them all out with his performance. He had a lovely tone to his voice, his acting was spot on for the character showing his emotions throughout his journey on finally meeting his son, and then showing a kind relationship when he finally met him! Edwin really embedded Tick and Mitzi and he was enjoying showing it to the audience, especially during his rendition of ‘I Remember Yesterday’. Joining him were Miles Western as Bernadette and Nick Hayes as Felicia/Adam both of who excelled wonderfully within their roles. Miles shows a loving yet feisty Bernadette who really portrayed his character, showing the true emotions of a transgender women but also his relationship with both Tick and Adam had beautiful moments, showing he was the mother of them both. Nick slays each scene with the sass, attitude, and moves, but also a vulnerable Adam, the breakdown of emotions he portrayed during the conflict at the bar was moving and powerful to watch allowing the audience to reflect and sympathize . All three shared a great friendship and chemistry that was clearly displayed on stage and you could tell that the friendship reflects off too!
A character you could not love was Bob, played by the kind hearted Dan Fletcher. The audience immediately warmed to him and you couldn’t have respect and the wish that there were more men like him – accepting, kind, and not caring what you are but who you are. Dan made sure this was greatly displayed in his character of Bob, but also had his comic moments especially with his ‘wife’ Cynthia played by Clarice Julianda – who was great in her role and lets just say has perfect aim!
The three Diva’s tonight were played by Allie Daniel, Gracie Lai and Claudia Kariuki their voices were all strong and held each song with ease along with the sass and steps to follow. Allie also, showed two sides from the glitz and glam of a diva to a heartless outback waitress Marion, which were clearly different from each other – and rightly so!
No matter how many times you see this show, you will not stop dancing in your seat, lip syncing with every song, and laugh at the amazing and memorable one liners. But if you didn’t like drag before, then you will sure enough fall in love with it here! It really is the mother of all drag – sorry Ru! You could also tell that the audience were loving each moment, as soon as the finale came they were all standing up and dancing with the cast – it was a great moment to see being that so many of us have missed theatre during the past year.
For a guaranteed great night out this really is the show for all, currently playing at the Churchill Theatre until Saturday 30th October – for all ticket information go here. The Priscilla bus will then continue on its colourful tour – for all dates and ticket information go here.
