Priscilla Queen Of The Desert The Musical
Priscilla musical's sets and costumes are fabulous, but the story's a big of a drag
By Glenn Sumi
http://www.nowtoronto.com/daily/story.cfm?content=177494It's too bad costume designers Tim Chappel and Lizzy Gardiner don't get higher billing for Priscilla Queen Of The Desert The Musical.
Their eye-popping work – twirling green cupcakes, dancing pink paintbrushes and enough sequins to start a galaxy of gay – is much more memorable than Stephan Elliott and Allan Scott's unfabulous book.
Based on the 1994 movie, which Elliott wrote and directed, the musical follows three constantly bitching bosomy buddies who travel by the titular bus along the not quite yellow brick road from Sydney through the outback of Oz, where they encounter homophobia and bad haircuts along with kangaroos and koala bears.
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This Priscilla rocks even though the bus doesn't roll
J. KELLY NESTRUCK
From Thursday's Globe and Mail
Published Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2010 3:51PM EDT
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/theatre/this-priscilla-rocks-even-though-the-bus-doesnt-roll/article1775178/Priscilla just keeps on trucking. Australian Stephan Elliott transformed his tale of two drag queens and a transsexual on a bus trip across the Outback from a movie into a stage musical in 2006. After going over well Down Under and on London's West End, Priscilla's party bus is now parked in Toronto on an extended pit stop on the way to Broadway.
As with the film, the musical concerns Tick (Will Swenson), a drag queen who performs under the name Mitzi Mitosis, leaving the safety of Sydney for a gig in remote Alice Springs at the behest of his wife and their young son, whom he has never met.
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Review: PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT Pre-Broadway try-out
Wednesday, October 27, 2010; Posted: 07:10 AM - by Mark Andrew Lawrence
http://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Review_PRISCILLA_QUEEN_OF_THE_DESERT_PreBroadway_tryout_20101027If you are going to have candy, make it the very best candy you can make using only the finest ingredients. That's pretty much what the producers of the Broadway-bound musical Priscilla Queen of the Desert have done. Not content to replicate a show that has already proven to be a big hit in both Sydney and in London where it continues to play, the creators have given the show a complete makeover. The result is slick entertainment that is a ridiculous amount of fun.
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This need for love and connection gives the stage musical not only a focused through line but also its considerable heart. These characters don't just exist to trade putdowns. They share a collective loneliness, a search for love in an at times cold and unfriendly world.
