Richard Grieve Takes Ride on Priscilla Bus, 7 Mar

Olivier and Whatsonstage.com award-winning musical Priscilla Queen of the Desert the Musical have today (2 February 2011) announced Richard Grieve, best known for his role as Jonny Foster in ITV’s Emmerdale, will join the show in the role of Tick from 7 March.

As well as appearing in Emmerdale, Grieve will also be familiar to fans of Australian soaps Home & Away and Neighbours. His recent stage credits include national tours of Footloose, Dial M For Murder and There’s No Place Like A Home.

Grieve joins Don Gallagher (Bernadette), Oliver Thornton (Adam) and Ray Meagher, best known on television for playing Home & Away‘s Alf Stewart as mechanic Bob. Meagher, who has played the role since 30 September will leave the show on 5 March. His replacement has not yet been announced.

Currently booking until 7 January 2012 Priscilla is based on the 1994 Oscar-winning film which tells the story of Sydney drag queen Mitzi (aka Tick) and her two fish-out-of-water friends, Felicia (Adam) and transsexual Bernardette, as they head west across the desert to Alice Springs in their battered old bus.

Directed by Simon Phillips and choreographed by Ross Coleman, Priscilla premiere in Sydney in October 2006, becoming the most successful Australian musical of all time and moving to the West End’s Palace Theatre in March 2009. The show starts previews on Broadway later this month, opening in New York on 20 March 2011.

The show is written by Stephan Elliott and Allan Scott and has musical supervision and arrangements by Stephen Murphy. It is designed by Brian Thomson with lighting by Nick Schlieper, sound by Michael Waters and costumes by Tim Chappel and Lizzy Gardiner. Like the film, the musical is fashioned around disco hits including “I Love the Nightlife,” “I Will Survive”, “Shake Your Groove Thing” and “Finally”.