Photos: Lumley Has Busman’s Holiday at Priscilla

In her night off from La Bete at the Comedy Theatre, Joanna Lumley paid a visit to the Palace to catch the resident queens and her friend John Bowe in the Whatsonstage.com Award-winning Priscilla Queen of the Desert the Musical. After the performance, she nipped backstage to get a close-up peek at the musical’s famous onstage bus and to offer her personal congratulations to Bowe and his co-stars: fellow recent arrivals Ben Richards and Don Gallagher as well as original cast member Oliver Thornton.

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PHOTOS BY DAN WOOLLER FOR WHATSONSTAGE.COM.

Adapted from the 1994 Oscar-winning cult Australian film starring Guy Pearce, Hugo Weaving and Terence Stamp, Priscilla follows 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 – to the sounds of disco hits including “I Love the Nightlife,” “I Will Survive”, “Shake Your Groove Thing” and “Finally”.

At the 2010 Whatsonstage.com Awards, Priscilla won Best New Musical, as well as Best Set Designer for Brian Thomson, Best Choreographer for the late Ross Coleman and Best Supporting Actor in a Musical for Oliver Thornton. The musical is currently booking through to 28 May 2011.