Priscilla Queen of the Desert (Manchester Opera House – Tour)

Priscilla – Queen of the Desert is a show that cries out for killer statistics: 500 costumes, 200 hats, 100 wigs and 150 pairs of shoes. Nothing is done by halves, everything is flamboyantly over the top, though there is a nicely homely spirit of self-mockery lurking beneath the feathers, the big hair and the mascara. Perhaps the most telling figures, however, are that, by my reckoning, at least 50 % of the audience were returnees from the show’s two previous visits to Manchester and – at a quick glance – 100 % of the Stalls rose in a standing ovation.

With its origins in a 1994 Australian film, Priscilla has been touring the world for the last nine years and, with a mostly new cast, comes up fresh as paint. Simon Phillips‘ direction of Stephan Elliott and Allan Scott‘s show maintains a cracking pace and throws imagination and extravagance at every scene.

Tick, a drag queen (Mitzi) in Sydney, sets off to Alice Springs to see his wife and son from a straight former life and to perform in cabaret. He takes along the dangerously self-obsessed Adam (or Felicia) and Bernadette, an ageing transsexual formerly the star of Les Girls. They travel in an elderly bus (the eponymous Priscilla), bitch at each other, sing a lot, change costume even more, get treated nicely by people, get abused by other people, meet a friendly mechanic when the bus breaks down – and change costume a few more times!

As Tick Duncan James is an effective bridge between gay and straight worlds, bringing out the serious back story behind the flouncing and the strutting and the disco anthems. Simon Green‘s ladylike Bernadette is convincing and often moving, preserving her dignity at all costs even when called upon to deliver crushingly polite put-downs. As Adam/Felicia Adam Bailey‘s spoilt brat radiates energy and self-regard and sets unparalleled records on the preenometer.

If the three central performances are all excellent, the success of the show depends, if anything, even more on the ensemble. As three divas Lisa-Marie Holmes, Laura Mansell and Catherine Mort belt out disco anthems with great verve whilst flying above the stage and are never far from the action, rather like the Three Ladies in The Magic Flute, but more fun. Mort comes down to earth for a hysterically depressing "I Love the Nightlife", an outfront singer in an outback bar. Philip Childs, as nice Bob the mechanic, is a welcome visitor from the straight world and Julie Yammanee brings the house down as his Filipina mail order bride with a paint-stripper voice and a rather risqué stage act of her own.

Credits for costume, make-up, choreography, sound, lighting and music are too numerous to list. All I will say is – it shows!

Priscilla – Queen of the Desert continues at the Manchester Opera House until 29 August after which it will tour the UK. For further information, click here.