PRISCILLA: QUEEN OF THE DESERT - THEATRE REVIEW

PRISCILLA: QUEEN OF THE THE DESERT THE MUSICAL AT THE NEW ALEXANDRA THEATRE, BIRMINGHAM

Theatre Run: Monday 18 - Saturday 30 March 2013
Performance Reviewed: Wednesday 20 March (Press Night)

Reviewed by Kyle Pedley

The jukebox musical, i.e. one where the soundtrack consists of a variety of pre-existing songs and hits as is the case with Priscilla: Queen of the Desert, can be a deceptively difficult thing to pull off well. Whilst a good lineup of known hits will help engage and familiarise an audience immediately, too often the lack of a concise and tailored original score and repertoire of songs can find shows scrambling for their own identities or, even worse, leaning on it’s catalogue of pre-existing tunes to mask a dirth of character, plot or original thinking and creativity (for a perfect example of this see the current shambles of Viva Forever! in the West End).

Fortunately, Priscilla: Queen of the Desert, which rolls into Birmingham this week as part of it’s UK tour, is an outrageously entertaining example of the jukebox done very, very right.  Based on the modestly successful 1994 comedy which has since gained quite the cult following (and rightly bagged an Oscar for Costume Design), this musical adaptation is a wonderfully extrovert, gloriously camp and relentlessly enjoyable celebration of disco, drag queens and unconventional daddy dilemmas.