Priscilla: Queen of the Desert | An Inconsistent Rainbow

[Justice Craig Harrison]

Running until January 13th. Tickets and information available here.

There were moments in Priscilla that made me really sick, that made me vomit all personal investment out the window. There were others that were incredibly well done, that drew me close, pulled me into this alternate Boogie Wonderland of 3 drag queens and their magical bus. I sat through it, promising that I indeed will survive, but even with the soaring production value and amazing level of polish, Priscilla’s fiery spirit lacked a finesse, painting with broad strokes to reveal its’ True Colors; that of an inconsistent rainbow.

Priscilla opens gaudily; as you’d expect. There’s lots of scantily clad men; as you’d expect. Glitter and other shiny things adorns the costumes and set; as you’d expect. Priscilla slowly adds some character to it’s predictable build up, starting with the lovely Divas.

Descending from the ceiling like angels, with especially beautiful and bold voices, they sing when the drag queens cannot (...because they’re lip syncing), and solidify the 70’s feel early on.

The bus, probably my favorite character, became the bulk of the set early on. The designers used lights on the sides of the bus (which rotated and moved from front to back. Maybe this is where the wheel from Les Mis went?) to turn it into a huge screen, and the various patterns and animations they displayed on it made the show much more enjoyable and unpredictable. I found myself watching the bus more than I watched the performers often times, whether it was used for backdrops or for making it look like it was being painted. The show is named Priscilla: Queen of the Desert for a reason, and the bus does a lot to earn that right.

A few scenes also stood out for their filmic qualities and/or creativity. Adam/Felicia (Bryan West) lip syncing to an opera in a high heel on top of the bus was wonderful, though others and myself spent a few minutes trying to figure out what was actually going on. I still don’t think I get it. Bernadette (Scott Willis) reminiscing about her time with the Les Girls, as she dances in sync with them, the focus flirting back and forth between her youthful past and her more mature present, was enticing. The clever and biting insults sent back and forth between Adam and Bernadette were expertly written, stuff that participants of any and all Comedy Central Roasts should take note of.

The music was brilliant. The bass, when it kicks in, sounds so close to what you’d find on a 70’s disco record you could swear it was a recording. I couldn't discern that the strings were synthesized without looking at my playbook and checking out the pit. And although in the first minute I could hardly hear the performers, that was remedied quickly, and the rest of the musical’s sound was some of the best I've heard at the Orpheum.

The sets weren’t much aside from the bus, and the other scenes weren’t particularly notable. The trio finds themselves in an unexpected place, the people they meet like them, they dance to 70’s music and move on. Sometimes the people they meet don’t like them. In one scene, after having a fun time at a bar, they come back to their bus to have it defaced with “F@&# off faggots” [Edit: F-bomb redacted (more fun to say than censored), but that other one is quickly burning a h*** in my heart. {Double Edit; For some reason h***, as in "A hollow place in a solid body or surface.", got censored. Maybe it's because of the band. I blame Courtney Love.}] written on the side. They confront it through song, and supporting each other, which I appreciated, though I felt like more could’ve been done. Priscilla is a musical about a trio with a mix of sexualities, touring an America just now allowing gay marriage; could that have been introduced as a theme or joke, or did Australia as a setting prohibit that? I think they could’ve worked it in, in some capacity. That scene, along with a few others including those mentioned above, made the show shine, but the formulaic nature of the scenes got tiring after awhile, disrupted by some great ones and a few really bad and jarring ones, which I go into with more detail later.

The production values and polish help to cover up the formula however. The transitions were perfect. I never noticed a hitch, and though that sounds like a good thing, there was no lull, no break between action aside from the intermission during the show. The actors gave 100% percent throughout the entire thing, but the attention demanded because of that (and the drama of stereotypical drag queens) was extremely draining, and the lack of transitions actually hurt the show a bit, because my brain was so tired of the constant barrage of light and sound The polish also made me wish for some imperfections, some unintentional personality aside from a Koala bear prop getting stuck on stage. Drag culture from my (an inexperienced outsider’s) perspective seems to be special because of its oddities, its imperfections, its queerness, and because of the stereotypical drag queens and lack of quirkiness, the characters felt a bit shallow and one sided. Bob (Joe Hart), a mechanic that becomes a love interest for Bernadette, was the most queer and interesting to me. It was as if he hardly noticed Bernadette being transgender, only seeing her as a person, which was really captivating for me seeing as the show was so “HEY LOOK WE ARE DRAG QUEENS 24/7 CAN WE HAVE OUR OWN REALITY SHOW?!?!”. He felt like a real character in a group full of humans with glitter flowing through their veins.

And now on to the troublesome part.

There was a scene in the middle of the second act where Adam, dressed up as Felicia, goes to make trouble at a tough guy hangout in Coober Pedy (which is an actual place). She’s looking to get some “hot stuff”, and end’s up stirring the hornet’s nest.

It goes from a funny slow motion running scene, to Felicia pinned to the ground with her legs spread open, back to a jokey, campy scene with Hot Stuff still blaring in the background.

And it happens about as quickly as you reading that sentence.

It’s jarring. It threw me out of the world. The threat of rape was tossed around and hidden again in a horrifying way, and from that point on, the show had to fight to keep my attention. I was done with the happy go lucky sex-fest after that. The little they did to try and resolve the thread after; a small pep talk to Adam (Felicia) by Bernadette whilst Tick (Wade McCollum), the guy who got the group together, yells at him for getting himself into trouble, did nothing to expel the image in my head. The image of a scantily clad woman pinned to the ground on center stage with her legs spread apart, with Hot Stuff screaming at us in the background. In a musical that devotes time to confronting homophobia, the fact that they include a potential rape and hardly do anything to confront or talk about it afterward is freaky and backwards. And then Hot Stuff is used as a repeating theme throughout the rest of the musical. Which made me feel even worse.

I couldn’t discern any character growth from Felicia or the others, any bonding, any reason to make the problem rape aside from being faithful to the movie. It was a  scene that felt extremely out of place. Others were made uncomfortable by a funeral scene with attendees in full drag, though that one hardly phased me.

Another particularly odd scene featured an attention hungry woman with a...neat (sexual) trick, who steals the spotlight from the queens while they perform in a small town. Sure, the whole “LOOK AT ME I EXUDE SEX AND I HAVE A NEAT (SEXUAL) TRICK” thing was a little troubling, though in the context of the musical it wasn’t much. I was more troubled by the fact that I was waiting for the drag queens to come back on, the “real women, not this sex toy!”.

The real women being men dressed up as women (and one transexual). Which felt terribly sexist of me, though it felt like the musical was telling me “This is not what true performance is!” and that I should accept that thought.

I still don’t know what to think of that part either.

It’s weird. Priscilla is so technically good, and I don’t mean to deny that. The performances are strong, the technical stuff is great, and the music is fantastic. I just feel like this wasn’t a musical that needed to be perfect or strong in those areas, it was one that needed character for its premise to work. And though it does, to an extent, it falls into the trap of being exactly what you’d expect, with some stale twists. Okay, Tick promised to meet his kid, that’s the reason for the whole adventure. Feels like it’s there because the thing needs a plot (and the obligatory cute child). Cowboy themed music? Not expected, not a great twist.

And so on.

It’s an inconsistent rainbow, this one. I like it, but it’s partially because I just don’t think it’s bad. It’s likable, but i’m not sure it’s good. It’s in a weird place of being good in all technical areas, but just lacking something, or maybe having too much, or what it does or doesn’t need. I’d recommend it to those who like dancing in their seat, who love gaudy and glamorous stuff, and who can appreciate a good ‘your mom’ joke.

I wouldn’t recommend it to those who can’t stand too many shiny things, do not like disco or various other pop songs, can’t handle high maintenance people, and who do not like exorbitant amounts of sex jokes.

and. THIS IS NOT A SHOW FOR CHILDREN. High school and up.

Running until January 13th. Tickets and information available here.

__________________________________________________________________

Priscilla makes me realize how prevalent the jukebox musical has been for the past few seasons, and I now understand why people have dismissed them so much. Priscilla was good, but on a different scale than original works like The Scottsboro Boys or Red, Black, and Green; A Blues. Those were fantastic. Priscilla was good, technically, but nothing I will praise for originality or cleverness. Jersey Boys and Million Dollar Quartet were the only jukebox musicals I’ve seen recently that really seemed to work as musicals in their own right, and that’s likely because the narrative and the music were inseparable. They were about the creation of the music and the performers involved, and worked because of that. American Idiot tried to capture the theme of the album it was based on, but fell on its’ face trying to break new ground by being ‘edgy’ and ‘different’. Mamma Mia is well...it. But both of those were less successful (in my opinion. Box office is obviously a whole different story) likely because the plot and the music were separate entities, brought together by circumstance, although American Idiot is straddling the line by being close thematically and character wise to Green Day’s album and band members.

So although I’ve been avoiding getting my hopes up for The Book of Mormon, I really hope that I love it. It’s the one, obvious beacon of late that screams “Originality still is marketable on Broadway. It works, and we’re proof”. In a world where every creative industry seems to be locked down by some kind of major corporation, “The Man” so to speak, it’s these break out financial and critical successes along with independent, local things that I feel like will turn the tide on that.

This is my indie kid talking.

And coming away from Priscilla, I’m hoping we see less jukebox musicals in the future. They work, they’re profitable, but they lack the spark, the creativity needed for a show to really shine. And I feel bad saying that the show is meh, because it’s not. It’s just...it. A jukebox musical. And I think i’ve had enough of those for a few years.

[Dudley Voigt]

I will read this again, many times, before I can get there and make comments on the internal workings (Oh, track changes, where are you when I need you???).

In the meantime, my summary reaction is that clearly you've willed your musical theatre curmedgeonliness to Max and that you have moved to a more sad, disappointed, almost tender place in your relationship to the state of the American Musical Theater. Like an old man who's grown impatient with a dawdling, unfocused child of great potential, a master with his petulant student, there is still a small flame of hope in there that glows a bit brighter with the first note of the overture.  

And I want to feed that flame and tell you that there is work out there that will move you.  And that no matter how many shows you see, you will not lose the ability to be blown away by something.  It will be, is actually, less common, elusive, but all the sweeter when it happens.  

[Erica Solomon]

This is an incredible and detailed review that shows some really great analysis, you clearly put a lot of good thinking into this. I love that you included pictures from the production to give the reader a glimpse into the world of the play that you discuss. I enjoyed and agreed with your discussion of the potential rape scene and the way the play dealt with it too quickly. I also like that your review addresses Priscilla the bus as a character, because that is truly what it (she?) was, and goes beyond this particular play to address other musicals of the same variety. 

[Olivia Plaine]

Justice, I appreciate the layered thinking you've presented in this review. It's clear you analyzed this show from several angles, which makes for a contemplative reader. Great work.