Priscilla Opens in London to "Mixed" Reviews

The musical version of The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert has opened on London’s West End to mixed reviews.

Written and directed by Stephan Elliott, the man behind the film version, the musical opened at the Palace Theatre recently, starring Jason Donovan in the role of Tick, Oliver Thornton as Adam and Tony Sheldon as Bernadette.

Sheldon was the sole actor from the Australian production to make the London cast, due to British Actor’s Equity union rules restricting the use of foreign ‘import’ actors.

As with the Australian version of the musical and the film, Oscar winning designers Tim Chappel and Lizzie Gardiner designed the spectacular costumes seen in the London.

British theatre reviewers have greeted the musical with a mixture of admiration, amusement, bemusement and scorn.

The Guardian, which gave the production two stars out of five, said that while “the film had a good deal going for it” the stage version was “underscored and overstated”.

“Given the unexplored richness of Australian theatre, it is a pity that this artistically buoyant country should now be represented in the West End by this garish throwback in which camp is determinedly overpitched,” said Guardian critic Michael Billington.

However, Billington praised the show’s aesthetics, declaring: “What the show is really about is spectacle; which, thanks to Brian Thomson's production design and the costumes of Tim Chappel and Lizzy Gardiner, is hurled across in bucketloads.”

The Independent, which also gave Priscilla two stars out of five, declared: “Donovan’s disco divas are a drag”.

“Jason Donovan as a drag queen and his little boy by a real-life woman (a rarity in this show) ... demands that somebody shuts his von Trapp,” the publication sniped.

The Times, however, turned in a considerably more positive review. Reviewer Benedict Nightingale enthused about the show, comparing it favourably to the original film.

“Let’s reassure those who recall the film of Priscilla, or helped to make it the cult it remains, that the stage version has everything, maybe more than everything, they could reasonably expect,” he wrote.

“There’s energy, fun, tunefulness and, above all, the most outrageous swirl of costumes that I ... have yet encountered.”

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert is scheduled to play in London until September 26.