THEATRE REVIEW: Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert - The Palace Theatre, Manchester.

When I agreed to review this show, I wasn’t sure what to expect, I was excited for the glitz, the glamour and complete campness this musical had to offer!  One thing for sure was that I wasn’t disappointed, as the show was absolutely bonkers and absolutely incredible. Sitting at the Manchester Palace Theatre, I waited in anticipation wondering what I was about to experience as I had only heard brilliant things about this iconic musical. An array of joyous and energetic dance numbers, dazzling costumes and a phenomenal soundtrack entertained a packed out crowd for the whole two and a half hours! 

Set in the Australian outback, Priscilla Queen Of The Desert focuses on three drag queens' journey travelling to Alice Springs. We meet the wonderful and courteous Tick/Mitzi, the fabulous and vintage Bernadette, and the gorgeous and super sexy Felicia.  And we joined these queens on a journey for Mitzi to meet his son, who thinks he is a world-class entertainer. A world-class entertainer being true, what his son doesn’t know is that he also performs as his drag alter-ego Mitzi. Each character brings beautiful glamour to the stage as we follow all three of them on this sweet, sassy and at times eye-opening journey. 

Sittingt in the audience, a novice (me), I’d wrongly assumed that Priscilla was one of the drag queens' names however I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered Priscilla took on the brilliant role of an off-road ‘dream carrying’ beaten-up old bus which takes the queens from A to B, on a magical flamboyant journey! Nick Hayes plays the sexy and sassy Felicia/Adam, a tongue-in-cheek, absolutely gorgeous queen who opens the audience's eyes to some hard-hitting issues whilst staying true to the character Hayes is playing. Throughout the musical Hayes gives the stage and audience energy, presence and some vulnerability; his dancing was wonderful and his acting even more so! I was truly captured throughout by his sparkle!

Miles Western played the brilliant and beautiful Bernadette, a character I struggled to warm to at first but who captured my heart nearing the end of the first act! His charismatic one-liners, warmth towards Tick and Adam during his time of need portrayed how warming and kind Western is in reality! Western played Bernadette brilliantly allowing the audience to fall ever more in love with 'her' as the play continued! Both Hayes and Western gave incredible  performances, allowing the audience to sit back and passively enjoy the entertainment of this show but also to remind us of the struggles that members of LGBTQ+ are still facing. 

Edwin Ray gave a lovely performance as the very cute Mitzi/Tick. His naivety and carefulness as the character of Tick shows how apprehensive he was to share his secret of a child; however I struggled with the character development that he hadn’t seen his child for 6 years - a problem I have with the play not Ray himself. For me Ray was over-shone unfortunately by Hayes and Western, but perfectly complimented the trio of queens. 

A special mention goes to the wonderful Daniel Fletcher playing bearded Bob - a sensitive mechanic and kindly soul who falls for the wonderful Bernadette, it was beautiful seeing this love story play out.. and especially lovely watching Fletcher portray this delicate Australian! 

Overall the dancing was phenomenal, the singing marvellous and the storyline crazy but Priscilla was certainly an experience to say the least! 

Reviewer - Caroline Bleakley
on - 11.10.21