Tick (drag name Mitzi) gets a phone call from his ex-wife. They have clearly parted on good terms and she tells him it’s time he met his young son, Benji. It catches Tick off guard as all this was (as they say) another lifetime ago. He must cross the outback to make this happen, but fortuitously, he could also take advantage of a lucrative entertainment gig at a casino. He enlists his partners in crime, Adam (Felicia) and Bernadette. Adam is also a drag artist and deliciously over-the-top queen. Bernadette is a post-op transgender, with much soul, and a bit of despondency. So they rent an old bus they dub “Priscilla,” and off these intrepid three go.
Priscilla: Queen of the Desert (as you might guess from its fanciful name) is a wonderfully excessive fantasia, a giddy, intoxicating odyssey through numerous situations, contrasting the elemental, bucolic, robustly virile milieu with outrageously jubilant celebration of campy female behavior and queer transgression. Tick, Adam and Bernadette all have their baggage, naturally and much time is spent trying to reconcile that with intolerance, in-fighting and a bizarre roadtrip through the desert in a broken down bus. The musical numbers are eclectic, spirited, elaborate and surprisingly effective. From the silly to the torchy to the Busbyesque, they punch us up and seduce us with jazzy merriment. Suzi Cranford and Jessie Chavez manage the costumes, and let me tell you, you haven’t lived till you’ve seen these marvelous, extraterrestial, gushy-gorgeous frocks that put the “F” in flamboyant and the “Q” in queeny. “Dazzling” doesn’t begin to describe it. “Scintillating” doesn’t do it justice.
Priscilla would seem to be the answer to the virulent hatred, the stubborn resistance to graciousness and kindness that (while certainly not pervasive as it one was) still emerges to persecute us and make our lives miserable. It doesn’t take much for these boys to bust out the finery and bring on the defiance. Sometimes they get knocked tail over tincup, but they have each other to lick their wounds. (Now don’t go there.) Like the rest of us they have their trials and broken places and regrets. To their credit, Stephen “Spud” Murphy and Simon Phillips (the folks who adapted the film Priscilla to the stage) imbued this jaunty, crooked musical with healing humor and effusive, valiant cheerfulness. It doesn’t feel forced or contrived. It does feel spontaneous and genuine. How do they DO it? It doesn’t matter, just go.
Uptown Players presents Priscilla: Queen of the Desert, playing July 13th-29th, 2018. Kalita Humphreys Theater, 3636 Turtle Creek, Blvd, Dallas, Texas 75219. 214-219-2718. uptownplayers.org