Reviewed by Catherine Joyce
Last night I took my friend to see Priscilla Queen of the Desert at Blackpool Opera House. The theatre is located in the centre of Blackpool so there was plenty of choice for pre-show meals or drinks It’s not often that we get a night out together so we took full advantage and made a night of it by having tea in a restaurant before the show.
Based on the 1994 popular movie, Priscilla Queen of the Desert follows the journey of drag queens, Tick (Joe Mc Fadden) and Adam (Nick Hayes) and a transgender woman called Bernadette (Jack Allen-Anderson). Tick has agreed to return to Alice Springs and perform his drag act at the casino that is managed by his estranged wife Marion and persuades his recently bereaved friend Bernadette and drag queen Adam to join him. To get there they have to travel across Australia from Sydney and they do the trip in a bus that Adam christens Priscilla.
Tick is apprehensive about the trip as he is meeting his 8-year-old son, Benji, for the first time, a fact he keeps quiet about. On the trip they find that people outside the city are not quite as accepting of their lifestyle, making for an interesting journey and strengthening the bond between the three.
The musical is full of popular 70’s and 80’s disco hits and the cast belt out the numbers in a variety of colourful costumes which really adds to the party feel of the night. The opening number was It’s Raining Men and this song really set the scene for the night and I soon found my feet tapping along to classics like I Will Survive, Colour My World, and Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. The Divas, Aiesha Pease, Claudia Kariuki, and Rosie Glossop deserve a special mention, they were simply amazing and it was a real treat listening to their powerful voices filling the theatre.
With three crossdressing showgirls on stage the makeup and costumes were obviously going to be colourful and flamboyant but it wasn’t just the showgirls, the whole cast had an amazing variety of costumes ranging from country girls and boys to kangaroos. The costumes were fabulous with plenty of feathers, sequins and shimmer. With lots of visual comedy, witty one-liners and plenty of innuendo this show had the audience in stitches all night.
The theatre has a large stage and the simple set worked really well, Priscilla, the bus, dominated the stage for a lot of the performance and the numerous scene changes were carried out seamlessly with the story easily flowing from one location to another.
If we hadn’t been told at the beginning that Bernadette was played by understudy Jack Allen- Anderson we really wouldn’t have known – he put on a faultless performance and portrayed Bernadette perfectly.
Joe McFadden was great as Tick, I knew he had won Strictly but didn’t realise he was such a talented singer.
This is an amazing show; it has everything you want in a musical, a good story, great songs and colourful, flamboyant costumes. It is showing at Blackpool Opera House until Saturday 26th October so I would recommend that you make a trip to Blackpool to see it this week.
Rating: 5/5
Tickets cost from £17 (booking fees may apply).
Priscilla Queen of the Desert is at the Blackpool Opera House from 21-25 October 2019, for more information or to book tickets visit www.wintergardensblackpool.co.uk or call the box office on 0844 856 1111.
Winter Gardens & Opera House Theatre, 97 Church Street, Blackpool, Lancashire, FY1 1HL
