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A Fabulous Road Trip
Priscilla Queen Of The Desert
Sunderland
Empire
Monday 31st August – Saturday 5th September 2015
Based
upon the 1994 film of the same name, Priscilla is a stunning musical filled
full of popular songs.
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Priscilla Queen of the Desert
Photo: Paul Coltas
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Tick
(Duncan James) is a drag queen who lip syncs along to songs in a club in Sydney, Australia. A phone call from his wife Marion (Naomi
Slights) points out that his son is missing him and perhaps he should visit
him. As the family live in Alice Springs, in central Australia, Tick will have to go on
a road trip. Marion also needs an act to
entertain people at her business and so the trip will solve that problem too.
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Priscilla Queen of the Desert
Photo: Paul Coltas
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Tick
asks the young carefree Adam (Adam Baily) and Bernadette, who is longer in the
tooth, (Simon Green) along to help him with the performance. They buy a bus and
name it Priscilla and set off for a six day journey to Alice Springs. At the stop offs they
plan to rehearse the new show.
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Priscilla Queen of the Desert
Photo: Paul Coltas
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There
are some key differences between the film and this Stephan Elliott and Allan
Scott penned musical is that the bulk of the singing in the film is mimed to
the original recordings of the songs. In the musical either the songs are sung
live directly or mimed as others sing. To help create this lip-syncing effect
with have 3 amazing divas who descend onto the stage to support. The wonderful
voices of Lisa-Marie Holmes, Laura Mansell and Catherine Mort really add to the
power of the performances.
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Priscilla Queen of the Desert
Photo: Paul Coltas
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The
live band under musical director Matthew J Loughran did not put a note wrong as
the music added life to the story. From Downtown to I Will Survive via Don’t
Leave Me This Way and Always On My Mind, the classic hits keep coming.
The
costumes are as flamboyant as they are stunning and the lead characters are
given very little time at times to change their dresses. The wardrobe
department must be working overtime behind the scenes.
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Priscilla Queen of the Desert
Photo: Paul Coltas
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The
real winners are the wonderful personalities of the 3 singers on the road trip.
Simon Green and Adam Bailey pull of the often dry humour with very funny
results. Duncan James has moved from singing in Blue to musical star very
easily. The early appearance of his naked top half made for loud approval from
the audience. That aside, he did deliver the concerns of a father missing his
son well.
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Priscilla Queen of the Desert
Photo: Paul Coltas
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The
second half is meant to feature problems with Priscilla the bus, but she
literally broke down resulting in a pause in the proceedings as she was one
girl that didn’t want to have fun. There
followed a quick recovery by the cast when it did restart as mechanic Bob
(Philip Childs) was offered a lift back home.
Priscilla
is a gorgeous, bright and loud production with a dry sense of humour. It is thoroughly
entertaining and full of great songs.
On
The Web:
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/priscillabus
Tickets:
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Priscilla Queen of the Desert
Photo: Paul Coltas
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In person at
the Box Office on High Street West
Box Office: 0844 871 3022*
Groups 10+: 0844 871 3042
Booking fee applies to telephone and online
sales
Tour Dates
2015
Monday 31 August – Saturday 5
September
Monday
14 September – Saturday 19 September
Monday
21 September – Saturday 26 September
Monday 2 November – Saturday 7 November
2016
Monday 14 March – Saturday 19 March
Monday
21 March – Saturday 26 March
Tuesday
29 March – Saturday 2 April
Monday 4 April – Saturday 9 April
Monday 11 April – Saturday 16 April
Torquay Princess Theatre www.atgtickets.com/torquay
