THEATRE REVIEW: Priscilla Queen of the Desert: The Musical at Sheffield Lyceum

AS the dust settled on one drag queen comedy drama, another rolled into Sheffield this week.

And Priscilla Queen of the Desert: The Musical certainly has big stilettos to fill after the success of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie’s three-week run.

Sadly, the Australian-based road-trip adventure about three drag queens fell flat, with a late opening and clunky finale.

After a 15-minute delay, audience members were told there had been three cast changes during Monday’s opening night, which may have contributed to the bumpy ride.

The musical tells the story of Bernadette (Miles Western), Adam (Justin-Lee Jones) whose drag name is Felicia, and Tick, also known as Mitzi (Joe McFadden), who set out across the desert in an old school bus named Priscilla.

Transgender Bernadette is coaxed out of retirement by Mitzi and persuaded to join the road trip to Alice Springs, where Mitzi’s wife and young son live, and give the town a show like they’ve never seen before.

Interspersed along the way are classic disco songs and gay anthems including Boogie Wonderland, Go West and It’s Raining Men.

A trio of talented singers known as the Divas — Jacqui Sanchez, Rosie Glossop, Claudia Kariki — really helped carry the show with their amazing powerhouse vocals, alongside a talented dance troupe who smoothly handled a lot of quick changes.

But the key ingredient to this production — the relationship between the three leading queens — never really came together.

Despite being a late edition, Jones gave the strongest performance as the camp and catty Felicia with a spectacular rousing version of Kyle Minogue’s Confide in Me during the finale.

Holby City star and Strictly Come Dancing winner McFadden gave a sweet performance as the absent father reunited with his son in the closing scenes, but failed to make much impact prior to that.

Western’s Bernadette also failed to pack a punch, which was disappointing as the fierce matriarch has some of the best comebacks and put-downs in the script. 

His softly-spoken delivery often faded into the aether and despite me sitting near the front, I sometimes struggled to hear him.

The trio’s stage costumes also felt more like a tribute to pantomime than drag and as lairy audience members began shouting out, it started to feel more like one as well.

Lacklustre lead performances were in stark contrast to my first experience of this musical, which came courtesy of Rotherham Musical Theatre Company three years ago at the Civic. 

It’s not often an am-dram version can top a professional production, but as this Jason Donovan-backed show came to an end, the theatre was left in darkness during a clumsy set change and Priscilla’s disappointing fate was sealed.