Two-dozen disco-era hits provide the sing-along, dance-along soundtrack to the international smash Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert, and if the latest from Celebration Theatre doesn’t lend itself to downsizing like The Boy From Oz and The Color Purple, this unexpected celebration of family and its three unlikely Australian hero(in)es provide more than enough reason to cheer.

The glamorous threesome consists of post-op transsexual Bernadette (Tad Coughenour), in mourning for her recently deceased husband; pretty boy Adam (Lyle Colby Mackston), whose drag persona Felicia may well be his way of surviving being “different”; and Tick (Mario Burrell), who’s brought the trio together in response to a phone call from his gone-but-not-forgotten wife Marion (Gina Torrecilla), a nightclub owner in far-away Alice Springs.

Marion’s club is, it seems, in need of a fill-in act, and who better to provide one than a man who looks sensational in stiletto heels and mile-high hair and who can lip-sync with the best?

It’s more than just loyalty, however, that makes Tick agree to put together an act for his ex. Tick’s got a prepubescent son named Benji (Jack Brody) whom he hasn’t seen since leaving for the big city, and both Marion and the boy feel it’s time for a father-and-son reunion.

And so these three intrepid queens of drag “Go West” across the Australian desert in the “budget Barbie campervan” they’ve dubbed “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.” Needless to say, multiple adventures ensue.

Among the folk they meet along the way are small town mechanic Bob (George Chavez), who takes a fancy to Bernadette; Bob’s much younger “performance artist” mail-order bride Cynthia (Andrea Somera), whose unique way of popping out ping-pong balls gives new meaning to “Pop Muzik”; a sexy shirtless aborigine tour guide named Jimmy (Marqell Edward Clayton); and Shirley (Katie Self), a butch bruiser of a barmaid about to discover her feminine side.

Book writers Stephen Elliott (who wrote and directed the movie) and Allan Scott have wisely stuck close to the flick’s proven storyline while finding ways to turn song hits like “I Say A Little Prayer,” “Don’t Leave Me This Way,” and “Hot Stuff” into plot-propelling musical theater songs.

Like the movie that inspired it, Priscilla The Musical doesn’t shy away from the desert trek’s darker moments. Homophobia rears its ugly head on more than one occasion even as our fearless trio encounter love and acceptance from the most unlikely of quarters.

Jessica Hanna’s Celebration Theatre directorial debut reveals attention to character and visual pizzazz, her three leads in particular delivering the drag queen goods and then some.

The statuesque, rich-voiced Burrell gives Tick a wounded but still surviving pride and ocean-deep paternal love. Coughenour’s Bernadette combines a delicate blonde beauty, a galvanized steel edge, and sublime vocals. A revelatory Mackston looks stunning, sings gorgeously, and gives sass with the best of them.

Chavez’s Bob proves that gentlemen can be found in the most unexpected of places, and his velvet-piped Miss Understanding gives new meaning to the term “bearded lady.”

Torrecilla’s spunky Marion, Self’s rough tough Shirley, Clayton’s good-natured Jimmy, Brody’s sweet-natured, sweet-voiced Benji (alternating with his brother Nick), and Somera’s wonderfully wacky Cynthia are featured gems, with Self, Somera, and vocal dazzler Markesha Chatfield’s Queen Diva’s three-part harmonies doing Dreamgirls proud.

Though about half a dozen songs from the Broadway original (and just as many drag queens) have ended up on the cutting room floor, triple-threat sensation Jason Du Puy (Young Bernadette) looks absolutely luscious in female attire and go-go boys John Paul Batista, Clayton, and Jamie Pierce are pretty stunning themselves.

Choreographer Roman Pantoja’s quirky, show-stopping-dance sequences merit cheers as do musical director Jennifer Lin and her dance-club-ready band perched high above the stage, sound designer Rebecca Kessin providing a pitch-perfect vocal-instrumental mix.

Unlike previous Celebration smashes The Boy From Oz and The Color Purple, however, whose Broadway production designs were only incidental to their success, Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert’s spectacular sets and costumes were absolutely integral to the show’s hit status, which is why the Desert Queen loses something in the transition from great-big to intimate that Oz and Purple did not.

Pete Hickok’s scenic design does score points for figuring out how to make a bus appear as if by magic from modules already on stage and morph into various configurations throughout the show, and Allison Dillard’s outlandishly imaginative (if far fewer) costumes are topped by Byron Batista’s deliciously over-the-top wigs.

Michael O’Hara’s multitude of ingenious props and Brandon Baruch’s vibrantly colorful lighting are both quite fabulous, and Felicia’s lip-synching “Sempre Libera” from atop the bus gets recreated to imaginative effect, but a collection of WTF forehead masks look somewhere between silly and bizarre.

Dialect coach Tuffet Schmelzle insures spot-on Aussie accents in performers cast by Jami Rudofsky. Cameron Jamarr Davis, Miki Holmes, and Dekontee Tucrkile are understudies. De Puy and Somera are dance captains and Monazia Smith is fight captain.

Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert is produced by Stephen Soucy and Jay Marcus. Mark Giberson, Parnell Damone Marcano, David Tran, and Alan Wethern are associate producers. Anne Brashier is assistant director.

Karen Osborne is production stage manager and Smith is assistant stage manager.

Even lacking the Broadway original’s deservedly acclaimed spectacle and scale, with standout performances and songs to get your groove thing shaking from here to Down Under, the latest from Celebration Theatre engages, delights, energizes, and inspires.

Celebration Theatre at Lex Theatre, 6760 Lexington Ave., Hollywood.
www.celebrationtheatre.com

–Steven Stanley
February 16, 2018
Photos: Matthew Brian Denman

Tags: Celebration Theatre, Los Angeles Theater Review