The Playhouse, Edinburgh
Four stars
Things have changed in the thirty-odd years since Stephan Elliott’s flamboyant road movie, The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert, helped liberate Australia from the Fosters and Castlemaine XXXX swilling hordes and dragged up the world. In the two decades since Elliott first transposed his pink neon vision to the stage and added the campest soundtrack on the planet, the culture depicted therein has become even more ubiquitously mainstream.
None of this stands in the way of director Ian Talbot’s new touring reboot, which explodes with colour even as it stays true to its show bar backdrop. For those living in a closet for the past two decades, the story concerns a cross-country road trip undertaken by drag queens Tick and Felicia and transgender woman Bernadette. While ostensibly the trip is to play a residency at Tick’s ex wife’s casino, it is really an excuse for him to be reunited with his young son.
In what is effectively Summer Holiday in sequins, our glamtastic trio hit the road in a soon to be pinked up bus, stopping off at assorted unreconstructed outposts en route. The small town prejudice they encounter as they go is counteracted by a coming together in solidarity by way of seemingly limitless wardrobes and attitudes to match. Then there is the array of retro pop bangers that punctuate every scene by way of Stephen ‘Spud’ Murphy’s inventive arrangements played live by Richard Atkinson and band and brought to epic life by way of Matt Cole’s choreography.
So Gamble and Huff’s Don’t Leave Me This Way is rendered as a quasi gospel number accompanying a black clad funeral, while both the routine and vocal arrangement of Tony Hatch and Jackie Trent’s Colour My World resemble a turn from a 1970s prime time TV Saturday night variety special. The rendition of MacArthur Park, meanwhile, sees Jimmy Webb’s off-kilter classic given the full disco treatment a la Donna Summer’s Giorgio Moroder produced version and much more besides.
All these are gloriously delivered by the show’s all-singing, all-dancing ensemble led vocally by the Three Divas, the sparkling all girl trio of Leah Vassell, Bernadette Bangura and Jessie May, who again seem to have stepped out of a showbiz special. Kylie’s Can’t Get You Out of my Head, meanwhile, sounds like Cathy Dennis and Rob Davis’ retro-futuristic floor-filler could be a contender for a new Aussie national anthem if ever required.
Leading the charge on all this is Kevin Clifton as Tick, aka Mitzi, Nick Hayes as Adam, aka Felicia, and Adèle Anderson as Bernadette, whose characters lay bare their respective vulnerabilities beyond the make up, wigs and flamboyant outfits. As they spar between themselves and assorted high kicking rednecks on Andrew Exeter’s suitably gaudy set, they reveal a microcosm of Australian society in search of its own identity beyond the clichés.
With pretty much every line of Elliot and Allan Scott’s book loaded with innuendo, this makes for a show as layered as Vicky Gill’s extravagant costumes. Peter Duncan brings up the rear as groupie mechanic Bob, whose mail order bride shows off her own talents in eye-popping fashion. Combined, this makes for a riotous ride through the Australian outback of the mind before speeding off towards tomorrow.
The Herald, April 17th 2026
ends
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