London Calling For Desert Queen

The Age

Wednesday September 17, 2008

Raymond Gill

AUSTRALIAN theatre arrived in London yesterday with heavy artillery. Forty ridiculously over-the-top costumes, 1000 ping pong balls, a flurry of ostrich feathers and 30 performers, just one of whom happened to be British TV favourite Jason Donovan.

The former Neighbours star may be the only name familiar to British audiences who yesterday heard that Australian musical Priscilla Queen of the Desert will take out some prime West End real estate at the Palace Theatre - now home to Spamalot - from March 24, 2009.

Donovan will play the role of drag queen Tick in the show based on the 1994 film about three Sydney drag queens who cross the outback to Alice Springs in a battered bus they have named Priscilla.

One of Donovan's fellow drag queens will be Australian theatre star Tony Sheldon, who will make his West End debut reprising the role of Bernadette.

He already wowed audiences with this role when the musical played extended seasons in Sydney, Melbourne and New Zealand from 2006 and took $90 million in box office.

Sheldon is rumoured to have ousted some heavyweight names for the prize role - including, according to British theatre websites, Phantom of the Opera star Michael Crawford.

"The enormity of this only hit me on the plane over here," Sheldon said yesterday in London.

"For 30 years various people have said to me 'You're going to London' with this or that role'.

"But I owe this to Simon Phillips (Priscilla's director), who invited me to do the very first workshop for the show and who believed in me more than I did myself," he said.

Phillips, who is also artistic director of the Melbourne Theatre Company, brings his production to London - which is awash with more than 30 big-budget musicals - along with a 10-metre bus, 500 costumes by Oscar-winning designer Lizzy Gardiner, 200 wigs and 23 tonnes of glittery scenery.

© 2008 The Age

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