It is no intended slight of the high camp musical Priscilla, Queen of the Desert to note that its prime assets are its costumes, the wittiest, most eye-popping wardrobe you will probably ever see on a legitimate stage.
Fortunately, designers Tim Chappel and Lizzy Gardiner, who won an Oscar for the over-the-top duds of the 1994 movie of Priscilla, had the assignment of dressing a show about cabaret drag queens, so they knew that nothing they came up with could be excessive. And proving that nothing succeeds like excess, they won a Tony for their stage costumes when the show landed on Broadway two years ago.
Like the film, the musical tells a story about a trio of professional cross-dressers wending their way from Sydney to the outback of Australia where one of the three staunchly gay men will meet his 8-year-old son ― the product of an amiably over heterosexual marriage ― for the first time. I know we are supposed to care, but the predictable plot seems to exist only for the sake of giving us a breather between the many production numbers.
Besides, what narrative could possibly compete with Chappel and Gardiner’s costume parade? The title character is the wheezy old bus in which our intrepid trio travels across Australia, and when it needs a paint job, out comes the mostly male ensemble dressed as giant paintbrushes.
For no particular reason, someone leaves a cake outside and it rains, which cues a rendition of MacArthur Park, complete with a chorus line of dancing cupcakes. And so it goes, with dresses made of flip-flop sandals, costumes of ostriches and other feathered friends, the skimpiest of cheerleader uniforms, clown-colored bell bottoms and rainbow Afros, and other phantasmagoria.
At Miami’s Arsht Center, where Priscilla plays through Sunday, the audience tends not to tear out of there before the show is over. But if you are seeing the show at the Kravis Center (where it will be from April 23-28), do not sprint away during the curtain call or you will miss a sublimely wacky costuming joke based on an Aussie landmark.
Priscilla’s humor is often R-rated, with a decidedly gay sensibility. It’s “I am what I am” attitude will, of course, bring to mind La Cage aux Folles, but the show that it smacks of even more, alas, is Mamma Mia!, with its jukebox score that often comes out of nowhere. From the opening number, It’s Raining Men, with a trio of divas descending from the rafters, the show is a musical retrospective of the past 40 years or so of pop hits.
You could wince at the odd song choices or just go along with it, bopping along with such soundtrack-of-your-life items as Material Girl, I Will Survive, Hot Stuff and Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. Take a lesson from the girls and accept Priscilla for the empty-headed fun it is.
At Tuesday’s opening at the Arsht, understudy Chris Klink filled in capably as Tick/Mitzi, the father suddenly conflicted about his son learning what fringe of show business is his specialty. Even better is Scott Wills as Bernadette, a melancholic transsexual who attracts a wistful auto mechanic on the way to their Oz destination. And flashiest of all is coquettish Bryan West as Adam/Felicia, who makes the mistake of trying to fool a bunch of macho barflies.
But efforts to get involved in the dramatic twists of the script by Stephan Elliott and Allan Scott will only take you so far. Go instead for the explosive production numbers and those jaw-dropping costumes.
PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT, Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami. Through Sunday. Tickets: $26-$99. Call: (305) 949-6722. The show comes to the Kravis Center from April 23-28. Call 832-7469 for tickets and showtimes or visit www.kravis.org.