Review: PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT at National Hispanic Cultural Center Journal Theater

It takes guts to do a show like Priscilla Queen of the Desert, a drag-queen pop musical based on a popular Oscar winning movie-in a venue like the National Hispanic Cultural Center's grand and elegant Journal Theater. To do it right, the show needs to be big. Big glitz, big musical numbers, big choreography, big audience. Last Saturday, Albuquerque's Drag-queen performance group 'the Dolls' went as big as they could. But because of the natural limitations that come with community theater, the show could not be enormous. And because there wasn't enough character development to distract from these limitations, the empty spaces between each vamping glitzy drag queen began to detract.

The show focuses on three drag queens, Tick, Bernadette, and Felicia, taking a journey across the Australian desert, so they can perform a show in a small casino. Why are they taking this journey? Well, they have their reasons. But these motivations are introduced by-the-way, and briefly-in order to get going with the musical numbers, banter, and jokes. Later, the plot develops these motivations into an effective message of acceptance. But there's an obvious preference for campy-fun 'showbiz', over character development. Not to dismiss campy showbiz, but wherever the glitz faltered, the play also faltered-because the less-glamorous aspects of the play were too thin.

For example, about halfway through the show, the scene opens on Felicia-played by Nicholas Handley-sitting atop the bus and lip synching to an opera aria. At first, the scene is strange enough to elicit laughs. But the song goes on too long, Felicia doesn't stand up, and her only choreography is in her arms. Throughout the show, Handley drenches his role with an infectious, bubbly, hilarious sass-but in this scene, alone upstage with at least thirty feet from the front row, for all her charisma Felicia practically blends in to the curtains. If director Kenneth Anslosan had given the scene a deeper level of humanity than mere entertainment, the audience would have had more to watch.

The play is strongest when drawing on the personal ethos of its characters. The scenes that portray the queens in conflict with society because of their sexuality are particularly dynamic-bravely exposing the subtleties of intolerance (and acceptance). Whenever the traveling queens encounter this kind of conflict, the actors deliver their best performances.

But Phillip Arran, who played Bernadette, was the one actor who felt grounded in the personality of his character at all times. Even when delivering the most flippant and ridiculous jokes, Bernadette's every action drew straight from her complex and human core. When portraying her heavier emotions, Arran's performance was all the fuller-as a result of his consistency.

The primary problem with this show is that the Dolls probably don't have the means to produce such a big-big blowout as Priscilla demands. That problem is probably not going to change, within this run. But perhaps the other problem, of character, will. The performance I saw was on the first weekend, when all the actors still seemed a little too fresh. But by the second weekend, the ensemble should be more settled-in, and projecting more confidence. Perhaps this confidence will allow them to inhabit their characters more-enough to pick up where the glamor leaves off.

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