Love the Nightlife? Get up and Boogie with Priscilla!
*THIS SHOW HAS BEEN POSTPONED DUE TO ONGOING COVID-19 RESTRICTIONS, NEW DATES TBA*
From the shimmering sequins and glittering frocks to the fantastically feathered headdresses, there’s no doubt Metropolitan Players’ production of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, will be nothing short of fabulous.
But there’s so much more than just the glitz and glamour of the costumes that will have audiences walking away from Newcastle Civic Theatre with a smile on their face and a tear in their eye.
Based on the Oscar-winning smash-hit Australian film, Priscilla is the hilarious and uplifting story of three friends – Tick, Adam and Bernadette – who hop aboard a battered old bus bound for Alice Springs to put on a drag show of a lifetime.
Delving into the grim realities of homophobia and the importance of friendship and community, their epic journey through the Australian outback is a story of doubt, self-discovery and acceptance, delivered with a generous serving of sassiness and a thumping disco-heavy soundtrack.
Since the film was first released in 1994 – and the subsequent musical took to the stage in 2006 – the pioneering LGBT story has resonated with audiences around the world, including local theatre stalwart Julie Black.
The long-standing director of Newcastle’s Metropolitan Players theatre group was in the audience during the musical’s debut season at the Lyric Theatre in Sydney, and again when it returned for its 10th-anniversary tour, having fallen in love with the characters, the costumes and the music.
“There’s something special about Priscilla,” Julie said.
“It’s colourful, it’s funny, everyone knows the music – I grew up with this music in my teens – and you just want to get up and dance.
“There are these great characters, and it tells a wonderful story of them growing through their experiences and people growing in acceptance, which is how it should be.”
There was added attachment to the second production for Julie as she sat and watched four of the actors who had, earlier in their careers, graced the stage under her directorship for the Metropolitan Players.
“I saw the two productions in Sydney and when you’re sitting there, and you hear that music, and you start bopping along with it, and then you see the colour, and you hear the laughter... it's like a big party because you just love this big, beautiful Aussie stage production,” she said.
“And you know what was especially lovely about it? Four of my boys who started with me were in it. David Harris, who played Tick (in 2018), lives in New York and performs all over the world, he’s very famous, but he started off playing Kenickie in Grease for me.
“His understudy was Tom Handley who was in our production of Victor, Victoria, Luke Jarvis is a brilliant dancer and singer who has also done very well, he started with me in Grease, and then there was Patrick Whitbread, who was my young Louis when I did The King and I all those years ago, and he has done lots of shows since.
“I was sitting there watching Priscilla, and honestly, if I’d been wearing a blouse, the buttons would burst. I was so proud of them.”
Seeing actors develop during their time with Metropolitan Players and then go on to have successful professional careers is one of the things that drives Julie to continue being involved in the theatre group, 44 years after she and her husband Graeme were among its founding members.
“I love to nurture talent,” Julie said.
“When I hold auditions, I like to have experienced people because they're your best teachers, but then I like to have some people who may never have been on stage before as well.
“As long as they’ve got the talent, I don't care what company they're with or if they’ve never had singing lessons; if they show talent, I want to use them.
“And if you have a mixture of both, it is such a wonderful opportunity for these new people to be with these experienced people and go, ‘Wow. Aren’t they great – I can be like that’. So it’s lovely to see.”
Julie said she’s spoiled for choice when it comes to casting a production in Newcastle, with the auditions always throwing up some tough decisions.
“It’s generally tough because there is so much talent in Newcastle in every field; it is unbelievable,” Julie said.
“You have to have call-backs because there are so many good people, and wow, what a cast we’ve got for this one. We’re incredibly fortunate.
“When you pick three people for Priscilla to play your Bernadette (Drew Holmes), your Tick (Dave Baker) and your Adam (Luke Baker), you’ve got to make sure you get a rapport going, and what I got through these three is this beautiful friendship, and it shines through the roles, which is very important.
“Some people say it’s a musical, so you only have to worry about singing and dancing, but in mine, you have to act. I have to connect to a character, I want the audience to connect to the characters, which only happens through acting, but I’ve got three brilliant leads for that.
“Then when we had to pick The Divas, we had narrowed it down to 17 girls, and it took half a day mixing them up and getting them to sing one song over and over in different groups and in the end, we chose the three who just blended the best.
“Then you've got the other principal characters – I pick ones who react well with the leads – and then there’s your ensemble, so many people forget that the ensemble is so important.
“I’m also very proud of my production team. They wouldn't be my production team unless they had the goods, and they are the best people to work with.
“When we get the cast together, the first thing I say to everyone is, ‘Right, there are no pedestals here. Everyone is of equal importance. I’m no different to anyone else, I just have a different job, and every single person who does anything, whether you’re an usher or one of the leads, you have a job to do so people can get in this theatre and see a perfect show.
“Everybody’s working together, and it’s a lovely thing. I like to have this family atmosphere.”
When it comes to putting on a production of Priscilla, it’s undoubtedly a big extended family, with around 90 people needed to stage each performance, including 40 cast members, ten orchestra and more than 36 technical staff working tirelessly behind the scenes on everything from the sound and lighting to the hair, make-up, costuming, props and stage crews.
There’s also an actual element of family involved in every production Julie does with Metropolitan Players, starting with her husband Graeme, who is not only the long-serving President of the theatre group but one of the set designers as well. Their son Andrew lends his talents to the poster and program design, while daughter Nicolette shares her mother’s love of performance. For this production, she will showcase her vocal talents as one of the three Divas; however, Julie said family ties certainly didn’t deliver a free ride into the production, with Nicolette having to audition and earn her place in the cast just like everyone else.
“I'm very lucky that the kids were so interested (in being part of the theatre),” Julie said.
“Of course, when they were little, they would say, ‘We’ll just go in your shows’, and I said, ‘No, no, you will audition. When I do a show, I'm the director, I'm not your mummy, so you will audition, and if you're good enough to get in, you’ll get in, and if you're not, you won't get in’.
“They understood, and really, you have to be like that; you pick who’s best for the role because you know that's what makes a better show.
“But it is lovely that they're so involved in it and love it so much. It’s just beautiful.”
Priscilla will be Julie’s 45th production in the director’s chair, having made the switch from being in the thick of things to being side of stage 38 years ago after a spinal fusion brought the curtain down on her time as a performer.
“I sang, danced and acted on stage in a lot of shows,” Julie said.
“I was dance captain, and I have a four-octave singing range. But then I had a spinal fusion, and I couldn’t dance anymore, and I just thought, ok, look, I'll turn to directing and that as it happens has been where my success has been.
“Things happen for a reason. I believe in fate, and while I have a bad back and I’m in a lot of pain all the time, through this, I can escape for a few hours.
“I’m passionate about it and passionate about other people loving it as well because none of us gets paid. It's a passion you feel; it's not a job, it's a wonderful, wonderful hobby.
“And there’s just this beautiful camaraderie amongst theatre people; they're friends for life. People I met when I was starting out when I was 17 are still my friends, and I love that.
“The day I don't enjoy it, I'd give it up, but at the moment, it’s still this little escape from reality; it's lovely.”
Priscilla will certainly offer audiences a fantastic escape from reality, with its flamboyant costumes, which have been made specifically for this show, and its non-stop hit parade of dance-floor classics including Its Raining Men, I Say a Little Prayer for You, Venus, Hot Stuff, I Will Survive, I Love the Nightlife and many more.
However, Julie’s excitement about the upcoming production is tinged with a sense of sadness and anxiety over the future of her beloved theatre group.
The lockdowns and closures brought about by COVID-19 have left the Metropolitan Players hanging by a thread, with their future beyond this production still up in the air.
“Priscilla was supposed to be on last year, I had completed my auditions in December 2019, and we were getting ready for it in March 2020 when we’d just finished the play, The 39 Steps. And boy, were we lucky we got through that one because we finished on the Saturday night, and the following Saturday night, the theatre had closed down (because of the COVID-19 lockdown).
“That meant Priscilla was off, and we were going, ‘Oh my God, it costs so much money, what are we going to do?’ because we’ve got a warehouse, and we’ve still got to pay for that.
“Even with this production going ahead at the moment, people are buying their tickets, but we don't see any of that money until the show’s over. In the meantime, we’ve got all these bills to pay and everything costs. You’ve got the printing of your posters, the printing of your programs, you’ve got to pay for sound and lighting as we bring in huge boards and we have over 30 mics on people.
“Everything on that stage is made for this show; we don’t hire anything. The costumes alone, you can imagine (the cost). The costumes they were trying on the other day are magnificent, all designed and made by these two people who have been at the warehouse these past two weeks working all day, every day, and the costumes are unbelievable.
“With the current restrictions, the theatre’s at 50 per cent capacity... at 75 per cent we could still live but at 50, whether Mets continues or not after Priscilla, whether Mets can do next year, I just don't know, and I’m on tenterhooks all the time.
“It would break our hearts (if it folded)... Graeme and I are the only original members left from when it was formed in 1977; we’re the only two.
“He’s been President since 1983, and I've been secretary a bit longer, and it’s gone from this little company that just grew bigger and bigger and bigger and has just been incredible.
“I have an assistant director who I'm turning over the first play to next year, to give him a go at doing it, we’re trying to bring people in, young ones, and teach them so they can take over from us because we’re not spring chickens anymore.
“So I want to see Mets live on for these younger people because when I look at them when they come to the rehearsal, they’re so happy, and they’re smiling and excited, and there’s nothing like it.”
Ensuring the run of nine shows in August is a sell-out will certainly be an important part of securing a future for the iconic Newcastle theatre group. Julie said there are plenty of reasons to check out the production.
“I think audiences are going to be saying ‘I don't know what I love the best. Was it the costumes? Was it the acting? Was it the singing? Was it the dancing? Was it the bus?’ So it’s going to be fabulous,” she said.
“I sit through every single performance, and I’ve been to every single rehearsal, and I never get sick of it. I sit out there, and I’m so excited because I love hearing the audiences’ reactions, and I’m just proud as punch every time; I never tire of it.
“I think they’re just going to be absolutely enthralled by the look and the sound, and they’re just going to sit there and go, wow, I could actually stay and see it again. I wouldn’t be surprised if people do see it twice – you could come and see it just for the costumes alone; they’re magnificent.”
Pictured Top Photo L–R: Dave Baker, Drew Holmes and Luke Baker
Photo Above by Morgan Creek - Alice Photography
Priscilla, Queen of the Desert by the Metropolitan Players, will open at the Newcastle Civic Theatre on Wednesday,
18 August. The run of nine performances finishes up with two shows on Saturday, 28 August. To book your tickets visit
www.civictheatrenewcastle.com.au, or to find out more about metropolitan players, visit www.metropolitanplayers.com.au
