| The latest sensation to sweep London's West End | | | | 4. Most of the major designers from the film |
| is a musical hosted in the theatre that previously | | | | were brought back to work on Priscilla's stage |
| gave a home to Monty Python's Spamalot. This | | | | incarnation, but many - particularly the makeup |
| new production is based on the cult movie about | | | | designers - found it touch to reproduce the |
| drag queens careening around the Australian | | | | results that had won them so many accolades on |
| outback. Without even looking at the quirks of | | | | stage. How could that be? Well, performers on |
| musical theatre, it would seem that weird | | | | stage are larger than life and must make their |
| elements abound - what could be left? Plenty. | | | | changes in real time. The makeup designer went |
| Here are six more weird facts about the musical | | | | so far as to use masks for performers' faces to |
| phenomenon known as Priscilla, Queen of the | | | | make changes between scenes possible, rather |
| Desert. | | | | than using real makeup and having the |
| | | | over-the-top nature of Priscilla suffer because of |
| 1. You might not expect it, but Priscilla, Queen of | | | | it! |
| the Desert shares a production team with one of | | | | 5. Since Priscilla's main characters are three drag |
| the most famous modern ballets there is - | | | | queens on a tour of the outback, the producers |
| Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake! Bourne has also | | | | incorporated three new characters -- The Divas -- |
| choreographed such screen-to-stage hits as | | | | to stand in for the song tracks the stars would |
| 2007's Edward Scissorhands, and the production | | | | sing. This means that every time Tick (Jason |
| company behind both Priscilla and Swan Lake is | | | | Donovan), Bernadette (Tony Sheldon) or Adam |
| Back Row Productions. | | | | (Oliver Thornton) starts singing their hearts out on |
| 2. The original film won prizes for best costumes | | | | stage, one (or more) of The Divas sings along! |
| on a budget of just £7,500. For the stage | | | | 6. Priscilla, Queen ofthe Desert has incorporated |
| production, "Priscilla"'s costume designers were | | | | the latest in social networking technology with |
| given over ONE HUNDRED TIMES that! | | | | their twitter account @priscillabus. They regularly |
| 3. The stage production features a medley of | | | | update the feed and respond to questions and |
| songs by Kylie Minogue - is it any wonder the | | | | answers from their fans. If you have questions |
| Minogue sisters have already become "celebrity | | | | about any of these weird facts, you can always |
| fans" of "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert"? Maybe | | | | get in touch directly with the production to ask |
| not, but Kylie and Dannii Minogue went so far as | | | | more about the information! |
| to appear in videos praising the home-grown | | | | Doesn't get much weirder than those fun facts, |
| Aussie classic. Video can be seen at: | | | | does it! |