Broadway Hotties: Nick Adams & Joshua Buscher

A Broadway Makeover for ‘Priscilla’ Queens

By PATRICK HEALY

of NYTIMES
IN the London production of the musical “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert,” the first character who commands the stage is a minor one, a drag queen named Miss Understanding who trades in risqué repartee.




“I’m so excited, I’ve had to use gaffer tape to contain myself,” she says, then mimes ripping tape off her groin. “Ow! I love a good Brazilian. Any out there?”



Those jokes are gone from the new Broadway version of “Priscilla,” which is in previews at the Palace Theater. Miss Understanding’s plot function has also been pared. And now the first character who grabs your focus is the leading man, Tick (played by Will Swenson), as he wheels a suitcase across the stage.



These changes are among many that “Priscilla” has undergone in a long and rare sort of journey to Broadway, from the 1994 Australian movie to the musical’s first workshop in Sydney in 2005 — and then full productions there and in Melbourne; Auckland, New Zealand; the West End in London; Toronto; and New York, where the show opens March 20.



Simon Phillips, the musical’s director from the start, said that his North American producers — led by the entertainer Bette Midler — have offered extensive notes on polishing “Priscilla” for the highly competitive market of commercial Broadway. “Audiences here like to know, quickly and clearly, who their leading man is,” Mr. Phillips said he had learned, so opening with Miss Understanding might confuse some people.



Ms. Midler said she was among those advising that a musical about two drag queens and a transsexual on a road trip didn’t need extra raciness or profanity. One common obscenity, for instance, is used about a dozen times in the Broadway version, down from 18 elsewhere.



“You still get the flavor that has always been part of ‘Priscilla,’ but it’s not quite as down and dirty, not as in your face so much so that you might pull back,” Ms. Midler said in an interview. “It manages to have all the fun of camp without too much of the dark side of camp and drag. Which for Broadway, I think, is a good thing.”



If “Priscilla” has been pruned to appeal to tourists from Middle America — a lucrative bloc that has helped make some producers here more conservative than those in the West End and Australia — the musical is still more tart, catty and flamboyantly gay than any other major show running in New York.



To be sure, the production isn’t shy with its base about its true colors. Cast members of the show gave one of their first long interviews to The Advocate, a magazine popular with gay readers, and a direct-mail promotion included a message from Ms. Midler — a favorite performer among gay men — (complete with a pink backdrop) that began, “Hello my darlings!” Several songs by Madonna, another gay idol, have been added, and she has also replaced the less-famous (and Australian) Kylie Minogue as the heroine of one of the drag queens, Felicia (Nick Adams).

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Nick Adams BULGE



One of my other CRUSHES from Broadway: Joshua Buscher

Just check out that ASS



TIME TO DIVE RIGHT IN



Joshua Buscher Broadway Bares from Matthew Rettenmund on Vimeo.