Priscilla grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

athtrasna

Not long home from Priscilla and a post mortem of it with a friend. Now don't get me wrong it's a great show and one of the best touring productions to grace the theatre since it opened. But I feel the need to have a rant about

• Jason Donovan. Just not good enough any more, his singing is particularly weak and he was totally overshadowed by Richard Grieve who plays Bernadette, but who was also an awesome Tick (Donovan's role) in the West End Production
• Jennifer Maguire. Her acting was ok but her accent was all over the place, supposed to be Australian but also included American & English
• The bus! The leading lady Priscilla, both other productions I've seen had a bus with a full LED side - we got 4 tv sized panels , it just doesn't work
• Audience members singing along - I paid €60 a ticket to hear the professionals, thanks anyway!
• The automatic standing ovation starting at the very start of the bows so if you wanted to see the other bows you had to stand up too

Having said all that it's a great fun show, there is lots of talent and very fit semi naked male performers on stage...one of the better shows I've seen in the GCT.

Posy

athtrasna wrote: »

Jason Donovan. Just not good enough any more, his singing is particularly weak and he was totally overshadowed by Richard Grieve who plays Bernadette, but who was also an awesome Tick (Donovan's role) in the West End Production

Richard Grieve, who was in Home and Away years ago and was briefly in Emmerdale?!

d@rk l0rd

Saw tour earlier this year with Noel Sullivan as Tick who was excellent. Richard Grieve (yes, him from Emmerdale and Home & Away) I think is the best Bernadette I've seen. Also saw him as Tick in the WE production, much prefer his Bernadette.
Yeah, the bus looks naff. Like a trailer on wheels with some LED screens. I guess a full size bus is too big for some venues and also to transport? And I also hated the flashing signs above the stage (Coober Pedy, X miles from Sydney).
Didn't have any audience singing along, unfortunately if it's a non theatre-y crowd they can tend to treat it like a sing-song.

Posy

Oooh, I love Richard Grieve, nom nom!

People singing along would drive me a bit mad too- I'm not paying a fortune for tickets to hear the feckin audience.

cee_jay

athtrasna wrote: »

[*]Jason Donovan. Just not good enough any more, his singing is particularly weak and he was totally overshadowed by Richard Grieve who plays Bernadette, but who was also an awesome Tick (Donovan's role) in the West End Production

Having said all that it's a great fun show, there is lots of talent and very fit semi naked male performers on stage...one of the better shows I've seen in the GCT.

I found Jason Donovans dancing to be very lack lustre in comparison to the other performers. It was as if he had no interest or energy to give the performance if that makes sense? His singing did come across weak, especially in comparison to Richard Grieve (who was amazing IMO).
It was a brilliant show, I had never seen it before so don't have any other productions to compare Priscilla to. The red bar on top of the stage stating the location helped those who had never seen it to understand the show better.

d@rk l0rd

I know why the red bar was there, but thought it looked awful. Audiences in the WE didn't need a tacky red bar.

athtrasna

I agree re the red bar, and Richard Grieve, he was an awesome Bernadette! He was a great Tick too though.

Does anyone know why Material Girl became Venus? I've seen the show in New York & London and I'm pretty sure it was Material Girl in both?

Miss Lockhart

athtrasna wrote: »

I agree re the red bar, and Richard Grieve, he was an awesome Bernadette! He was a great Tick too though.

Does anyone know why Material Girl became Venus? I've seen the show in New York & London and I'm pretty sure it was Material Girl in both?

It was Venus when I saw it in London and that's how it was in the original Australian version afaik. It's Material Girl that's the change for an American audience.

d@rk l0rd

"Material Girl" wasn't in the London show. It was "Venus", who could forget Oliver Thornton making his grand entrance from the top of the stage?

Also the opening number of the WE show "Downtown" has been replaced with "It's Raining Men" in the tour and "Never Been To Me" has been removed completely. "Both Sides Now" in the WE show has been replaced with "True Colours" in the tour.

athtrasna

I assumed the soundtrack I had was West End but it's actually Broadway so it all makes sense now

d@rk l0rd

As far as I know there never was a West End cast recording made. There was an Australian one made (which is the one sold at the tour venues) and a Broadway cast recording (the one you have).