Priscilla: Queen of the Desert, King of Uncomfortable Conservatives

Priscilla: Queen of the Desert, King of Uncomfortable Conservatives

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Recently, I was given the opportunity to see the Broadway show "Priscilla: Queen of the Desert" with a group of people. I've heard about the show, and probably walked by enough advertisements in the city to know that the show is done in drag. The person who bought the tickets heard that the show was produced by Bette Midler and it was said "you'd know every song". Sounds like a good time to me. While I enjoyed the musical, the rest of the group couldn't leave faster. It seems that the little information I knew was more than enough to convince the rest to skip this show.

I apologize in advance for any spoilers that mayreside inthis post, but even if I give some things away the text doesn't do the show justice.

The show starts with a trio of women singing and a group of men dancing below them. Then at the climax of the song, the men strip. Then one of the fiercest drag queens gets on stage to announce the main act, who is the main character of the show. He gets on stage with a poofy blue dress and starts singing and dancing. Then he takes ends of the dress and lifts them to reveal two puppets that he controls to look like backup singers. This is only the beginning. The show includes obnoxiously long eyelashes, strategically located holes in clothing and a weird talent for shooting ping-pong balls from between a persons legs.

Of course, this isn't a show for people who are taking life seriously. Do people like those in the show exist in real life? Maybe. However, it's important to know this is just a show. It's for your entertainment. When the lights go up and the you leave the theatre, it's business as usual. The conservative way of thinking will hinder the creative process. It's good to stick with what you know to be safe, but does a person need to be safe from entertainment? Maybe from a misinterpretation of the message. Maybe for young people who don't understand the difference between fantasy and reality. However, for adults living in the area of the major metropolis of New York City; it is a non-issue.

One of the interesting things regarding the group I was with; one of the people was very into television wrestling. The wrestlers on the shows he watched commonly had even less clothing than the men on the Broadway stage and touched each other less. Given the immense popularity of wrestling on television and the audience being mostly male, what's the difference in entertainment? Is walking around in a daisy-duke shorts and bear-hugging other men more masculine an activity than singing and dancing?

Additionally, another comment was made by the group regarding the show could have been performed without the drag element and would have still kept the storyline. Perhaps this is true, but for the liberal it is afar more entertaining experiencing performance done in drag rather than ordinary orientations. It gives the show extra "zing" that it wouldn't have held otherwise.

As I said in the beginning, I liked the show and highly recommend it for people who take entertainment with a grain of salt. Just sit back, and enjoy the show.