Priscilla : A Hit in Brazil

At this rate it could have a run as long as Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap. Priscilla Queen of The Dessert opened on Friday night at the Teatro Bradesco in Sao Paulo, Brazil with the theatre proudly proclaiming that it was the first time in Brazil a current Broadway success opened in that country.
By all accounts, opening night was an unqualified success that shows a gaudy frock and catchy music works in any language.

Drag Star For Hollywood and Film Fame

Courtney Act, seen here in our pic with Danni Minogue recently is headed for Hollywood but is also to play the lead role in a film based on the life of the legendary Kings Cross transgender show biz star Carlotta.

Carlotta, who was born Richard Byron first appeared in the famous Les Girls show at in Kings Cross and for many years worked for the Sydney crime baron Abe Saffron who ruled all night life around Kings Cross with an iron first.

Carlotta

Carlotta also appeared on the TV show Beauty & The Beast where a panel of 4 women would do battle with the 'beast' and host, the late Stan Zemanek as viewers wrote in letters asking for advice.

Les Girls finally closed it's doors in 1993 after a 35 years and was the inspiration for Stephan Elliot's "Priscilla Queen of the Desert". The show continued on the road under the banner of co-star Simone de Troy for several years including a short stint at London's Wimbledon Theatre. Carlotta also appeared in the famous Number 96 , 1970's soap opera playing a transgender girlfriend of Arnold Feather.

Courtney Act, Shane Jenek was a finalist in the 2003 Australian Idol quest and had a hit record "Rub Me Wrong" in 2004. After several attempts he has now secured a working visa for the USA.

Here is Carlotta on Beauty & The Beast :

Priscilla Picks Up A Tony Award

Lizzie Gardner at the 94' Oscars

 
Tony Sheldon (left centre) missed out on a gong at the Tony Awards  but Tim Chappel and Lizzy Gardiner have won the Tony Award for best costume design in a musical for Priscilla, Queen of The Desert.

In 1994 the pair won Oscars at the Academy Awards for the costumes in the original Stephan Elliott film.

Norbert Leo Butz.(left) won best actor for his role as an FBI agent in the play Catch Me If You Can.

Sheldon has won awards in the UK , New Zealand, Australia and Canada for his role as transsexual Bernadette in Priscilla and although the musical received moderate reviews in the US it has been a box office Broadway success.

Priscilla Is a Hit in New York (but not with the NY Times)

New York Social Diary

Priscilla Queen of The Desert has opened in New York with the following revues :

Manhattan's leading society bible New York Social Diary : "....the energy of the cast, the entire ensemble is unstoppable. You don’t even want an intermission; you just want them to keep going, like never leaving the dance floor. And when it was over, the audience was screaming, whistling, whooping, yelling, and of course, applauding "

 New York Magazine : "a well-above-average drag show with the pink afterimage of a plot, and three superbly sincere leads who fleetingly convince us we’re seeing an actual musical with a real emotional arc. This being drag, the illusion is enough." Swenson, "chief sustainer of this illusion," is characterized by Brown as "disciplined."
The New York Post : "it may look a bit ramshackle at times, but 'Priscilla' has a big, joyous heart."
The Salt Lake Tribune : "The stage version is a jukebox musical, loaded with disco classics (it opens with "It's Raining Men," and "I Will Survive" ends Act One) and wild costumes designed by the team -- Tim Chappel and Lizzy Gardiner -- who won an Oscar for the movie's outlandish clothes."
Not so happy was the New York Times : " the "hyperactively splashy show wants so desperately to give audiences a gaudy good time that the results are oddly enervating."

The stage version of Priscilla has completely revived the fortunes of it's writer and the director of the 1994 movie Stephan Elliot.

Elliot's first film Frauds with Phil Collins and Hugo Weaving received praise at the '93 Cannes Film Festival.

He then teamed up with Fraud's producer, the Penfold's Wine heiress Rebel Penfold Russell and they  struck gold with Elliot's original story of Priscilla, the tale about 3 drag queens travelling in a bus to Alice Springs.

 Riding high on the Academy Award 's success for the film he was offered dozens of projects including  a James Bond film. Elliot found Hollywood hard to take and retreated to London 



Taylor in Woop Woop

  He returned to Australia and filmed the odd Welcome To Woop Woop with legendary actor Rod Taylor which was panned in his home country but praised again at Cannes. Woop Woop was inspired by Taylor's performance in the 1960 film The Time Machine.

 A thriller- Eye of The Beholder with Ashley Judd and Ewen McGregor was a financial success although critics hated it.



Elliot & Olivia at Tropfest

And just as he was to begin working on a film based on the failed nuptials in Venice between Qantas trolly dolly Prince Lorenzo Montesini and Melbourne heiress Primrose 'Pitty Pat' Dunlop ( Lorenzo eloped with the best man and left the bride at the altar) Elliot had a skiing accident which put him out of action for 6 years until his 2008 production Easy Virtue with Colin Firth brought success again.

With royalties flowing in from the stage version of Priscilla which is still playing in London's West End, Stephan Elliot is now able to choose his own projects.

Stephan  is currently in Sydney filming another story he has written-A Few Best Men with Olivia Newton John, English actor Kris Marshall and 'Twighlight' star Xavier Samuel due for release next year.

Priscilla's Debut In the Big Apple



Tony Sheldon



On Sunday evening the successful Australian musical Priscilla Queen of The Desert opens on Broadway at the Palace Theatre with a host of Aussie stars in attendance including Guy Pearce who starred in the original film, Jackie Weaver and the show's writer Stephan  Elliot who will accompany Olivia Newton John to the premiere.

The brilliant Tony Sheldon who wowed them in London, Canada and New Zealand takes the lead role again and Better Midler is co-producer of this production helping fine tune it for a US audience

By all accounts the New York production has been receiving an enthusiastic reception during the week of previews.

What of the girls who inspired the original story and film ?.

Simone Troy and Monique Kelly were the two stars of Les Girls, the Kings Cross all male review that packed out a theatre in Sydney during the 1960s and 70s. Every night of the week the two drag stars trod the boards on a tiny cramped stage and presented a gala performance to a wide-eyed audience of heterosexuals who couldn't quite believe the dozen sexy, leggy gals with hips and boobs before them were all men.

Simone and Monique tried several times to leave Les Girls but the theatre's owner, the Kings Cross crime king-pin Abe Saffron had them both beaten up.

Eventually the pair managed to set out on their own  as the novelty of Les Girls wore off and the show went into a decline in the early 1980s.

Simone had ambitious plans and financing his own show set off to London and the Wimbledon Theatre with 12 strapping Australian lads who transformed nightly into gorgeous leggy beauties.

Wimbledon Theatre

 The production was a sight to see as the Shuttle did on the opening night. With little cash left Simone was unable to promote the show and the audience consisted of about 200 local residents of nearby nursing homes bussed in with free tickets.

What they witnessed resembled a Busby Berkley musical with a tall and colourfully lit staircase down which the 12 beauties-Simone leading the charge-descended in a flurry of long legs, feathers and sequins. Half way down the staircase turned into a waterfall as the audience sat transfixed.

Let's hope the New York critics are kinder to Priscilla than the one London critic who attended Simone's Les Girls Wimbledon premiere and who slammed the production in an outrage that female impersonators-and colonial ones at that., were  gracing the hallowed boards of Wimbledon

On the up-side the British travel company Saga Holidays that specialised in pensioner vacations gave the show a raptuous write-up and organised day outings to the show.

Simone eventually retired to the Gold Coast in Queensland and Monique still lives in Kings Cross.

Transgender Airline Takes Off

 Where else but Thailand would an airline have a policy of hiring transgender trolley dollys ?.

Thanyarat Jiraphatpakorn

Known as kathoeys or ladyboys and called the 'third sex', transgender Thais are a common sight all over Thailand and they blend into the culture in every way. When a Thai boy tells his mum and dad he plans to change his sex, the discussion is most likely about whether the family can afford the operation rather than shocked exclamations.

Tiffanys

Now a new Thai airline called PC Air has hired three transgender flight attendants including the winner of the 2007 Miss Tiffany beauty pageant 23 year old Thanyarat Jiraphatpakorn . Tiffanys is a world famous cabaret theatre in the seaside resort of Pattaya near Bangkok and hundreds of tourists flock to the extravagant floor shows to see the beautiful ladyboy chorus lines every night of the week.

Joyce Maynge for Qantas ?

Just last week SBS television screened the popular and classic Thai film Beautiful Boxer, the true story of Parinya Jaroenphon, a young Buddhist monk who became a top Thai boxer while struggling with his sexual identity. Parinya eventually earned enough money in the tough boxing rings of Chonburi while wearing full make-up during bouts to pay for his sex reassignment surgery with the blessing of his parents.

Will the idea catch on ?. As our picture shows, Richard Branson with his world wide Virgin Blue Airlines may be flirting with the idea already and although Thailand has the largest number of transgenders in the world, Australia could give them a run for their money.

Prince Lorenzo

With the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras season hotting up perhaps Qantas could set out on an recruitment drive up Oxford Street.
Priscilla Queen of The Desert has already shown the world what we are made of, or were once made of. It's never quite made clear in the film if all the drag queens have had the 'snip'n'tuck' and Sydney's six foot drag queens delight in keeping it a secret as to whether they have 'gone all the way' down there !.

Qantas has form here for setting trends and hiring trolley dollys of all descriptions and they were the first airline to offer joint family benefits to same sex couples. And  in Aussie egalitarian culture social beginnings of any form have never been a barrier. Now retired but once famous for ditching his prospective bride in Venice for the best man, for years the Egyptian royal Prince Lorenzo Montesini Giustiniani   could be found serving passengers in the first class section at the pointy end of the plane.