Priscilla Returns, Tony Sheldon Aboard
Returning to Sydney later this year, where she began her triumphant journey, Priscilla Queen of the Desert – the Musical is a phenomenon. On board, will be Tony Sheldon, aka Bernadette, the transsexual drag queen whose journey from the Cross to Alice Springs changes her life (and the views of many in the audience).
Sheldon is, without doubt, in the pantheon of Australia’s finest musical theatre performers of all time. Now 50-something, he’s been performing since he was knee-high to his own knees. Right now he’s celebrating the longest run of an already illustrious career: almost three years in the high heels and Gloria Swanson-style gowns of Bernadette, the transsexual heroine of Priscilla Queen of the Desert – the Musical.
On the phone from New Zealand where the show is triumphantly on tour, he sounds absurdly perky, despite the relentless grind of eight shows a week.
“I love New Zealand, I’ve never been here before and we’re having a wonderful trip. It’s the first outside Australia for the show and we were nervous – how would they take it, would it travel? – but they’re going nuts!”
The NZ tour follows an equally astonishing season in Melbourne, after the show’s premiere run in Sydney.
“We were very unsure of Melbourne,” Sheldon recalls. “But it took off and the only reason we called it a day was because Wicked was coming in to the theatre. We made some changes for New Zealand – localised a couple of references, TV things that don’t translate, but that’s all.”
The legend of the smash hit movie-turned smash hit musical is now as mythic as the old bus herself. And Sheldon has been on the ride since the first workshop.
“I was very lucky,” he says. “We never dreamed that workshop would lead to this. But I’ve realised that emotionally and psychologically some people just aren’t suited to a long run. I’ve discovered that I am. I don’t get bored. And what was desperately important two years ago, well you just get over it.”
On the road with him now is Collette Mann, who was also in that first workshop. She plays several characters including a dancing Koala, but mainly, the bawdy landlady of the outback pub.
“She created the role in the workshop,” says Sheldon. “We’re part of that era that believed ‘the show must go on’ and we do. It’s insane in a way, but it’s what you do. The young guys now treat her like Mother of the Company and they’re in and out of her dressing room all the time!”
A run such as Priscilla’s is unusual in modern Australian theatre where the marathons of London and Broadway just don’t happen. Sheldon has settled in, he says.
“I always have sore feet and back pain,” he says of the inevitable result of hours standing and dancing in ridiculous high heels. “Painkillers are my friend and right now I have a broken toe, which makes things interesting.”
And in the way of silly accidents, it happened at home when he stubbed his toe on a boot – which was on somebody else’s foot at the time.
“Stupid isn’t the word,” he says. “But we soldier on. What’s interesting is that as time has passed there are a lot less people missing performances than when we started. They’ve learned.”
What they’ve learned, of course, is something the modest and gentle Sheldon would never say: how to go about show business and do the real job from a role model without parallel.
“It’s not something they’re taught at drama school,” he observes. “As well as keeping physically fit, you have to learn how to cope with a long run. The boredom. Sheer boredom. You have to keep it fresh for yourself as much as anything. And, even when it’s successful – as Priscilla is – you get nights when people just sit and stare at you without cracking a smile for three hours. You have to rise above it and not let it get to you.
Playing Bernadette also helps, he says. “I’m lucky because she’s three-dimensional. She feels like a real person to me. And I love it when people say to me afterwards ‘I forgot you’re a man.’ I’ve had fan mail from overseas from performers and directors who have been in New Zealand and saw us and they’ve said they didn’t expect to see anything like it. They were bowled over. That’s great.”
Also on the bus for the return Sydney season is Bill Hunter, reprising the role he created in the original movie.
“He’s got this image as a big, gruff scary bloke, but he’s actually a doll and we love him,” says Sheldon. “Although don’t let him know that.”
And how does it feel to be returning to Sydney?
“I’ve given up second-guessing this show. I have no idea any more. We thought it would bomb in Melbourne and it ran and ran. A lot of people said it would never work in Sydney – and it ran and ran. I don’t know – people fall in love with it.”
Priscilla Queen of the Desert – the Musical return season at the Lyric Theatre, Darling Harbour from October 7, 2008; tickets available now from www.ticketmaster.com.au
