A ‘perfect antidote’ to real-life drama
Jason Donovan is in the driving seat as Priscilla hits the road. Jeffrey Davies catches up with him.
IT’S time to “shake your groove thing once again” as Priscilla, Queen of the Desert: The Musical takes to the stage in Bath next week as part of an extensive UK tour. Based on the Oscar-winning film, it’s the hilarious adventure of three friends who hop aboard a battered old bus bound for Alice Springs in the Australian Outback to put on a show of a lifetime.
This new production stars Miles Western as Bernadette, Nick Hayes as Adam/felicia, and Edwin Ray as Tick/mitzi.
It marks actor and singer Jason Donovan’s first time as a producer, with Mark Goucher, Gavin Kalin and Matthew Gale completing his producing team.
Full of glitz, glamour and spectacular costumes, the heartwarming tale is also loved for its fantastic singalong soundtrack of dancefloor classics and disco anthems, including It’s Raining Men, I Will Survive, Hot Stuff, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, Finally and I Love The Nightlife.
The last time I interviewed the multi-talented Jason Donovan, he was starring in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. This time around he is the show’s co-producer, a very different role. How does he define the essence of his new producing role?
“A producer brings people together. He or she normally has a passion for a project and an understanding of what the audience of that project is and requires. The producer goes out there and takes it to the people. Priscilla is a title everyone knows. I obviously know it very well because I was in the West End version of the show and did two subsequent tours. I felt if ever I was going to produce something, this was the right show for me,” a most friendly Jason Donovan told me ahead of the production’s opening in the West Country next week.
Did having a role as an actor in previous runs of Priscilla come in handy?
“Yeah, of course, because I had an understanding of the characters and the plot,” he replied. “Being a producer in my capacity is not just about raising money and bringing a team together. It’s also about being able to speak to people like yourself. So because of my profile as an actor and a singer it is two-fold.”
Jason Donovan came into our lives in the late ’80s as Scott Robinson in the hit Australian television soap Neighbours. Throughout 1988 and 1989 he had several hit songs, including Too Many Broken Hearts, Sealed With A Kiss and, of course, Especially For You with his soap co-star Kylie Minogue, while his album Ten Good Reasons was the best-selling album of 1989.
Since then, Jason has rarely been away from the stage or screen. His record-breaking
run in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in the early 1990s preceded his performances in The Rocky Horror Show, which brought him to Bath in 1998, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Priscilla, The Sound of Music, Annie Get Your Gun, The King’s Speech, Million Dollar Quartet and Jeff Wayne’s The War Of The Worlds. In 2019, he spent the summer at the London Palladium as Pharoah in Joseph and this autumn plays his first music concert tour in five years with his Even More Good Reasons show.
So why did the engaging star and a father-of-three decide to take on an off-stage role this time around? Was the business aspect of his profession something he had hankered after?
“Traipsing up and down this country doing eight shows a week as a performer is wonderful. But sometimes it’s nice being at home and spending some time with your family,” he answered, touchingly.
“I also wanted to go in a different direction for a while. Priscilla was an opportunity that I couldn’t really say no to on a number of levels.”
So, as well as continuing to tread the proverbial boards in a theatre or TV drama, or taking to the stage to sing, is producing a show a direction that Jason would like to pursue?
“Yeah. For sure. I’ve done about six or seven of my own tours. I’ve probably been in over 30 productions of musicals and theatre shows. I’ve done radio. I’ve done TV. I’ve done film. So I have an experience to bring to the table,” he answered matterof-factly.
“Producing is about marketing. It’s about doing radio ads. It’s about knowing your audience. It’s about believing in the project. If anyone can be a producer, I am sure I can,” he added with an understandable self-belief borne out of an allround successful experience in his profession.
Priscilla Queen of the Desert is a favourite show the world over. A feel-good show and a great evening out. End of. Or is there more depth to it than that? Perhaps it has meaning that each of us has to find for ourselves, I remarked.
“Yeah, there is more depth to it,” Jason stressed, immediately.
“It’s about misfits. It’s about intolerance. It’s about adversity. It’s about coming together. It’s about life, I suppose. Then again it’s the Australian landscape and the prejudice, tolerance and intolerance that the setting has for these three drag queens. It’s the perfect musical for today. And it’s under-scored by one of the greatest camp anthems of all time: I Will Survive,” he said.
“You know, coming through this pandemic, I think it’s interesting that a show like Priscilla has even more leverage. That’s because musicals are pure escapism with a heightened sense of reality. I think we’ve had enough drama in the last 15 months. And this show is the perfect antidote. The thing about Priscilla is it’s not just completely saccharin sweet. It can be quite harsh and confronting,” he said.
A global phenomenon, could Priscilla: Queen of the Desert be set anywhere in the world. Or is it essentially an Australian show that just has to be set in Australia?
“Well, that’s an interesting question, Jeffrey. I don’t know quite know how to answer it because it is uniquely an Australian story,” he pondered. “But yeah, of course, we know in film and television and life that there are probably only a bunch of themes: love, hate, hope, fear. All those sorts of emotions that one puts into a plot. I think a good musical should always start with a great story. And Priscilla is just that. A great story. It could be set against another backdrop. But I think the characters are intrinsically Australian.”
Jason was thrust into the global limelight when he was cast as Scott alongside Kylie Minogue’s Charlene in Neighbours. Does he have happy memories of being in a show that was so universally loved?
“It was a long time ago. So, yes. There’s not really a day goes by where I don’t refer back to it in some way, shape or form. I think an opportunity like that comes along once in a lifetime. Sometimes more, sometimes never. You have to embrace it and you have to work out how to create opportunities beyond that. But look, the real test of an artist is when you don’t just have a moment like that. It’s when you can create a 35-year-old career out of a stepping stone like that,” Jason said with the smile of a man who has done just that.
■ Priscilla, Queen of the Desert: The Musical is playing the Theatre Royal Bath from July 26 to 31. Tickets can be booked on 01225 448844 or online at www.theatreroyal.org.uk
You know, coming through this pandemic, I think it’s interesting that a show like Priscilla has even more leverage. That’s because musicals are pure escapism with a heightened sense of reality. Jason Donovan