Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

WHEN PUSH COMES TO GLEE

Ralph Sierra: “I admit to having a less sunny outlook on the future of mankind than you, but we both watch ‘60 Minutes’ (which is a good thing), so I assume you saw “Gospel for Teens” Parts 1 and 2 Sunday night. I thought you might comment on them because they were the most uplifting shows I have seen in a long time.”

☞ Uplifting indeed. Push (later made into the movie “Precious”) meets “Glee.”

GREEN IT. MEAN IT.

That “Glee” hyperlink led me to Glee Earth Day Tips. (Did you know that 90% of washing-machine energy consumption goes to heating the water? Using the WARM or even the COLD setting when appropriate can save most of that.)

And that link led me to Fox’s Green It, Mean It video. Can you believe it? Fox? It is downright bizarre for Newscorp to be working so hard simultaneously to save and destroy the environment.

(Here’s Paul Krugman on the climate-change deniers. In tiny part: “. . . Just a few weeks ago Anthony Watts, who runs a prominent climate denialist Web site, praised the Berkeley project and piously declared himself ‘prepared to accept whatever result they produce, even if it proves my premise wrong.’ But never mind: once he knew that [their result did prove his premise wrong], Mr. Watts dismissed the hearing as ‘post normal science political theater.’ . . . [I]t’s worth stepping back for a moment and thinking not just about the science here, but about the morality . . .”)

GLEE NOT GAY ENOUGH FOR YOU?

They’ve turned “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert” into a Broadway musical of the same name so over the top I decided to just get over my masculinity issues and cheer for the drag queens along with everybody else.

“Performed with GLEAMING VERVE! Every conceivable surface has been decked with SEQUINS, spattered with COLORED LIGHTS, or trimmed in FEATHERS and FRINGE.” – So said the New York Times . . . or so the show’s producers were able to excerpt a generally downbeat review.

But let’s face it: the Times has a higher brow than I do. There should be a little footnote with each Times review: “inexplicably, the audience was hugely entertained” or (in the case of one masterpiece I saw on the strength of the Times’ rave years ago): “inexplicably, its genius seemed entirely lost on the audience.” (When I found out that the play was not over after the second excruciating act – that this was merely an intermission before what was to be a third act – I got the first and only migraine of my life.)

Variety (which knows a little about Broadway, too):

Priscilla, a tricked-up tour bus with a shoe on the roof, rolls onto the stage of the Palace Theater to roars from the audience, and proceeds to turn, twist and light up pink and purple. And then does it again (and again and again). So goes the brashly good-natured Aussie musical to which the bus lends its name, ‘Priscilla, Queen of the Desert,’ which, born from Stephan Elliott’s 1994 film, seems destined to follow the path of ‘Mamma Mia!’ Inartful here, crass there, this rollicking crowd pleaser in sequins nonetheless packs enough heart to leave the masses enthralled.

. . .

Show arrives as an international hit, following stints in Australia, New Zealand, London and Toronto; one can easily anticipate “Priscilla” rolling into major capitals across the world as quickly as they can procure enough feathers. For all the glitz, though — and there is a lot of glitz — there’s a heart ticking true beneath it all, and that should earn “Priscilla” a long and profitable run at the Palace, with the merchandise stand doing big business in purple boas.

☞ Full disclosure: I have no stake in the merchandise stand but a friend is one of the producers.