Petition Started to Bring National Tour of PRISCILLA Back to Central Texas

The National Tour of Priscilla Queen of the Desert recently visited Austin, Texas, and due to the overwhelmingly positive response from Austin audiences, fans are petitioning the producers of the lavish musical to bring the tour back to Central Texas in the near future.

Based on the 1994 film The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, the musical comedy follows three drag queens as they traverse the Australian Outback in a pink bus dubbed "Priscilla." The show, which features hit pop and disco songs, has had successful runs in Australia, London, and on Broadway.

The online petition to bring Priscilla back to Central Texas was started by BroadwayWorld Contributing Editor Jeff Davis in response to the strong reaction from Austin audiences.

"I've never seen a response quite like this," says Davis. "The response I saw to the show on opening night in Austin was very strong. The audience was hooting and hollering throughout the show, and the cast got an immediate standing ovation during the curtain call."

Davis admits that such a response is typical of most national tours, but the positive response continued for the weeks to follow. "As a critic," Davis says, "I typically see three to four shows a week. Since seeing Priscilla, I've gone to about ten other shows in the Austin area, and at every single one, I've overheard some audience member mention Priscilla to the person sitting next to them. Every single time, that person is raving and gushing about how enjoyable their experience was at the show. I have never experienced such a positive and prolonged response to a show before."

It's clear that Priscilla resonated with Austin audiences, and Davis believes that's because of the show's strong themes. "Granted, the overall themes in Priscilla are universal ones about friendship and family," he states, "but the fact that those themes are delivered by a trio of sympathetic leads who all happen to be members of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender community is incredibly unique. There is no other show currently touring the United States-and perhaps no other musical in existence-which features three LGBT leads, and the LGBT community in Central Texas is incredibly strong. Gay rights is a hot topic right now in America, and there's a strong movement in support of gay rights here in Central Texas which makes Priscilla all the more engaging and timely."

Despite the positive response to the production, Priscilla's tour stop in Austin was a short five days from May 8th thru May 12th, meaning that many people in Central Texas did not get an opportunity to see the show. "Central Texas is a huge populated area," says Davis. "Between the major cities of Austin and San Antonio alone, we're talking about a population of over 2 million people. Of course, it's unrealistic to think that 2 million people will go see a national tour, but a large segment of that population would be delighted to see an encore production of Priscilla."

To view and sign the petition, please click here.