BUOYED with the success of one jukebox musical in “Mamma Mia”, Free Rain Theatre is at last staging a big, splashy production of “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, the Musical” at The Q after covid postponements – and, yes, there will be a bus.

It’s based on the 1994 film “The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert” by Australian director-writer Stephan Elliott, the musical, which he created with Allan Scott.

The show uses well-known disco numbers to tell the story of two drag queens, Anthony/Tick and Adam/Felicia who join trans woman/earth mother Bernadette on a road trip to Alice Springs, where they are to perform at a resort.

The film and the stage show have wowed audiences from Cannes to the West End and Broadway and it’s likely to be exactly the same here, with tickets already selling faster than “Mamma Mia”.

West, who has also cast himself in the plum role of wise woman Bernadette, believes “Priscilla” was way ahead of its time in the treatment of queer issues, possibly so much so that Elliott has speculated that these days he might not be allowed to make such a politically incorrect show, so full of wicked humour.

“It’s a beautifully written piece, showing three generations of LGBTQIA+ people going on a bus trip,” West says.

Adam/Felicia is the young, up-and-coming, untameable one who nearly gets them into serious trouble in the desert with a bunch of homophobes.

Bernadette is the empathetic, kind woman who has been a pioneer in the transgender movement – maybe from the Carlotta era – and Anthony/Tick is caught in the middle, since he’s been married and, we see as the plot unfolds, he has a son.

“The musical was so unashamedly Australian… it had that tongue-in-cheek, larrikin sense of humour that made it, along with ‘The Boy From Oz’, our biggest musical export – and it was based on one of our most famous movies,” West says.

“There was a touch of genius in putting three drag queens in the middle of nowhere… it’s kind of an ‘Eat Pray Love’ journey to find yourself, or else the archetypal hero journey.”

And the pulsating rhythms of the disco scene, he says, conjure up the nightclub scene which went hand-in-hand with the gay liberation movement.

Priscilla the bus was loaded into a container in Rockhampton where designer Ross James, who also did the set for Free Rain’s “Mamma Mia”, made it, West says.

“And it’s got all the bells and whistles, including an elevator.”

Meantime here, Fiona Leach and her team had a wonderful time with the outrageous costumes the musical demands. We agree that it would be impossible for her to go over the top.

West takes his acting role seriously, his first, he says, since appearing in Stephen Sondheim’s “Assassins” in 2019, and says: “I hope I do her justice. Bernadette is an iconic woman and I’m very privileged to be playing her”.

At the same time, working with a top cast of Joe Dinn as Anthony/Tick, Garrett Kelly as Adam/Felicia, Pat Gallagher as Bob and Jessica Marshall as his wife Cynthia, he’s had a great time in the rehearsal room.

As well, Canberra is known for the excellence of its rock musicians and a nine-piece band headed up by Free Rain regular Alexander Unikowski is getting right into the era.

They’ll be joined by a chorus of around 20, plus “The Three Divas” who narrate the story, all of them star soloists in their own right.

But will the three divas be seen flying high above the stage?

As they say in showbiz, you’ll have to be there to find out.

“Priscilla, Queen of the Desert”, Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre, April 26-May 22. Book at theq.net.au or 6285 6290.