PRISCILLA STILL IN YOUR FACE | ‘Not the candy-coated Disney version’

It's no secret Terence Stamp had problems putting on a frock for the film and it was a no-go zone when I raised it with him. Can you understand his misgivings?

Certainly, it's a career-killer for a lot of people in Hollywood. I think it was very brave of all those people in the film. It shouldn't be but it's something a lot of people have to consider. You know, afraid that people won't take them seriously as a romantic lead again after dragging up. It's one of the sorry things about our industry.

I had the opposite complaint – I'd just come off doing The Producers and my first appearance was in a frock in that show as Roger de Bris so I was concerned about going straight into another show in a dress. I was doing a 10-day workshop of Priscilla and during that I suddenly realised well it's not a drag role it’s actually more complex, it's a transexual, somebody who's had an operation to become a woman which is completely different than a fella throwing on a dress.

The more I worked on it the more I realised how complex the role was and also I suddenly realised what a good show this was turning out to be. I thought I really want to be a part of this and I want to play this part.

And what a great success for you – Broadway, West End  all around Australia. You must be very grateful to have this under your belt.

Australian musicals weren't something you thought were going to have of a long run, let alone go overseas. We don't have a huge track record with Australian musicals. It's interesting that during that workshop we seriously considered bringing in Australian composers to write an original score. We looked at it and thought well it's the choice between the integrity of the project and making it entirely original and promoting Australian artists and risking the show closing in two weeks or going with the music from the film and making it a jukebox musical which a lot of people look down their noses at but ensuring the popularity of the show. We went with the songs from the show and I think that's what accounts for its popularity around the world. People love those disco songs.

Stephan Elliott [director of the film] told me the show was too politically incorrect to be able to make the film today. Any attempts to tone down anything this time round?

Certainly when we first did it there was an attempt to make it more family-friendly because the language is really rugged in the film and it's very abrasive and hard-edged. We didn't want to lose an entire section of the audience so it's still pretty close to the knuckle. When we went to London and Broadway there was enormous pressure for us to take out all the swearing but by turning it down and making it more politically correct it stops being Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. That's what makes it unique.

We're trying to keep it locked in the '90s when Uluru was still called Ayers Rock. We've been accused of racism but those are attitudes that were pervasive when the film was written. We don't want to lose what Stephan was trying to portray with those characters, certain aspects of the ugly Australian, we didn't want the candy-coated Disney version.

Perish the thought!

Exactly!

In this day of marriage equality has it become a bit quaint?

I think it's the opposite because these people aren't your domesticated gay characters in any shape or form, they're really out there. I love the fact the three central characters are three generations of gay people. There's my character, the old-school drag queen from Les Girls, sort of Carlotta, who's seen the violence and who lived through the time when even dressing as a woman in public was illegal. You could be arrested. There's the slightly younger character, Hugo Weaving's Tick, who's trying to live a double life. He's actually secretly married with the child and he's working as a drag queen and is too ashamed to tell his son. He hasn't seen his son in six years. Then there's the youngest one who has no fear at all and is totally out there. His version of drag is sort of masculine, showing his muscles, hitting on every guy he meets. Three generations of gay men who are the heroes of their own story. A wonderful thing.

Hugo Weaving's character is the heart and soul of the piece, holding it all together emotionally. He was actually based on drag queen Cindy Pastel. Have you spoken to Cindy?

No, but I think Jeremy Stanford, who created the role in the musical, he met with Cindy. David Harris is playing it in our show and wasn't even aware it was based on a real character. You always have to work with what's on the page. I didn't use Terence Stamp as a template, nor did I use Carlotta. I chose somebody entirely different to base my character on. I used to hang out with a lot of those drag queens because my mother is a theatre personality, Toni Lamond, and she occasionally invited people from those drag shows to our Christmas parties. There was no mystery to me about the drag stars from the '60s and '70s. They were people who were around the house. I had a lot of role models for Bernadette!

Has marriage equality changed audiences who are now coming to the show?

I don't think marriage equality changed anything, I think it's visibility since that film. It was the first movie that made drag queens highly visible as leading characters. Then came the American film To Wong Foo which had three drag queens in a car on a road trip. Now look at the Oscars and there were two transexual presenters. Like any minority, it's the constant exposure which demystifies them, takes away the fear of the other-ness.

The whole thing about marriage equality is that it doesn't impact on society in any way other than on the people it directly affects – gay people who want to legitimise their relationships. It doesn't impact on the straight community in any way. It's about people who want to raise children and have the same legal rights everybody else has. Marriage equality is not anything that's going to make straight people look at the gay community in any different way whatsoever.

And the sky never fell in.

Exactly! That was the whole point! It's not going to affect anybody else's lives except the people it directly needs to affect.

The show's been around for over a decade – has there been a temptation to make it bigger, bolder, brighter?

It's been around for 12 years and I've seen videos of other productions around the world and especially in Europe that have done exactly that! The Paris production looked hysterical! There were nuns flying in, it was quite psychedelic. There was a production in Germany in January that had all their own costumes and looked extraordinary. For our show the original production team wanted to have one last hurrah. This is the last time this particular original version is going to be licensed around the world. The production team wanted their version to be seen in Australia one last time and that was why I was happy to say yes because to be quite honest I didn't want anybody else to play my role! This is the show that got me around the world, to the West End and to Broadway so I wanted a new generation to see me 12 years later.

Lots of scope for wardrobe malfunctions, I'm sure.

Oh, God! And every night there is one. The changes we have to do. –  I have 20 myself – sometimes have to be done in 15 seconds. And there was an accident backstage only the night before last where my dresser was trying to pull one of my shoes off and he just yanked too hard and I hit the deck. My legs went out from under me and I crashed on my bum to the floor and suddenly everybody was looking at me going 'Are you all right?' and I was screaming 'Pull off the shoe!' because I had to get back on stage, no time for worrying if I was injured, just get the bloody shoe off and get me back on stage! I could hear my music cues, everything just kept going. Once those songs start and you've got a costume-change you gotta be back on stage to sing your next line. Doesn't matter if you're bleeding or bruised! Just get back on!

Wasn't it terrific they named the Tony Awards after you! 

Yes, I know. It was only right. It's a pity they didn't give me the award. My gosh, to be nominated for a Tony Award I never thought that would happen. Extraordinary. And to be nominated for the Olivier Award in London. Somebody said to me over there now you will always forever be known as "Tony-nominee Tony Sheldon". Every time your name is mentioned in America that's how you'll be billed. And it's true! No matter what I do over there it's always "Tony-nominee Tony Sheldon". And, honestly, what a wonderful thing, you know. I'm very, very blessed.

Of course, they weren't really named after you. They were named after your mum.

Ahhh, hah-hah! She'd be thrilled to hear it [laughs].

What does Toni Lamond think of Bernadette?

She loves her! She saw the show all around the world I flew her around the world. She got very emotional, cried all the way through it. We're from a showbusiness family – her parents were in radio and vaudeville, her sister Helen Reddy of course – to have a hit show is something you can wish for once in your life and to have a few in your life and I've been lucky enough to have Torch Song Trilogy and The Producers and a whole bunch of them. It's a great thrill. To have an Australian-written musical – the most successful Australian musical ever, apparently – she's beyond proud. I send her every photo and every interview and every film clip. She's living it all vicariously.

What do you value most in your mum?

Here very presence in my life. She raised me as a single mum from the time I was 11, after my dad died and she's probably the most courageous person I know. She twice went overseas by herself to England and America for a long period of time to make a living. She's fearless and I love her more than anything and I'm so lucky to have had her as a role model.

Has she passed on her fearlessness to you?

No! [laughs]. Not at all. She runs headlong off a cliff and I cautiously look around before making any sort of move. Hopefully, she's passed on her ability to entertain, to charm an audience. I work a lot like her on stage. A lot of people comment that I look like her on stage. Especially in a blonde wig and false eyelashes! I feel her on my shoulder every time I play Bernadette.