Steve Pratt goes behind the scenes to wade through the award-winning costumes for Priscilla Queen Of The Desert, the most colourful show on the road

WHEN costume designer Lizzy Gardiner collected an Oscar for her work on the film Priscilla Queen Of The Desert, she wore a dress made entirely of American Express gold cards.

That outfit was understated compared to the costumes she and Tim Chappel created for the film featuring a trio of drag queens embarking on a bus trip through the Australian Outback to a rousing chorus of Village People’s Go West.

The movie begat a stage musical crammed with disco numbers and big wigs and costumes.

Very big wigs and costumes. Not just very big, but a lot of them too. So many that the backstage team beavering away maintaining and mending them before the second night performance at Sunderland Empire have lost count of how many they’re taking around the country.

One previous production counted 500 costumes, 60 wigs, 150 pairs of shoes and more than 200 hats and headpieces. Whatever the figures, this must be the best dressed, and certainly the most colourful, show on the road.

Never mind finding “digs” for the performers, the production team needs every spare inch of space in theatres to store the costumes and space for the all-important make-andmend during the day.

Among the awards Chappel and Gardiner have collected for their costume designs are an Oscar and a Bafta (for the film) and an Olivier and a Tony (for the stage musical).

There’s a fresh set of costumes for every production number.

The performers are knee-deep in glitter and sequins, feathers and rhinestones, and ridiculously towering headpieces. Huge paintbrushes, 5ft dancing cupcakes, bell-bottoms and rainbow Afros, emu headdresses and even a kangaroo have their moment in the spotlight as the disco beat throbs out of the sound system and the glitterball lights up the auditorium.

Company manager Adam Havoc explains the military-style operation that ensures the show goes on night after night. There’s a company of 50 on the road, including performers headed by ex-Hear’Say singer Noel Sullivan and Jason Donovan (sharing one leading role), former Emmerdale and Home And Away actor Richard Grieve and Graham Weaver.

Backstage at the Empire a few hours before the show, the production team is busy stitching, sewing and gluing to repair damage from the night before. “They need constant maintenance,” says wig mistress Sonja Mohren.

“Upkeep varies from wig to wig. Some take up to an hour to do and some ten minutes. The basic stuff is washing, setting and dressing out. Sometimes colouring and sometimes you have to cut them if they need restyling.

“Some are real hair, some are acrylic. Some are really expensive, custom made with each hair individually knotted to the foundation, so you’re looking at a couple of thousand pounds for one wig. If it’s a bought wig, probably £150.”

The most extraordinary headpieces are probably the diva wigs – the towering headpieces worn by the three female singers who fly in from time to time. “They have bright red ones which have an artificial hair cage in the middle and then real hair goes up around the outside,” she explains.

“But we have bright ginger ones, curly ones, big ones, small ones, hair pieces, all sorts – it’s a big old wig show.”

In “wardrobe village” backstage, staff need sewing, sticking and gluing skills. Even a dancer losing weight has a knock-on effect because their costumes need altering.

“There’s constant maintenance,” says wardrobe mistress Claire Tucker. “There are lots of different pieces on the costumes and things get knocked off during the quick changes. Every time they leave the stage, they’re changing into something else, so obviously costumes have to go on the floor before they can be put away. There are casualties every show, rips and tears because they have such long skirts that are constantly getting trodden on or caught on things lying around the theatre.

“But they’re pretty hard-wearing. Some have been made for the cast, others adapted from the West End production.”

There are constant quick changes. Only a few costumes are worn more than once during the show, which turns out to be a good thing.

“Once they’ve worn it, it’s dead and gone. You don’t have to try and reset it or find it later,” she says.

“On a Monday on a first night when all the local dressers are trying to get used to the show what usually happens is that things get piled up and we have to do a mass hanging of costumes and clothes at the end of it.”

There’s a fix-it and emergency fabric box for repairs. Bits of each costume for patching, glitter glue and spray paint are among the tools of the trade.

Next week’s tour to York Grand Opera House presents other problems because of the theatre’s small size which means space in the wings, needed for those quick changes, is limited.

That’s usually where the company do their costume and wigs changes in just a couple of minutes. A “bonfire of costumes” is set up nightly for each performer with outfits piled up, with the ones they need first on the top. As the show progresses, they work their way down the pile with the help of dressers.

The divas changes are so swift they wear special masks “painted”

with the make-up that goes with each costume as there’s not enough time to wipe off old makeup and apply new.

“It’s a great show, a lot of hard work but fun. You can hear the audience enjoying it,” says Claire. “It’s a lovely beast to be working on although Priscilla’s definitely got a mind of her own.”

  • Priscilla Queen Of The Desert: York Grand Opera House, May 13-18. Box office 0844-871-3024 and online atgtickets.com/york