Priscilla The Party! Reviews

Kathryn Smith from London, England

PRISCILLA THE PARTY

Absolutely loved the cast, costumes and productions!! Brilliant atmosphere, we couldn't stop dancing!!

Michael Bolton from London, England

NOT WEST END STANDARDS

This has to be the worst show I’ve seen in London in over 30 years of going to shows. the theatre. How did come to this conclusion it was basically empty and those that were there had given up by half way through talking in their groups and looking at their watches. I saw several people leave after the first 15 minutes. The “pit” area mush have has about 50-70 people at max so felt like wandering a nightclub when it’s just opened – as the staff desperately tried to heard people nearer the front to make it look at least a little busy. I am also going to point out up front that the venue appears to be running a scam on drinks prices. They put through soft drinks on the till which show 330ml but they actually only use 150ml cans when they serve your drink. They also refuse to give receipts insisting you have to have them emailed to you with no opt out or terms and conditions on the use of your data. There is also a very sweet sickly smell about the place so they seem to be pumping flavoured air into the venue. We went on a Saturday night and there were less than 100 people in audience making it look and feel very empty. I don’t know if they gave up, but it started 15 minutes early with a succession of the cast coming out in bad drag to sing/mime on a rostrum. For costume it looked like they had raided the local charity shop. Don’t think you’ll get any ABBA songs like the film – they clearly couldn’t get the rights. Either the cast didn’t care or didn’t learn the choreography. Whilst some costumes are created to reflect the films famous outfits don’t get too close – they seem to have been made to fit anyone so on many looked ill fittings, cheap, badly made and that’s if you ignore the bra’s pants and other underwear bursting its way out. High class, bespoke beautiful stage costumes they aren’t and many of the supporting costumes look like Primark supplied them. Mostly lip-synced I noted that even during songs “supposedly” sung by the cast on many occasions they mimed to recordings – the songs they did do live they just about managed to squawk through. Too many faults to mention but the End of Act two “big finale” with them all dressed as cakes fell flat – no relevance to the story and just seemed to be a reason to have a big number to finish the act on. The third was short and featured a pointless “speeded up version” of their actual show which looked ridiculous wasn’t funny and added nothing. The audience participation of using an audience member to play the little boy didn’t work and was just pointless – other than ticked to box to say the show had audience participation. I expected a big number at the end but it was a bit of an anticlimax – a couple of minutes of Lady GaGa’s “Born this way”. (YAWN). If it was a drag show at the RVT and a tenner – it would be OK, but not for over £200 standing in an empty room watching third rate performances and fourth rate staging does not cut for a theatrical night out in Central London. They ask you not to film or take pictures – most likely because it would bare how dreadful the whole this. If it can’t muster more than a few people on a Saturday night a couple of weeks after opening, then it looks destined to close and rightly so. I have never left a show wanting to go to the box office and ask for my money back. I’ve been to shows at Above the Stag, The Turbine and other small venues that have had more class, style, talent and staging. This show has precious little of any of that.

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