Chicago Tribune - Recommended
"...It struck me at one point of the night that with the world changing so incredibly fast when it comes to gay marriage and the like, shows like these that rely on widespread rural antagonism toward men who see things from a different angle may become rarer or play as period curiosities. If only for now, "Priscilla" is still Queen of the Snowbank City, where winter never ends but a dancing cupcake or six can at least make you feel like its days are numbered."
Chicago Sun Times - Somewhat Recommended
"...There is high energy direction by Simon Philips, and choreography by Ross Coleman, but it’s costume designers Tim Chappel and Lizzy Gardiner (who created the original film costumes) who drive the show, turning humans into whirling cupcakes, pink paint brushes, exotic birds, disco clowns, you name it. Adding to the mounds of eye candy is the revolving Priscilla (the bus designed by Brian Thomson). The only problem is that its passengers are traveling through far too predictable territory."
ShowBizChicago - Highly Recommended
"...Director Simon Philips and Choreographer Ross Coleman work seamlessly together to keep the action going at a vibrant pace with the production numbers moving the plot forward. All the action takes place on Brian Thomson’s stage design, where the Technicolor bus is worth the price of admission alone. Then there are the costumes by Tim Chappel and Lizzy Gardiner. Quite frankly, there has been nothing quite like them before and may not be for decades to come. They are vibrant, intricate, fun and bawdy, becoming as integral to the musical as the book itself."
Stage and Cinema - Recommended
"...There are so many ways to glitter and be gay in American Musical Theater: La Cage Aux Folles depicts the unexpected bourgeois normality in a near-marriage of boa-wrapped impersonators at a gender-breaking Riviera nightclub; Kinky Boots celebrates vogue-crazed drag queens with foot fetishes who want to strut their stuff on a runway in Milan (one wonders how many fantasies this show can service); last (and possibly least if only because "flamboyant" is now so familiar), is Stephan Elliott and Alan Scott's Priscilla Queen of the Desert, which flaunts Tim Chappel and Lizzie Gardiner's Tony-winning costumes in order to celebrate the "fish out of water" survival strategies of three feathered friends; these "bent beauties" will shock Australia's outback rednecks with colors nature never nurtured."
ChicagoCritic - Not Recommended
"...Yet I suppose its luridly overdone production design is the closest Priscilla comes to actual camp. Like a drag queen who genuinely believes her own tinsel-laden illusions, Priscilla is more often than not only "playing" a good time. Desperate to keep you from noticing the wrinkled cliches beneath all the makeup or how its only ever lip-syncing someone else's tunes, Priscilla blinds you with tasteless spectacle, gaudy costumes and enough bitchy "shade" throwing for an episode of RuPaul's Drag Race."
Let's Play at ChicagoNow - Highly Recommended
"...PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT is just boys that want to be girls that want have fun! And they do just that! If you are looking to be playfully and fashionably entertained, this show is a perfect fit!"
Around The Town Chicago - Recommended
"...This is a show filled with “glitz” and “glamour” as we see the tale of three drag queens who set off on a “road trip) in order for one of them to meet his son. Yes, it turns out that at one time Tick ( Wade McCollum) was a married man who had a son. He doesn’t know this little boy, but it is time for his son to know that he has a father and build a relationship. Two of his companions, Adam ( the comic Bryan West) and Bernadette ( deftly handled by Scott Willis) find an old bus to take on their journey- the bus is in realith a camper which they christen, “Priscilla” as the travel the desert roads of the Australian Outback."
Chicago Theatre Review - Highly Recommended
"...the score of this jubilant jukebox musical is so infectious that it draws audience members onto the stage at the top of Act II for a dance-along with the cast. Filled with club hits from the '70's and '80's, it's impossible to simply sit still while songs like "Material Girl," "Go West," "I Love the Nightlife," "I Will Survive," "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" and "MacArthur Park" flood your brain with memories of a happier, more carefree time. Only a handful of the movie's original tunes have found their way to the stage version, but when you're boogieing to "Hot Stuff" and "Shake Your Groove Thing," it's difficult to split hairs."
Huffington Post - Highly Recommended
"...And leading the story of a trio of performers (comprising two effervescent "gender illusionists" and one grand transsexual) on an episodic journey across the outback is Wade McCollum as Tick/Mitzi. As Tick, McCollum plays an overgrown child who realizes that it's time to make peace with his past rather than disappearing into his drag counterpart, Mitzi, when the going gets tough."
Chicagoland Theater Reviews - Highly Recommended
"...Yes “Priscilla Queen of the Desert” is over the top. Agreed that its touchy-feely moments are sappy. And I’ll concede that the show’s structure is shaky. But as a good time musical it could be the hoot of the year."