Year of the Queen: The Making of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert - The Musical (26 page)

Funny old year, huh?

Post Script

Priscilla went on to perform for eleven months in Sydney and then travelled to Melbourne to the Regent Theatre for another nine months. By then it was the top grossing Australian musical in history and one of the top grossing musicals the country had ever staged. It then went on to New Zealand and enjoyed a sold out six week season in Auckland. This is where I left the show. Around seven hundred performances later it was time to hang up the stilettos and hand over the reins to a new Tick. The show returned to Sydney for a short season before opening in London, Toronto, New York, Milan and Brazil. It remains the most successful Australian show of all time and it’s a credit to the vision and tenacity of a group of exceptional people: Stephan Elliot, Simon Phillips, Ross Coleman, Garry McQuinn and Spud Murphy.

Once I left the show, I started a film production company called Storybox Films. We finished our first feature film - which I co-wrote and directed called
The Sunset Six
, in September 2011. It’s due for release in 2012. We have a number of other films in development and fingers crossed they’ll go in front of the camera in the not too distant future. I still do the odd acting job but film is where my heart is these days.

I wanted to publish this book as an
ebook
because the show is now an international affair. I still feel very proud of my involvement in it and wanted to share the story of its incredible birth with that international audience.

Let’s hope it keeps shaking its groove thang for many years to come.

Jeremy Stanford. May, 2012
.

THE ORIGINAL CAST

Bernadette - Tony Sheldon

Tick - Jeremy Stanford

Felicia - Daniel Scott

Bob - Michael Caton

Shirl - Genevieve Lemon

Marion – Marney McQueen

Cynthia - Lena Cruz

Miss Understanding - Trevor Ashley

Diva - Danielle Barnes