Furs, Feathers And Finding The Fabulous With 'Priscilla's' Bernadette

Yesterday, we brought you a few words from Priscilla Queen of the Desertco-star Will Swenson, a square-jawed, dark-haired actor whose Tick is kind of the Don Draper of drag queendom.

But with a show about three big personalities trekking across the Australian Outback in a pink bus called Priscilla, there's plenty of glitter still to go around. On Weekend Edition Sunday, just in time for the show's official opening, Jeff Lunden takes listeners on a tour of the fabulous; he talks to director Simon Phillips, co-star Tony Sheldon (who plays the trio's aging-star den mother, Bernadette) and co-costumer Lizzy Gardiner, whose designs for the 1994 film won her an Oscar. (You remember: She was the lady in the Amex dress.)

That WeSun audio will show up in the player above after it's broadcast. Meantime, here's a couple of Tony Sheldon quotes that didn't make Jeff's on-air cut — and above, a gallery of costumes and costume sketches from a show that might just go down in Broadway legend as a high-water mark in the history of glamtacular.

1 of 1  — ...and Magnolia Bakery created a pistacio cupcake with a meringue topper (inspired by Lizzie and Tim's costume) as the "official cupcake" of Priscilla Queen Of the Desert. Actor Thom Allison attended the unveiling, in full cupcake getup, in the New York bakery's shop.

...and Magnolia Bakery created a pistacio cupcake with a meringue topper (inspired by Lizzie and Tim's costume) as the "official cupcake" of Priscilla Queen Of the Desert. Actor Thom Allison attended the unveiling, in full cupcake getup, in the New York bakery's shop.

Photo by Jemal Countess / Getty Images

On the real-life inspiration for Bernadette:"Bernadette ... was a big star in the '60s at a club, a real club called Les Girls. She [had] the first public sex-change in Australia; she was front-page news. She was extremely beautiful, in a sort of Raquel Welch glamor-girl way. And the shows at Les Girls were where all the American tourists — and during the Vietnam War, all the American soldiers — used to come and hang out. And they would buy those girls champagne; they would fall in love with those girls. They were drop-dead gorgeous."

On finding the character: "A lot of drag queens in Australia work as costumiers — they sew clothes for theater productions during the day, so I knew them all through work, or socially. ... All I had to do was make a bit of a composite of some of the best parts — or the worst parts — of those ladies. The best part was opening night: About five of them all came to me, individually, and said, 'I know you're playing Bernadette, but I know you based it on me.' And I said, 'Of course I did.' To all of them, I said that."

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.