Priscilla, Queen of the Desert Is Coming to Brooklyn

A lavender bus. Three friends. A very long drive from Sydney to Alice Springs, with feathers.

Priscilla, Queen of the Desert is being staged at Gallery Players in Park Slope this September. The musical is built from one of the most beloved Australian films ever made, and it’s worth crossing a borough for.

What it is

Stephan Elliott’s 1994 film follows two drag queens and a trans woman who take a job performing at a resort in Alice Springs. They buy a bus, name her Priscilla, and drive into the middle of the country.

What they find along the way is a mix of joy, absurdity, tenderness and some ugly homophobia. That mix is part of why the film has lasted. It won the Academy Award for Best Costume Design, which anyone who’s seen the thongs-and-feathers frock will find entirely reasonable.

The stage version, with a book by Elliott himself and Allan Scott, premiered in Sydney in 2006. It went on to the West End and then Broadway. It’s a jukebox musical, so the score is built from songs you already know by heart. “It’s Raining Men,” “I Will Survive,” “Hot Stuff,” “Boogie Wonderland,” “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.”

Why see it in a 99-seat theater

Gallery Players seats 99 people.

Priscilla on Broadway was an enormous production at the Palace Theatre, with a costume budget you could see from space. Doing it in a small room in Park Slope is a completely different proposition, and arguably better. You’re close enough to see faces. The songs hit differently when there isn’t a mile of auditorium between you and the stage.

Gallery Players has been Brooklyn’s off-off-Broadway home since 1967, and this is its 60th season. They’ve picked up a Lifetime Achievement award from the Off-Off Broadway Review and a stack of New York Innovative Theatre Awards. Tickets are a fraction of a Broadway price.

The production is directed by Ryan Hendricks, with music direction by Lorenzo Pipino and Dominic Cuskern producing.

Why it’s one for us

There’s something specific about watching Priscilla in America.

It’s a story about crossing your own country and finding out what’s in it, told through the most flamboyant possible lens. It’s stubbornly Australian in a way that translates without ever explaining itself. Americans have loved it for thirty years without knowing where Broken Hill is.

If you’ve ever had to explain Australia to people over here, watching a Brooklyn audience fall for it is its own kind of pleasure.

It’s also a landmark piece of queer Australian culture. If you marched with the Aussie contingent at Pride this year, or you’ve been meaning to get involved, make a night of this one.

Getting tickets

Performances run Thursday through Sunday from September 18 to October 4, 2026, with two shows on Saturdays. The opening weekend runs on a slightly different schedule.

Gallery Players is at 199 14th Street in Park Slope, an easy walk from the F, G and R trains.

Tickets are available through Gallery Players.

Grab a group. This isn’t a show to see alone.