So, a drag queen and a transsexual walk onto a bus...

No, this isn't the start of a very bad joke.

Instead, a very colorful Broadway musical in town right now, called "Priscilla Queen of the Desert." Adapted from the 1994 Academy Award-winning film "The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert," the musical follows a pair of drag queens and a transsexual on a road trip in the middle of the Australian outback.

The musical features 500 Tony Award-winning costumes. Wardrobe Supervisor Gillian Austin let us go backstage and put on nearly anything we wanted to.

ALLISON WALKER: How would you sum up the wardrobe?

GILLIAN AUSTIN: It is fantastic. It is very creative. They had so much fun building all of these costumes.

AW: Yea, it's like color therapy. What is your role on the road?

GA: I'm here to maintain the costumes, to make sure everything looks as good as it can look, and also to make sure that as we tour from city to city, that the show runs as well as it can.

AW: Are there a lot of quick changes?

GA: Yes. We are making sure that the 12 people that we hire in every city - so 12 people who've never done the show before, know nothing about the show - we have to teach them how to work the show and how to do all the quick changes. They don't know the costumes and they don't know the story. We show them how to do it and then we make sure they do it correctly from place to place.

There are so many quick changes. There are changes that happen on stage in little hidden secret spots. Most of our changes happen back here. These are our more relaxed and slower changes. Changes happen just off the stage. Our shortest change is about 30 seconds - the complete outfit.

AW: My head feels naked. I need a headdress. I'm drawn to this pink Vegas-style one. Tell me about it.

GA: So there are drag queens in the show - drag queen performers. One of them is re-living his glory days probably from the 1960s or 70s when he was a drag queen showgirl. So we have eight of these [pink, feathery, tall headdresses], so eight men walk out in heels and get to wear big pink Las Vegas-inspired [costumes]. You want to try it on.

AW: I so do. Yes. I understand there is a funeral scene. People are not wearing plain ol' black frocks, I imagine.

GA: They don't just have "normal" guests arrive at the funeral all in black. We have a Star of David jacket with a light-up Menorah hat. You can see all the rhinestones they put on here. It's not, like, a featured costume. It's just a background costume, so people are like, 'Yea, why not?'

To see that Menorah hat and a bunch more, click through our photo gallery above.

"Priscilla Queen of the Desert" features a parade of dance-floor faves, like "It's Raining Men" and "I Will Survive." The musical is touted as the most successful Australian musical of all time.

The show is playing now at the Bob Carr. Tickets start at $41.

Here are the show times:

  •     Friday, April 19 @ 8 p.m.
  •     Saturday, April 20 @ 2 & 8 p.m.
  •     Sunday, April 21 @ 1 & 6:30 p.m.