Priscilla Queen of the Desert is outrageously crude and packed with innuendo and double entendres, but a euphoric Congress Theatre audience gave it a standing ovation on Monday.

Perhaps the delightfully vulgar script by Stephan Elliott and Allan Scott occasionally oversteps the mark, but it fits so well with a stunning non-stop blur of song and dance routines featuring showstoppers Go West, I Will Survive and Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.

This hit Australian musical tells how Tick (Duncan James) persuades fellow drag queen Felicia (Adam Bailey) and ageing transsexual artiste Bernadette (Simon Green) to travel with him in a battered old bus from Sydney to a gig in Alice Springs. He omits to mention he has a wife and son there.

Charismatic Blue band star James, Green, a master of the put down, and the dynamic Bailey are superb as they gyrate in gaudy sequins, feathers and platforms, though some costumes are so outrageous that they make them seem caricatures.

Lisa-Marie Holmes, Laura Mansell and Catherine Mort sing with gusto while suspended on wires, and Julie Yammanee performs a sexy ping pong ball routine. Philip Childs, Naomi Slights and young Frankie Milward add to the vibrancy and fun.

Four Stars.