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This review by Simon Saltzman was published in U.S. 1 Newspaper on November 24, 1999. All rights reserved.

Broadway Review: `Dame Edna'

Janet Reno wants me to do a makeover. She wants me to bring out her hidden femininity," says Dame Edna, in a manner so candid and with such sincerity it could serve as a lesson in misplaced diplomacy. Yet it was not a major celebrity, but rather a Princeton couple in 10th row center aisle seats that bore the brunt of many of Dame Edna's scabrous barbs on the night that I attended "Dame Edna: The Royal Tour." Among the other good sports, they surely knew what they were in for, if only from having seen Dame Edna on TV. After just a few more of Dame Edna's intentionally nosy inquiries into the affairs of others in various locations in the house, it was evident that people had come from far and wide to be in the presence of this endearingly egotistical self-made "superstar."

Notwithstanding her illusions of being an investigative journalist, chanteuse, swami, adviser to British royalty, grief counselor, spin-doctor, and icon, Dame Edna is to be seriously considered as a force for the millennium. How fulfilling it must feel to know you have become one of the growing numbers of the rich, the famous, but mostly less illustrious persons who have served as foils for Dame Edna's now almost legendary brand of mischievous mockery. Her self-satisfied pronouncements and denouncements in regard to those individual close-to-home targets, in particular, and her observations on society and propriety in general, leave no doubt that she is an informed social anthropologist and confirmed moralist of the first order. You will notice how important politicos and glamorous showbiz celebrities play second fiddle to the more agreeably and easily victimized at hand.

Wearing a different sequin-studded outfit for each act, supplied by costumer Stephen Adnitt (plus, Dame Edna informs us, "divine inspiration from my darling son Kenny"), and her mauve wig teased into a formidable steel helmet, Dame Edna could easily pass for Margaret Thatcher auditioning for a role in "Absolutely Fabulous." To be sure, the majority of the audience that roared with laughter almost continuously at the self-important "Dame" from Australia, Edna Everage, would have given anything to be singled out for ridicule.

Singled out, but not present for the purpose of sharing her own troubles, are Dame Edna's mother and grown children. Brief histories of her window dresser and dress designing son who lives in Chelsea and has "so many friends," the daughter who lives in Flatbush with a retired Czech tennis pro of the same sex, and her mother who "lives in a maximum security twilight home," are amusingly considered through rose-colored glasses.

Whether Broadway will join the rest of the English-speaking world that has succumbed to Dame Edna's upbraiding charms remains to be seen. Despite my initial resistance, I have to admit that I was amused (and mercifully left alone to take notes). Taking account of Dame Edna is actor and artist Barry Humphries, who can say that he has been more than merely receptive to his seductively garish creation for about 40 years. In fact, she possesses him. Under Humphries' unsurprisingly indulgent direction, Dame Edna uses her chatty rapport with various audience members to propel what is basically a rather old-fashioned vaudeville act. It says something about our culture that we all continue to take great pleasure in watching pretentiousness paraded and innocence skewered.

That Princeton couple, having once admitted to Dame Edna that they had left a baby sitter at home with their infant child, were submitted to an on-again, off-again interrogation that eventually led to an onstage phone call directly to couple's home. Needless to say, Dame Edna's conversation with the sitter, and overheard by us all, left no doubt that a certain baby-sitter's fees will soon go up. Dame Edna's ability to keep a cross-current of conversations going is cause enough for hilarity, but that she remembers the scores of first names as she soliloquizes is amazing indeed.

In this flagrantly inane show, Dame Edna is assisted by two leggy chorines called the "the gorgeous" Ednaettes (Roxane Barlow and Tamlyn Brooke Shusterman), and pianist Andrew Ross. On those occasions when Dame Edna's "hands-on-magic for yourself and for your wives, children, significant others, and same sex partners" isn't making you howl or crawl under your seat, she has a few musical numbers to keep things lively.

And what about the Dame's dancing and singing? Well, if you've ever been in an underground bomb shelter during the blitz when someone in the crowd decided to help keep spirits up, then you have it. But you can't escape it either, especially when Dame Edna hands out hundreds of gladioli and rehearses her "possums" for a slightly lewd, sing-along stand-up finale. I have to admit that there is nothing quite like this down-under Dame. HHH

-- Simon Saltzman