Do you love Dame Edna Everage* as much as the Husband & I love Dame Edna? Today marks her 77th birthday & the start of previews of her new Broadway show.
Blessed at birth with natural wisteria hair, Dame Edna is a housewife, megastar, investigative journalist, social anthropologist, talk show host, children's book illustrator, chanteuse, swami, advisor to British Royalty, spin doctor, & icon. She has performed her shows successfully in London's West End, Australia, Broadway & beyond. Her previous stage shows include Housewife Superstar & A Night With Dame Edna. Television credits include two critically acclaimed UK specials, An Audience with Dame Edna & Another Audience with Dame Edna. She has been a popular guest on numerous U. S. television shows hosted by Jay Leno, Johnny Carson, Joan Rivers, Rosie O'Donnell, & Roseanne, & recently appeared on 60 Minutes II. She has also hosted 2 innovative talk shows of her own, including The Dame Edna Experience, where guests have included Jane Fonda, Liza Minnelli, Sean Connery & Mel Gibson.
From Playbill:
In light of the huffy exchange of words that passed between Dame Edna Everage & Michael Feinstein last winter when they learned that they had booked the same Broadway theatre for the same date with the exact same title of show -All About Me, some sort of damage control seemed in order.
Dame Edna, for one, saw no reason why she wouldn’t make beautiful music with Feinstein. “He is an exponent of The Great American Songbook, & I am the exponent of The Great Australian Songbook,” she reasoned. “The Great Australian Songbook is wonderful. It differs from The Great American Songbook in one respect: It’s thinner. In fact, it’s almost a pamphlet. There are lovely, lovely songs in it — Waltzing Matilda, The Dingo Ate My Baby, beautiful songs.”
Feinstein, a carefree cabaret spirit if ever there was one, was grateful for the brush with Dame Edna because of the demons it unleashed. “I must say,” he did say, “this is the most cathartic experience I’ve ever had in that it really gives me the opportunity to vent a lot of anger that was built up inside of me that I had no idea existed.”
His co-star nodded sagely, almost sympathetically, but saw it all as a selling point: “Catharsis is what you’ll be seeing, among other things,” she said. “& gowns, too. My son Kenny, whom I very rarely promote, is a brilliant boy. He’s a Renaissance boy. He’s lectured in flower arrangement. He’s done display work for department stores. & he’s a choreographer — well, he’s a man’s man. & he has designed the dresses that I’m wearing to compliment the rather formal tuxedos that Michael will be wearing, & it will be a feast of beautiful frocks. It’ll be a frockathon.”
All About Me is written by playwright Christopher Durang & directed by Jerry Zaks.
*Dame Edna Everage is a character played by Australian actor Barry Humphries. While Humphries freely states that Dame Edna is a character he plays, Dame Edna consistently denies being a fictional character or drag performer, & refers to Humphries as her "entrepreneur" or manager. Indeed, Dame Edna has frequently said that the thought of a man dressing up as a woman for entertainment purposes is repulsive.
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