Rejoice, possums! Even if you haven't spent the last four and a half years mired in the doldrums from the lack of amethyst hair and diamond-studded horn-rimmed spectacles on Broadway, you're about to be jolted out of your seat: You once again have the opportunity to bask in the purple and yellow glow of Dame Edna Everage, now making her all-conquering return to Broadway.
And what a kick it is. From the moment Dame Edna makes her dazzling entrance atop a stage-spanning pair of red horn-rimmed glasses that descend from the flies, she holds court over nearly two and a half hours of solid laughter. True, she has to run roughshod over her audience to do it, but that's easy to do when they're captive with glee, and in the Dame's ecstatic presence, most audience members do it willingly. It's impossible to even be truly taken aback by her quips and insults; "I don't pick on people," she says, "I empower them." Is that why being made fun of and assaulted by thrown gladioli is never this much fun outside of Dame Edna shows?
Regardless, the show, written and directed by Dame Edna's longtime collaborator Barry Humphries (Andrew Ross and Robert Horn have provided "additional material"), is a triumphant tribute to the "glittering gigastar." He even helps reveal some of her lesser-known talents, encouraging her to hold a pedomancy session, telling people's fortunes by intensely examining their shoes - which she even gives back, eventually - and preside over a group-therapy marriage counseling session ("There will be pain," she informs the beleaguered couple she chooses, "but there will also be healing"). Is there anything Dame Edna can't do? Dame Edna tickets are a must purchase Barry Humphries as Dame Edna is second to none.
