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Dame Edna: Back With A Vengeance!
The Dame Edna Everage Coalition
In Association With
The Dame Edna World Prostate Foundation
Presented in Chicago by Jam Theatricals
March 14 to 19, 2006
Broadway In Chicago
(Broadway in Chicago Website)
At
The Cadillac Palace Theatre
151 West Randolph Street
Chicago, Illinois 60602
312.902.1400
Susan Weinrebe
March 14, 2006
Devised and Written: Barry Humphries
Additional Material: Andrew Ross
Master of the Dame’s Musick: Wayne Barker
Lyrics: Barry Humphries and Wayne Barker
Music: Wayne Barker
Production Design: Brian Thomson
Lighting Design: Jane Cox
Sound Design: Dan Scheivert
Costumes: Stephen Adnitt and Will Goodwin
Choreography: Jason Gilkison
Production Stage Manager: James W. Gibbs
General Manager: Scott Wilcox
Company Manager: Doug Rodgers
2005-2006 Tour Producer: Harley Medcalf
Publicity: Ted Boles
Cast of Characters:
Dame Edna Everage: Dame Edna
Master of the Dame’s Musick: Wayne Barker
Featuring The Gorgeous Ednaettes
Teri DiGianfelice, Michelle Pampena
She’s baaaack! In all her lavender-wigged, cat-eyeglasses, and feathery sequined resplendence, Dame Edna Everage returned to Chicago for a nearly two-hour performance of hilarious show personship.
Looking like a caricature of the late, romance writer, Barbara Cartland, Dame Edna stormed the red curtained stage and did not desist until she had done everything permissible by law to get her audience howling with laughter.
Anyone unfamiliar with Dame Everage might ask: Who is Edna, what is she, that all the folks adore her? In typical Dame Edna fashion, her bio notes state, “…probably the most popular and gifted woman in the world today: housewife, investigative journalist, social anthropologist, talk show host, swami, children’s book illustrator, spin doctor, Megastar, and icon,” and, I might add, one with surprisingly good legs!
Disclosing that, “…your welfare and security are pretty low on my list of priorities,” she set the audience up to become part of the act to everyone’s delight, but, as Edna would say, “Not in a mean way, my little Chicago possums.”
Dame Edna seemed able to say and do whatever came to mind and get away with it thanks to her plumy British accent and over-the-top female personification. Lightning-paced and risqué, she riffed with the audience, in what several of her camp followers sitting in nearby seats informed me, was totally new material.
A young couple was called onstage for “counseling” to save their “crumbling marriage,” which included a long-distance call to the husband’s mother. Several other people took part in a skit set in a 1950’s style kitchen. These game folks were dressed in outlandish outfits, given lines with double entendres, and due to Dame Edna’s astute choosing, served as perfect foils for her staged mini-soap opera.
Abetting the spectacle of Dame Edna, Ms. DiGianfelice and Ms. Pampena, the two long-limbed, effervescent, high-kicking Ednaettes, flanked the star during several songs and dances, helped people onto the stage, wrangled props, and passed Edna her trademark gladioli to toss into the audience. Brilliantly backing Edna on the piano, especially with the latter day theme cum disco tune, Wayne Barker was straight man and stagehand as well as note taker. What was he writing in that little book?
The grand finale, rousing as all good show-stopping numbers should be, orchestrated rows of people waving flowers they’d caught and singing along with Edna, “When you’re so down hearted you can hardly talk, grab life by the stalk!”
Wearing a sumptuous fur cape with train and gladioli ruff, Dame Edna made her curtain call to the deafening applause of an audience well-entertained and still trembling with laughter. If I could see her every night of her too short run, I would. She is phenomenal. A hoot. A force surpassing nature. A woman who will not be denied. She is a damned good dame. See her. You’ll be glad you did!
Dame Edna
Photo courtesy of Greg Gorman
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