Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Mar. 17--The Housewife Gigastar won't be around forever. So you'd better sample her bounteous beauties while you still can. 'Cause, possums, they already broke this particular mold.
I'm not referring here to Dame Edna Everage's wickedly short, one-week run at the Cadillac Palace Theatre, a 2,300-seat theater that can barely contain her ego, much less her material. Nor do I mean to imply that Barry Humphries, the chef behind this particular Outback Steakhouse with Pearls, this chintz-loving, Kiwi-baiting, Nurse Ratched is about to ascend to that Great Gladioli Garden in the sky.
But while Edna has a musty, timeless quality ("I'm beautiful and brainy," she warbles, "I'm a better shot than old Dick Cheney") whom age cannot wither (well, not beyond extensive surgery), I reckon Humphries must be 72 years old by now. And you'd think that a Down Under retirement for Dame Edna -- spent, say, fighting for cultural dominance with the Great Barrier Reef -- must be on his mind.
There's the wig. The Dress. The next dress. The next dress. The next adoring crowd. The disco number. Heck, her (mixed in every way) audience is aging faster than a shrimp on the Sydney beach. "This is the kind of show you can bring your grandmother to," the Dame opined Tuesday night, "and you have."
Retirement? No way, Bruce. You're a Dame 'til they carry you out the stage door. If you judge the value of your entertainment dollar by laughs per minute -- a perfectly valid criterion, in my mind -- then "Dame Edna: Back With a Vengeance" delivers like nothing I've seen in this town in months. Years.
Dame Edna -- who prattles on for 2 1/2 hours -- is uproariously fresh and funny. The thing only gets better as it goes. I watched one older fellow near me (the type the Dame typically greets with a nasty "You! Senior!") literally doubled over in merriment. For several worrying minutes.
So what makes Edna so darn funny? For a start, she was born (looking much as she does today) in 1955. In the ensuing half century, Edna has met every audience eventuality, and thus she has a comeback for every possible eventuality. The nature of the nightly foils in this largely improvised show don't matter. She can work with any whacko she finds in the front row. And that's because Humphries still is doing the work. The tough night-by-night prep that most gigastars prefer to eschew.
This affair is tighter than one of Nicole Kidman's dresses. Yet there's nothing looser than a Dame. This city is full of improv students. The next lesson should be at the Cadillac Palace. No one -- no one still alive -- is faster with a killer comeback.
"Where do you work?" Edna said to one of her victims.
"Sunrise Senior Living."
"Bet the 'Sunrise' fools 'em, doesn't it dear?"
If you wanna stick Dame Edna on a couch (a gruesome thought), you could say her show (composed of her, a piano guy and a couple of showgirls) mostly is about pricking pomposity and deconstructing the euphemisms that keep us all from going bananas. Chicago, meet the fruit.
On Tuesday, the Dame chatted with a woman from Highland Park who lived in a Cape Cod. "Isn't it funny to think there are people in Cape Cod living in Highland Parks?" she asked, readying her old arms for that next gladiola toss.
"Dame Edna: Back With a Vengeance"
When: Through Sunday
Where: Cadillac Palace Theatre, 151 W. Randolph St.
Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes
Tickets: $32.50 to $65 at 312-902-1400
cjones5@tribune.com
-----
Copyright (c) 2006, Chicago Tribune
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.
NYSE:OSI, NYSE:SRZ,
