Grabbing life by the stalk

There may not be a more giddy, joyous sight on Broadway all season. Scores of theatregoers, each merrily waving a gladiolus, smile as a living legend with purple hair and oversized rhinestone spectacles urges them to sing along.

"When you're feeling so downhearted, you can barely move or talk, just wave that glad, wave that glad and grab life by the stalk," goes her ditty, and it could be her core philosophy.

Yes, Dame Edna Everage is back on Broadway With a Vengeance, if you can believe the title of her new show at the Music Box Theatre.

We shall speak of Dame Edna as a lady, even though she is the alter ego of impersonator Barry Humphries, a master of outrageousness. Humphries created this ever-enthusiastic woman who, according to her bio, was a simple Australian housewife who yearned for something more - stardom.

Well, Dame Edna has found it. Her first Broadway gig in 1999 (Dame Edna: The Royal Tour) was a Tony-winning smash and there's no reason to expect her return engagement will be any less successful.

Fans of the first show will know the game plan, although now the lady has expanded the entertainment's production values. She has added two chorus boys (the Equally Gorgeous TestEdnarones) to her lineup of two chorus girls (the Gorgeous Ednaettes), as well as a bit more scenery, including a retro take on the New York skyline.

Dame Edna does standup comedy in a homey, personal way - she chats. Even when her talk gets a bit political (a sly mention of the President and his discomfort with geography, for example), it sounds as if she is having a one-on-one conversation with the audience.

Yet her banter is seasoned with more than a touch of showbiz spice, as well as disparaging references to her children, including her dress-designing, San Francisco-based son, Kenny, "a practising homeopath".

Dame Edna is no slouch when it comes to improvising, either. In fact, that's where the show excels - in the performer's brilliant interaction with theatregoers, particularly those who sit in the first few rows.

She makes a point of learning their first names, what they do for a living, where they live and a personal detail or two, such as the colour of their bathrooms.

Those facts keep popping up throughout the evening as she showers left-handed compliments - or worse - on them.

At one point, Edna brings a twosome on stage for couple's counselling. The questions are intimate - and funny.

As in her previous show, she has a telephone and ends up calling one of the couple's surprised relatives.

In the second part of the show, Edna also pulls audience members on stage to portray members of her dysfunctional family, including Kenny.

If it goes on a bit too long, no matter. The crowd, on and offstage, loves it.

- NZPA