Friday, October 25, 2002
A show that cares - THE COMMENTARY
By Joseph Planta
*** Due to an error on my part, yesterday's column was dated incorrectly. It should have been dated for: Thursday, October 24, 2002.
VANCOUVER – It was a tad eerie going into the old Ford Centre Thursday night, considering it was the house that Garth Drabinsky built. Days after his arrest on charges he cooked the books at the once thriving theatre company, Livent; it was haunting going into the theatre was once a prized jewel for the once-flamboyant, now disgraced impresario. Now branded The Centre for The Performing Arts, it's been in good hands, as I noticed at the opening night premiere of A Night With Dame Edna: The Show That Cares. (Complaints will again surface that there are not enough bathrooms in the Moshe Safdie built edifice.)
Dame Edna, for the unwashed, is the flamboyant megastar who's a fixture of television and stage. Of course, it's a man clutching those gladiolas, underneath the funky spectacles, the sequined frocks and the tinted wig. One Barry Humphries has created a legend of popular culture lasting nearly five decades. Dr. Humphries (he's gotten an honorary doctorate, as the promotional literature states) is an accomplished performer who created the Edna Everage character in the late 1950s in Australia. Humphries has also done stage work performing with a young Phil Collins in a production of Oliver!; and opposite legendary Brit comic (I hear the Queen and the late Queen Mother's personal favourite) Spike Milligan. Dame Edna's became a well-known figure of television and stage, after a successful run in London's West End in the 1970s. Came many other gigs, including highly successful international television series' done in Britain for London Weekend Television. In 2000, the Dame Edna spectacle took to Broadway, where Dr. Humphries took a Special Tony Award for his efforts.
Dame Edna's in Vancouver until the 3rd of November in a stage show that's highly entertaining. It is uproariously funny. The show opens with a film montage that shows some of the Dame Edna character's greatest hits. Some early footage of a frumpy housewife in Australia, to some of the memorable guests she's had on her glamorous television series'. She's danced and sung with Cher, done the conga with Rue McClanahan and Robin Williams and beat up on Larry Hagman. Then we see interesting photos of Dame Edna with The Queen herself. She professes to a ‘friendship' with Her Majesty. They've but only met; and earlier this year at her Golden Jubilee, Dame Edna was on the stage (with other performers like Ozzy Osbourne, Sir Paul McCartney and Dame Shirley Bassey) introducing HM as merely "The Jubilee Girl." A favourite is the clip where Dame Edna, in an interview with Roseanne, asks, "Is there anything you haven't eaten?"
Dame Edna herself arrives in a flamboyant pink furry thing, to the uproarious applause of the audience. Some try to start a standing ovation, but it doesn't work: Dame Edna's hard at work breaking into a funny song and dance. On stage Dame Edna is accompanied by a piano player and occasionally two leggy female dancers pop out to accompany the megastar herself. The show really is a one-man tour de force. Sometimes you forget that it's a man up there. It's rather imbedded in you that in your midst, whether on stage or on Ally McBeal, this is something extraordinary, and you buy into the myth that it is in fact "Dame Edna" herself on stage.
Barry Humphries as Dame Edna is a comedic genius. Dame Edna is always up-to-date on current events, as well as the idiosyncrasies of this town and surrounding area. She chats up with audience members asking about their homes; making cracks about the colours and design. She asks one lady about her home and asks where it is. "Surrey," is the reply and sure enough Dame Edna knows the perpetual stereotypes associated with that part of the Lower Mainland. She makes cracks about Abbotsford and Fort Langley, calling the latter rather old fashioned with its citizens walking around in period costume. The former, she jokes about as a scary, dirty place, where constant use of your elbow is employed to avoid actually touching things. Reference is made to Shaughnessy, as where all the nice homes are. And in a song parody, the name Jacqui Cohen is dropped. Yes, it seems that the social hostess to end all social hostesses in Vancouver E-mails Dame Edna and asks for style tips. There were references to the sniper situation in the D.C. area (perhaps the only less than tasteful part of the show), as well as a reference to Garth Drabinsky himself (which few in the audience actually got).
There are a few songs performed. All written by Dr. Humphries and performed in great send ups by Dame Edna and Co. It's a fine show. The prices are steep, but they are worth it to see this megastar in action. Be forewarned that some of the material is a tad dirty and insulting, but it's all in good fun. No one is immune, as the audience is a vital part of this show. Call it interactivity at its best. Many had their outfits made fun of. One stout woman (the size of a slight pachyderm) was called on stage and made to wear a costume that made her look like Sarah, the Duchess of York. Whereupon Dame Edna made the requisite Weight Watchers crack.
It was a healthy audience at the Dame Edna opening last night. It wasn't SRO, but all were properly entertained (two were actually fed on stage, the restaurant Aria doing the cooking). Radio legend Red Robinson was in the audience, as I'm sure was items man Rick Forchuk. A good part of the audience were of the "Friends of Ken" ilk, as Dame Edna affectionately put it. Ken, you see, is Dame Edna's "son," who happens to be of the less than heterosexual persuasion. A song and dance ensues to the adoration of the entire audience
This show isn't geared to gays though. That's probably the biggest misconception of Dame Edna. The character is not, and never was conceived as an icon of the homosexual culture, or cross-dressers in general. Dr. Humphries, a married man with four children, created a character that's become a huge comedic success irrespective of the fact it's a man dressing up in women's frocks. Whatever the motives of Dr. Humphries, he puts on fabulous show and one that one dare not miss. Dame Edna, as this show, is brassy and blunt. Great fun, possums.
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An archive of Joseph Planta's previous columns can be found by clicking HERE .