Well, Dame Edna was extremely Dame Edna. The show I saw last night is being advertised as the last-ever tour for comic actor Barry Humphries as his outrageous character. The last time I saw him in the same building, it was, too. At the end, last time, he took a bow as himself and that seemed to confirm it. This time, he again came out sans drag as himself again and this time, he said some things in a curtain speech that cast doubts on the assumption that we'd seen the last of Edna. So I don't know and he may not, either.
Before that, we got two hours of the colorful Grand Dame standing on stage insulting the audience. Carolyn and I had great seats in the fifth row. That's the place you want to be because you're close enough to see Edna's great expressions but Edna's gaze — "her" ability to pick out people to pick on — doesn't seem to extend past the fourth row. He/she did have harsh words for the "paupers" who bought the cheap tickets in the second balcony but they were demeaned collectively, not individually.
Edna occasionally sang a tune assisted by a pianist and four back-up performers but otherwise, it was just "her" talking and often outrageously funny. I don't usually agree with the L.A. Times drama reviewer, Charles McNulty, but I felt as he did that while the show was very amusing, there were moments when it felt much too long.
Humphries is a great improviser, which is to say that while most of the show is written, he obviously doesn't follow his own text precisely and as he interacts with the audience, things are said that couldn't possibly be planned. With such performers, you almost yearn for something to go wrong so you can see what they do with it. At one point in Act Two, Edna brings a man and a woman (strangers to each other) up on stage and proceeds to unite them in the Dame Edna Everage version of Holy Matrimony. Much of that seemed quite spontaneous and hilarious…though you do get the idea that nothing could possibly happen up there that Edna couldn't handle…and probably hasn't handled before.
The bit was supposed to be buttoned by Edna making a live phone call to the mother of the "groom" to inform her of her son's marriage but that didn't happen. At first, it seemed the problem was that the mother was in Mexico and the phone couldn't call Mexico. Then they switched to calling the gent's sister and it seemed he didn't have the number right. Then it turned out the phone simply wasn't working properly at all and the call had to be abandoned. Edna greeted each new screw-up as something to be milked for all possible humor…and even in the fifth row, you could see that Humphries was pleased he had something to play with.
At the end, Edna and her dancers threw gladiolas to the front rows and led us in the choreographed raising of them in salute to…her. We were encouraged to take photos, tweet and blog in celebration of her — I couldn't blog in the allotted time — and it was quite a lovely ending if, indeed, it was her "Final Farewell Tour." If it turns out there's another, I'm going to feel a little baited 'n' switched…but I'll probably go again then, anyway. One of these has to be his/her last time around. And anyway, Edna is still very funny.