Dame Edna: The Royal Tour

By William Tynan

Years before the Monty Python boys began flouncing about in frocks, Australia's Barry Humphries donned a dress as Edna Everage, Melbourne housewife. His "one-woman" London shows turned Edna into a British institution. In her hilarious Broadway debut, the self-dubbed dame sings a bit and muses about her family (Mum's in a "maximum-security twilight home"), but mostly she chats with the audience--or picks on it (though "caringly"). Humphries, a gloriously gaudy "megastar," has timing as sharp as a knife pleat.

--By William Tynan