Were Critics Royally Pleased with Dame Edna's Broadway Return?
Here is a sampling of what they had to say:
William Stevenson in his Broadway.com Review: "For anyone who saw the Tony-winning Dame Edna: The Royal Tour during the 1999-2000 season, it's déjà vu all over again. The purple-haired diva admits as much not long after her impressive entrance… Luckily, the act is still funny. But it's lost some of its zing since the audience-participation format is now so familiar. Edna/Humphries should have made this year's edition stand out more from the previous one… Perhaps those who have never seen Edna before will appreciate this return visit most. For them it will be new and fresh. For those of us who still fondly recall the 2000 production, meanwhile, it's basically more of the same. Nonetheless, this Dame remains an indelible comic creation, and her mischievous brand of humor will provide some much-needed holiday cheer."
Ben Brantley of The New York Times: "Learn from her, children, for no one, ever, has been as happy to be famous or as certain that she deserves to be adored. She, of course, is the august Dame Edna Everage, who opened last night in her tirelessly funny new show, Dame Edna: Back With a Vengeance! Rest assured that though she wears elaborately engineered gowns with detachable pieces, Dame Edna is not given to mortifying wardrobe malfunctions that expose intimate body parts. If she were, though, you know that she would manage to make it all seem perfectly comme il faut. Dame Edna, you see, knows better than anyone that fame means never having to say you're sorry… All great comedians--and Dame Edna definitely belongs to that pantheon--tap directly into something raw and angry within their culture: feelings of class oppression Charlie Chaplin, sexual anxiety Lenny Bruce, racial conflict Richard Pryor. The genius of Dame Edna lies in the use she makes of our masochistic obsession with the rich and famous."
Clive Barnes of The New York Post: "Her fervent fans can clearly never get enough of Australia's Dame Edna Everage a k a Barrie Humphries, but the slightly less committed should be warned not to sit in the first five or six rows, for this is very much an audience-participation show. And any blushing violets might want to consider decamping at the intermission--for after a bright-ish first half, Dame Edna and her show nose-dive kamikaze-style into a field of corn. Not pretty, possums!"
Howard Kissel of The New York Daily News: "Dame Edna has got it and she flaunts it in a second-act gown of bold yellows, blues, reds that, on a less perfect figure, might appear clownish. On Dame Edna's svelte form, it dazzles. As you doubtless know, Dame Edna does much of her work with the audience, asking questions of hapless members and making them participants in the proceedings. When a woman said she was from New Jersey, Edna snapped, 'Your hair is quite low for New Jersey. What exit, darling?'… Some of Dame Edna's earlier shows have made me laugh harder… But Edna never wears out her welcome. She gets under your skin like the Australian unofficial national anthem, 'Waltzing Matilda.' Long may she wave!"
Michael Kuchwara of The Associated Press: "There may not be a more giddy, joyous sight on Broadway all season. Yes, Dame Edna Everage is back on Broadway 'With a Vengeance,' if you can believe the title of her hilarious new show, which opened Sunday at the Music Box Theatre. Scores of theatergoers, each merrily waving a gladiola, smile as a living legend of sorts with purple hair and oversized rhinestone eyeglasses urges them to sing along… Her initial 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's 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."
Elysa Gardner of USA Today: "Luckily, the four years since she last appeared on Broadway have not mellowed our dame, the alter ego of writer/performer Barry Humphries. In her new show, which opened Sunday at the Music Box Theatre, the ever-smiling Edna lavishes theatergoers--whom she refers to as her 'surrogate family,' her darlings and, of course, possums--with glimpses into her charmed life and insights into their own sorry existences. Humphries is a master of the sort of wry but wacky humor generally served best by artists from abroad."