There's nothing like a Dame! (Dame Edna, that is!)

On October 15, 1999, my friend Diana Smith and I had tickets to Dame Edna's Royal Tour at the Booth Theatre in New York City.

We had a glorious time.  A lucky accident, our seats were in the front row towards house right.  We couldn't quite see the Dame's entrance at the top of the stairs on stage, but that was only a brief moment.  

A running gag for Dame Edna was riffing on the name of the theatre.  Even though it was named for the famed actor Edwin Booth, Dame Edna made jokes referring to presidential assassins - Oswald, and even an obscure reference to Squeaky Fromme!

Dame Edna (Barry Humphries) was an extraordinary performer.  There were songs, but mostly she was engaging with members of the audience.  She would ask a question.  Of course she had a microphone, and the audience members did not.  But Dame Edna repeated the responses in such a way that they were a part of the act.  

She would zero in on different audience members.  They were chosen at random having caught Dame Edna's eye.  She had a tremendous gift in drawing people from the audience into her act.  She'd ask questions about where they lived, what kind of house or apartment they had, about pets, hobbies, even tattoos!

At one point I realized that Dame Edna was looking in our direction out of the corner of her eye.  I felt that one of us was in for it!  And she spoke to Diana. Diana was a naturally shy person, but she had a great sense of humor.  She answered Dame Edna's questions and survived her scrutiny.

As happened in that show, Dame Edna was representing Queen Elizabeth II on this Royal Tour.  But since she was travelling alone, Dame Edna invited each of the audience members she engaged with to join her onstage and pantomime members of the a Royal Family. Diana ended up as Prince Charles. complete with kilt, and oversized ears!

Dame Edna posed for Polaroid snaps with each person.

During the intermission we looked around the theatre and noticed writer/critic John Lahr in the audience.  John Lahr later wrote a biography of Dame Edna.

A few weeks later Diana saw his review in the New Yorker. He chronicled various conversations but didn’t include any of the exchange between Dame Edna and Diana.  She was a bit disappointed, but it was an added thrill to our adventure.

After our return home, I created the collage below to remember the night.

A few years later Dame Edna was touring again and this time we saw him in Washington, DC at the National Theatre.  At the time the interior decor was turquoise walls and orange seats.  Dame Edna it seemed like a marriage between Tiffany's and Sunkist!  

After the performance I went to the stafe door to greet Barry Humpries and get Dame Edna's autograph on the photo of her with Diana.  I also got Dame Edna's autograph on my copy of her autobiography, My Gorgeous Life.  Both of these were signed with a fuscia marker.

And I had an original soundtrack recording of the London company of Oliver!  Barry Humphries was in the original cast as Mr. Sowerberry the undertaker.  I noted that Mr. Humphries asked for a pen to sign his own name on the album cover, not Dame Edna's fuscia marker!  

My friend Diana passed away a few years later.  Our pilgrimage to Dame Edna was something that we always treasured.