Dame Edna's First Last Tour to Play Texas, Florida, California and More

By Andrew Gans
05 Aug 2008

Dame Edna Everage
Dame Edna Everage
Photo by Aubrey Reuben

Good news, possums! Tony Award winner Dame Edna Everage — international housewife, therapist, gigastar, fashion icon, guru and swami — will return to the theatre in the fall with her latest touring show.

Entitled Dame Edna - Live and Intimate in Her First Last Tour, the production is scheduled to kick off Nov. 7 at the Paramount Theatre in Austin, TX, according to the Dame's official website. Everage will also play Vancouver, San Francisco and Ft. Lauderdale, among other cities.

First Last Tour, according to press notes, is billed as such: "Dame Edna Everage is probably the most popular and gifted woman in the world today. The widely-loved international home-maker, talk show host, gigastar, fashion icon, swami and most sought-after friend to the rich, famous and royal, is making a return to the United States with what she describes as her First Last Tour."

Currently scheduled tour dates follow:
Nov. 7-9 at the Paramount Theatre in Austin, TX
Nov. 14-15 at River Rock Casino in Vancouver, Canada
Nov. 20, 2008-Jan. 4, 2009-Post Street Theatre in San Francisco, CA
March 10-29, 2009 at the Parker Playhouse in Ft. Lauderdale, FL
April 6-7 at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall in Sarasota, FL
April 10-11, 2009 at the Philharmonic Centre for the Arts in Naples, FL
June 2-7, 2009 at the Civic Theatre in San Diego, CA

Everage's First Last Tour had been scheduled to kick off in January 2008 but was postponed due to illness. Barry Humphries — the 73-year-old creator of the beloved Everage — had suffered complications due to appendix surgery and was ordered to rest for six months.

Dubbed Australia's First Lady, Dame Edna is the invention of Barry Humphries, a successful character actor in Europe and Australia as well as an esteemed landscape painter. Some of Humphries' theatrical credits include roles in Waiting for Godot, Oliver! and Maggie May, but his most successful outings have been as Dame Edna, a character he created in 1956. Humphries was given the Order of Australia in 1982 and was endowed with an Honorary Doctorate of Griffith University in Australia in 1994. The Dame found success on Broadway during the 2000 season with her Tony Award-winning show, Dame Edna: The Royal Tour. In 2004-05, her Back With a Vengeance played Broadway and earned a Tony nomination for Special Theatrical Event.

For more information visit www.dame-edna.com.