Liz Smith reports that the wacky, lovable creation of writer-actor Barry Humphries may return to Broadway next year with a brand-new show. Edna, who is currently headlining Atlanta's Fox Theatre, will play Broadway for 12 weeks.

Edna's tour stops this year include Maryland’s Morris A. Mechanic Theatre (Oct. 21-Nov. 2) and Indiana’s Murat Theatre (Nov. 4-9). In 2004 the Dame will grace Rhode Island’s Performing Arts Center (Jan. 20-25), Florida’s Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Center (Jan. 27-Feb. 1), Kentucky’s Louisville Palace (Feb. 3-8) and three stops in Ohio: Columbus’ Palace Theatre (Feb. 10-15), Cleveland’s Playhouse Square (Feb. 17-29) and Cincinnati’s Aronoff Center for the Arts (March 2-14).

Dubbed Australia's First Lady, Dame Edna is the invention of 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.

For more information about the inimitable Dame, go to www.dame- edna.com.

* "The most wonderful thing in life is to fall in love with somebody and find out they have fallen in love with you. Well, possums, this miracle has happened to me! I have fallen in love with America, and it adores me back." So says Dame Edna, that international star who took Broadway by storm during the 2000 season with her Tony Award winning show, Dame Edna: The Royal Tour.