The only country still immune to her charms, it would seem, is the United States. Yankee audiences never warmed to her aborted talk shows, and her condescending classism is more overtly British. (She's been known to throw a few "gladdies" up to the paupers in the balcony and promise to "glance up there in strict proportion to the amount you've paid.") Broadway seems more suited to her matronly charm; Dame Edna: The Royal Tour is a smashing success.
Americans have been willingly gathering around Edna's stage-side chat since it came stateside in October 1999. Be forewarned: Edna can be frank. This is the woman, after all, who asked Roseanne, "Is there anything you wish you hadn't eaten?" and questioned Jane Seymour about the secret to her "successful marriages." Edna gets away with it because she's more well-meaning mother than the nag wielding the rolling pin. She often follows her unscripted barbs at audience members (whom she calls her possums) with her slogan "I'm sorry, but I care." So when Edna sympathetically consoles a woman by saying, "I used to try to make my own clothes too," you feel like you're getting the advice from your blunt aunt Martha.
Edna is the anti-celebrity celebrity, an aging schoolmarm who gives you all the comfort and discomfort of visiting with your own family. And that makes her the unlikeliest of megastars.
