All About Me

Have you ever sat patiently with a group of people while a close friend told a very long joke, only to find that the payoff just wasn’t worth the time it took to tell the joke? All About Me, starring Dame Edna Everage (Barry Humphries) and Michael Feinstein, opened tonight at Henry Miller's Theatre, and while a lot of the setup is very entertaining, the payoff just isn’t there.

Now, before you go out and tell everyone that I’m a hater, hear me out. I adore both of the leads immensely. Michael Feinstein has more talent than one person of his small stature should be allowed to have. It is delightful to hear him croon the songs of “The Great American Songbook” (he’s done that on Broadway three times before this). Nobody does it better!

And Dame Edna Everage is a national treasure, ok, Australia’s national treasure, but hey, they love to share. Dame Edna (played flawlessly by Mr. Barry Humphries) is a cross between America’s Don Rickles, Joan Rivers and Auntie Mame. By the way, if you offend easily, don’t sit in the first 10 rows, for she spares no feelings as she told an unsuspecting audience member, “Oh, you’ve aged. You’ve aged tragically!” Hysterical, unless you’re that person.

The evening begins with the traditional Broadway overture. Well, not so traditional really. It’s snippets of songs from other very famous Broadway shows and was quite funny. When the curtain rises, we are dazzled by the on stage Rob Bowman Orchestra. Mr. Bowman is both musical supervisor and conductor of the amazing 12-piece orchestra, dressed in white tux’s’ in a “Big Band” setting that makes you feel as though you’ve been transported back to the Glenn Miller/Tommy Dorsey era. An all-white Steinway piano graces the stage, as the music continues, and as it ebbs, we are treated to the velvet voice of Mr. Feinstein, making a grand entrance and   holding the stage for about 15 minutes, in what can be best described as a cabaret show, explaining each song’s origin, peppered with anecdotes, before he sings it.

When Mr. Feinstein comes to the end of “The Lady Is a Tramp,” yes, you guessed it; Dame Edna appears downstage, above and behind the orchestra, for a flashy entrance, bejeweled in sequins. As she makes her way upstage, she apologizes for her tardiness and thanks Mr. Feinstein for “doing the warm up.” She then has him removed from the stage by her two “security” hunks (played by Gregory Butler, Chicago and Jon-Paul Mateo, The Wedding Singer, who later come back as the Dame’s backup dancers). Dame Edna then does her shtick, and it’s a wonderful 20 minutes of her best stand-up comedy, edgy and mildly offensive.

Enter the “Stage Manager” (the extremely talented Ms. Jodi Capeless in her Broadway acting and singing debut) with Mr. Feinstein, demanding the stage back. What follows is a setup for the next 45 minutes or so, where the two artists perform together.

I may need to remind the reader that about 6 months ago, Mr. Feinstein announced he would be doing a show called All About Me, on Broadway. Shortly after, Dame Edna announced she was doing a show titled, It’s All About Me on Broadway, opening a week before Mr. Feinstein’s and thus the press feud began. It all worked out when they announced that they had come to an agreement, and would be combining the shows and performing together.

My point is, since we already know this going in, why spend more than half the show with a pretend feud? It would have made much more sense for Mr. Feinstein and Mr. Humphries, who co-wrote the piece with acclaimed playwright Christopher Durang, to have come up with a better premise than a silly tug-of-war, resulting in a torn tuxedo, for the right to be on stage. There isn’t enough history established between the two accomplished performers, to make us think this is a Martin & Lewis routine gone bad.

With respect to the talents of both Mr. Feinstein and Dame Edna, and as much as I love both performers, and both performances, they needed to have a better premise for this endeavor.

Running time for All About Me is 90-minutes without intermission. I stress without intermission, because Dame Edna will surely make you wet yourself unless you visit the rest room before you take your seat.

All About Me was conceived by Barry Humphries and Michael Feinstein, with Lizzie Spender and Terrence Flannery. The delightful orchestrations are by John Oddo, with additional arrangements by Glenn Kelly. Michael Keller is the music coordinator. Behind the stage, All About Me is directed and choreographed by Casey Nicholaw (three time Tony Awards nominee, Spamalot, The Drowsy Chaperone),  and sports the talents of excellent scenic and costume design by Anna Louizos, beautiful lighting design by Howell Binkley, perfect sound design by Peter Fitzgerald and video design by Chris Cronin. Dame Edna's lavish, but outlandish dresses, were designed by Stephen Adnitt.

Henry Miller's Theatre, 124 West 43^rd Street, tickets (212) 239-6200 or Telecharge.com