Glorious Edna! (LAArtsOnline.com)

Dame Edna plays the Ahmanson Theatre

Glorious Edna!

By Ken Werther
Graphics Courtesy of CTG

Batten down the hatches, possums — here comes the comic genius of Dame Edna one last time! Having previously visited the Ahmanson Theatre in 2006 and 2009, the one and only Dame Edna Everage is on her way back to Los Angeles to cap a spectacular 50-year career of celebrated sold-out performances around the world. Arguably Australia’s greatest entertainment export, she will not go out with a whimper…no one is safe from the Dame’s wicked tongue!

In 1955, actor Barry Humphries created the remarkable Mrs. Edna Everage, a purple-rinsed Melbourne housewife now known around the world as the gigastar Dame Edna. She has appeared on stage in theatrical tours of Europe, the United States (including Broadway), and the Middle East, and she has also appeared regularly on television in Australia, Europe, the UK, and the U.S. According to her official bio, Dame Edna is the Founder and Governor of Friends of the Prostate and the creator of The World Prostate Olympics. (You might want to read that last part again.)

Spending a couple of hours with Dame Edna’s take-no-prisoners comedy is a theatre experience like no other. I had the incredible honor of working with her at the Ahmanson in 2006, and I cannot remember ever laughing as much or as hard. Ever! So head downtown for a dose of the most original and relentless comedy to be found anywhere on this planet (and possibly other planets as well)!

Dame Edna’s Glorious Goodbye plays at the Ahmanson Theatre, located at 135 N. Grand Ave, through March 15.

PRESS RELEASE — MOTH THEATRE COMPANY RETURNS WITH “PROOF” BY DAVID AUBURN — OPENS THURSDAY, JANUARY 15 AT 8PM

MOTH THEATRE COMPANY
PRESENTS
THE PULITZER PRIZE AND TONY AWARD-WINNING PLAY
PROOF
BY DAVID AUBURN
DIRECTED BY JOHN MARKLAND

JANUARY 15 — FEBRUARY 15, 2015

Now ready to unveil its newly remodeled space, the Moth Theatre Company is proud to announce its return with a new production of Proof by David Auburn, winner of the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play. Directed by John Markland, Proof will open on Thursday, January 15 and run through February 15 only.

The cast will feature (in alphabetical order) Amanda Brooks, John Cirigliano, Chris Marquette, and Felicity Price. Production design is by Justin Huen and Proof is produced for The Moth Theatre Company by Brenda Davidson.

Proof was originally produced by the Manhattan Theatre Club in May, 2000 and transferred to Broadway in October of that year. Along with Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award, the play also won the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play, the Drama Desk Award for Best Play, and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play.

On the eve of her 25th birthday, a troubled young woman’s brilliant but unstable father, a famous mathematician, dies. Now she must deal with her own volatile emotions, the arrival of her estranged sister, and the attentions of a former student of her father’s who hopes to find valuable work in the 103 notebooks the father left behind. Over the long weekend that follows, a burgeoning romance and the discovery of a mysterious notebook draw the young woman into the most difficult problem of all: how much of her father’s madness—or genius—will she inherit?

Proof is set to open on Thursday, January 15 at 8pm. The regular performance schedule is Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 8pm and Sunday at 3pm through February 15 only. Admission is $25 and may be purchased online at www.moththeatre.com or by phone at (323) 609-3676.

The Moth Theatre is located at 4359 Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles, 90029. Entrance to the theatre is through the alley in the back, on Heliotrope.

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12-30-14

Photographs: The Santaland Diaries (Aggranomic Productions)