RIP Dame Edna

[smidge]

Posted: 4/22/23 at 7:34am

Barry Humphries has passed away.

[Impeach2017]

Posted: 4/22/23 at 8:13am

What a drag.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 4/22/23 at 8:35am

Just one of the funniest people to ever live. I remember seeing “Back With a Vengeance” and sitting directly in front of Sondheim and hearing him howl with laughter the entire show - one of my favorite theater memories. 
 

Hope there’s fields of gladdies waiting in heaven for you, Barry. Thanks for the laughs. <3

[quizking101]

Posted: 4/22/23 at 8:41am

I met Dame Edna when I was 16 and my parents and I saw her and Michael Feinstein in “All About Me”. Such a lovely person and a HELL of a performer. I don’t ever remember laughing at such sheer absurdity. RIP

[Melissa25]

Posted: 4/22/23 at 8:45am

RIP Dame Edna.  I am waving my glad for you.

[jakebloke]

Posted: 4/22/23 at 10:29am

RIP.  I have never laughed as much in the theater as I did seeing Dame Edna live.  A truly great comedic genius in my opinion.  

[JasonC3]

Posted: 4/22/23 at 11:28am

So funny in both scripted and improvised moments.

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 4/22/23 at 12:04pm

Such sad news to wake up to. He was a treasure. 

[Highland Guy]

Posted: 4/22/23 at 12:09pm

We saw Dame Edna on tour some years ago.  So funny.  Ta Ta For Now, Dame Edna and Barry.

[Patti LuPone FANatic]

Posted: 4/22/23 at 2:16pm

I saw Dame Edna once in Dallas, in 98 or 99.  She was very funny.  I remember catching one of her gladiolas.  

 

Updated On: 4/22/23 at 02:16 PM

[Menken Fan]

Posted: 4/22/23 at 3:51pm

Repeating others’ thoughts, but I don’t think I’ve ever laughed as much as the five times I’ve seen the Dame onstage. Barry was one of a kind. 

[pethian]

Posted: 4/22/23 at 4:59pm

How fitting it is that this NYT obit is one of the funniest ever. Barry and Edna would have loved it.

[BETTY22]

Posted: 4/22/23 at 10:11pm

REST IN PEACE.

 

[Wayman_Wong]

Posted: 4/22/23 at 11:12pm

''How fitting it is that this NYT obit is one of the funniest ever ''

The NYT obit touches on it, but not everyone was a fan. Humphries sparked controversy after he called transgenderism a ''fashion,'' and said, ''It's pretty evil when it's preached to children by crazy teachers.'' And he was ''grateful'' for Trump.

https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/celebrity/shut-up-and-retire-barry-humphries-slammed-for-transphobic-comments-20180723-p4zt0h.html

 

Updated On: 4/22/23 at 11:12 PM

[Impeach2017]

Posted: 4/23/23 at 2:44am

I think his excuse was Asperger's Syndrome; but yeah it was pretty nasty.  Anyway, he's dead now.  RIP.  

[BETTY22]

Posted: 4/23/23 at 5:07pm

Maybe the best obit every in the NYT:

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that his survivors include his wife of 30 years, Lizzie Spender, the daughter of the British poet Stephen Spender, as well as his children and 10 grandchildren.

Mr. Humphries continued to perform until last year, when he toured Britain (as himself) with a one-man show, “The Man Behind the Mask.” He returned to Australia in December for Christmas.

Dame Edna’s husband, Norm, a chronic invalid “whose prostate,” she often lamented, “has been hanging over me for years,” died long ago. Her survivors include an adored son, Kenny, who designed all her gowns; a less adored son, Bruce; and a despised daughter, the wayward Valmai. (“She steals things. Puts them in her pantyhose. Particularly frozen chickens when she’s in a supermarket.&rdquo

Another daughter, Lois, was abducted as an infant by a “rogue koala,” a subject Dame Edna could bring herself to discuss with interviewers only rarely.

Though the child was never seen again, to the end of her life Dame Edna never gave up hope she would be found.

“I’m looking,” she told NPR in 2015. “Every time I pass a eucalyptus tree I look up.”