Dame Edna No Longer a Golden Girl

You gotta love the press releases for All About Me, the specialty show starring Dame Edna and Michael Feinstein. The one emailed today reads in part: "It is thus with great reluctance but enormous panache, given the expanding parameters of the production, that All About Me announces a new first – it's moving theatres even before opening." The new show will open at the Henry Miller Theatre--now available due to the end of the Roundabout limited engagement of Bye Bye Birdie--instead of the previously announced John Golden with previews beginning Feb. 19 for a March 18 opening. The release also states that two more artists have joined the company, but it doesn't say who they are--or it might just be a joke since it would mean the cast now consists of the tremendous number of four and they had to move to a bigger space.

Speaking of Birdie, did you see John Stamos was the victim of an extortion plot? Just as in the David Letterman case, the crooks were caught in a sting operation. They were allegedly trying to blackmail Stamos into giving them money to not reveal photos taken of the star at a Florida party that would "ruin his reputation." No one is saying what was in the photos, but Stamos' people are stating he was posing with fans. What could he have doing in those poses?  

With the Miller being snapped up, that leaves the Golden available. It's too small for a musical so Catch Me If You Can, Come Fly With Me and American Idiot are out. Possibly Enron, Fences or Lend Me a Tenor. Ragtime and Finian's Rainbow are having a hard time at the box office and they might be gone by January, leaving the Neil SImon and the St. James vacant. Race received decidedly mixed reviews so it might run out before the end of the season. No one has claimed the Music Box where Superior Donuts will sell its last cruller soon. So Enron, Fences and Tenor--if it happens, they've had EPAs, but I understand it's not certain--will probably find homes. (Photo of Dame Edna: Getty Images)

--David Sheward