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She's wild. She's wicked. She's wonderful. She's Australian superstar and international entertainment phenomenon Dame Edna. This fabulous star of stage, television and screen has dazzled audiences the world over with her unique brand of interactive humor.

Much to the delight of her numerous fans, Dame Edna: The Royal Tour will make its North Texas premiere at the Music Hall at Fair Park for a limited, one-week engagement, Tuesday July 24 through Sunday, July 29, as a subscribers' special for Dallas Summer Musicals 2001 season.

"Wherever I go in the world, sharing my experience, hope and strength with ecstatic audiences, I nurse a spooky little hope that one day I'll be able to squeeze Dallas into my tight schedule. This time, it's going to happen! My dignified old producers saw my record-breaking, Tony Award-winning Broadway run, and my sell-out San Francisco show, and have been making a nuisance of themselves ever since. 'Please Dame Edna,' they grovel, 'Isn't it time those theatrically deprived folk in Dallas, Texas got a glimpse of you in the flesh? They're wearing out all their old videos of all your British TV shows and they are suffering from a terminal case of EDS (Edna Deprivation Syndrome),'" said Dame Edna in a recent interview.

Dame Edna will share her infinite wisdom and beauty tips with her adoring possums in Dallas so they can experience "my hands-on magic for yourself and for your wives, children, significant others, and same sex partners. I sing, dance, tour the stage and trawl the auditorium." The Dame will also be doing a little bit of gentle probing, and she questions, "who could possibly complain about that?"

Blessed at birth with natural wisteria hair, Dame Edna is a housewife, megastar, investigative journalist, social anthropologist, talk show host, children's book illustrator, chanteuse, swami, advisor to British Royalty, spin doctor, and icon. She has performed her shows successfully in London's West End, Australia and beyond. Her previous stage shows include Housewife Superstar and A Night With Dame Edna. Television credits include two critically acclaimed UK specials, An Audience with Dame Edna and Another Audience with Dame Edna. She has been a popular guest on numerous U. S. television shows hosted by Jay Leno, Johnny Carson, Joan Rivers, Rosie O'Donnell, and Roseanne, and recently appeared on "60 Minutes II." She has also hosted two innovative talk shows of her own, including "The Dame Edna Experience," where guests have included Jane Fonda, Liza Minnelli, Sean Connery and Mel Gibson.

Most recently, Dame Edna: The Royal Tour received a special Tony Award for a Live Theatrical Event, as well as a Drama Desk Award and an Outer Critics Circle Special Achievement Award. Dame Edna won the Golden Rose of Montreux in 1991, Europe's foremost TV Entertainment Award, for her television special "A Night on Mount Edna." Other notable awards include first prize at the San Francisco International Film Festival, a Gold Award at the New York Film and TV Festival, and a British Academy Award Nomination for "The Dame Edna Experience." Her books include Dame Edna's Coffee Table Book, Dame Edna's Bedside Companion, and her seminal autobiography, My Gorgeous Life, which has been translated into many languages and which has, on government orders, been placed in hotel bedrooms throughout Britain and Australia.

Dame Edna: The Royal Tour is presented by Producers Leonard Soloway, Chase Mishkin, Steven M. Levy and Jonathan Reinis. This very glamorous show has scenic design by Kenneth Foy costume design by Stephen Adnitt, lighting design by Jason Kantrowitz, sound design by Peter Fitzgerald, as well as accompaniment from "The Fingers on the Keyboards" and dancing by two "gorgeous Ednaettes." Dame Edna opened on Broadway Oct. 17, 1999, and closed July 2, 2000 to get ready for her North American tour.

Dame Edna: The Royal Tour will be at the Music Hall at Fair Park from July 24-29, 2001, presented by Dallas Summer Musicals as a one-week special subscription offering. Single tickets are on sale now at The Box Office at Preston Center, 6013 Berkshire Lane, or any Ticketmaster outlet including Foley's, Fiesta or Kroger Stores. Tickets are priced from $10 to $56, depending upon seat location, time and date of performance. To charge by phone, call 214-631-ARTS or purchase online at Ticketmaster.

All performances will be in the Music Hall at Fair Park. A more detailed calendar listing for Dame Edna: The Royal Tour is attached. Visit the Dame Edna websites by logging on to Dame-Edna.com and DameEdnaOnTour.com.

-Updated 07-12-01-

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