Dame Edna Everage and the Rise of Western Civilisation: Backstage with Barry Humphries

Since 1969 Lahr has continued writing about show business with the sensitivity and informed views that marked his debut in Notes on a Cowardly Lion, his biography of his father, comic Bert Lahr. As theater critic for British Vogue , the author first recognized the talents of Australian Humphries, aka ``Dame Edna,'' risen from suburban housewife to world star on stage and TV. The ``lady'' appears in hideously chic costumes before SRO audiences eager to be insulted and to hear her dirty jokes. Lahr also examines Humphries's other persona, Sir Les Patterson, the crude and priapic Australian cultural attache who features his big genitals in his performances. Observing Humphries close-up, Lahr explores the comic's history and finds the roots of his satiric genius in his outrage at the pervasive phoniness in society, which he targets with the strongest weapon: laughter. Sections of this excellent biography were published in the New Yorker . (Nov.)