By Marcia Blondin***It has been five (long) years since Dame Edna Everage has blessed Puerto Vallarta with her glitzy glamour, fabulous frocks, and trembling chin that precedes her cackling laughter or a disdainful remark that unleashe
s nearby laughter – if you happen to be within her gentle striking distance. With Love From The Bush reunites Dame Edna with Musical Director David Maiocco. They last appeared together in New York City a couple of months ago. Maiocco understands Edna’s vocal tangents and waits patiently by the piano while she unravels an audience member’s dress or shirt or questionable choice of footwear.
While Edna is sharp-tongued, she is never mean or cruel to her ‘Possums.’ She merely wants everyone to see the world as she does through her fabulous cat’s eye-shaped glasses, as she does set an internationally accepted standard of dress and therefore, behavior.
She entered the Casa Karma Red Room, carrying a matching gladiola, and bedazzled everyone (including herself) in the bright lights, colliding with her spangles, glitter, and reflective surfaces.With 
her eccentricly coifed, lilac/wisteria-colored hair, Dame Edna has discovered psychic powers while she’s been away from Mexico. She tried them out on an accommodating Possum from the audience to ascertain who the young lady had been in previous lives. Numerous superstars who have passed on were interviewed quickly by Dame Edna, and it was made absolutely clear that Joan Rivers was not included in this young woman’s life. Yet.
Of course, Michael Walters’ rich, baritone voice was in fine form. It’s always a shock when the high-pitched, Australian girlie-girl accent stops, and Michael’s warm-as-honey voice fills the theater. I heard his authentic voice for the first time 11 years ago when he burst into Ol’ Man River to a stunned audience at The Palm Cabaret. That was some magic!
