Entertainment

Can’t blame Dame

It’s great to have Dame Edna Everage back in town, but she’s part of a package that includes Michael Feinstein — and that’s no deal.

The premise for “All About Me” is that the Australian housewife superstar hijacks the cabaret entrepreneur’s Broadway concert. Urged by their stage manager (Jodi Capeless), the two grudgingly agree to share the show, despite the fact that no theater in this town is big enough for Feinstein’s ego and Dame Edna’s hair.

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It’s clear Edna’s the real draw here. When she barges in after 15 minutes of Feinstein’s undistinguished delivery of chestnuts like “My Romance” and “Strike Up the Band,” you can hear the audience sigh with relief.

The creation of Barry Humphries (who co-wrote the show with Christopher Durang), Edna is her usual giddy, flighty self. By now, Humphries so thoroughly inhabits her that when Edna said she was lactating, my first thought was, “She can’t be — she’s too old!”

Faced with this force of nature, Feinstein flounders. Blissfully free from the shackles of charisma, he stares and grins blankly while Edna hams it up as only she can.

This might have worked to the show’s benefit since Edna’s best when bouncing off a straight man — so to speak, since there are a couple of underhanded jokes about her co-star’s sexuality. But she still needs something to work with, and Feinstein is as reactive as a wet tuxedo. So Edna’s left to find her foils in the audience. The interaction with random possums, as she calls her victims, is the most entertaining part of the show, nominally directed by Casey Nicholaw.

When the two stars share the stage, Feinstein loses every time, despite his home-court advantage.

Surprisingly, he doesn’t even fare well on his own. His takes on the Great American Songbook are overly reverent. The faster numbers, in particular, lack finger-snapping swing. And considering that he’s been doing cabaret for years, it’s odd that he hasn’t developed much patter beyond telling us how much he loves Gershwin, et al.

It says something that Capeless gets the biggest applause of the night after belting “And the World Goes ‘Round” out of the ballpark.

The concept of “All About Me” could have delivered in a Vegas-on-the-Borscht Belt way, and there are nice touches: an overture that throws familiar show-tune riffs in a blender, and distinct Edna and Feinstein Playbills. And, of course, you can’t go wrong with Edna.

Still, a dame shouldn’t be left to do all the heavy lifting.

elisabeth.vincentelli@nypost.com