Perennial Dame Edna flowers yet again

Three performances remain to catch “A Night With Dame Edna” at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. People eager to scream with laughter should secure admission posthaste. The latest edition of comic anarchy from Dame Edna Everage brings Segerstrom Hall to its knees, in “the nicest possible way.”

Subtitled “The Show That Cares,” it is formatted on the lines of Dame Edna’s globally celebrated “Royal Tour,” a 2000 Tony winner and a smash in 2001 at the now-defunct Shubert Theatre. The ambience is, as ever, English music hall gone Cabaret Voltaire, by way of Las Vegas (thanks to Bob Bonniol’s ace lighting).

After a video recap of Dame Edna’s career, the raison d’etre appears in a salmon-and-gold blossom gown (attributed, like all her wardrobe, to her son Kenny, though costume designer Stephen Adnitt might demur). Her outfit, mauve hair and ornate glasses producing halations, Dame Edna shrieks, “Hello, possums!” Her devotees shriek right back.

Dame Edna, accompanied by the superb Wayne Barker, informs us in song that “this show is all about you,” her distinctive chops suggesting Florence Foster Jenkins as a cockatoo. The Gorgeous Ednaettes (Teri DiGianfelice and Michelle Pampena) assist the diva in peeling back the salmon to reveal a fringe-happy frock and great gams. After dancing like a marionette on Paxil, Dame Edna ends her opening number by doing a number on us: Tonight is about its audience only insofar as we reflect her ruthless, politically incorrect purposes.

Dame Edna sensibly prioritizes her attention according to ticket prices.

Balcony occupants (“paupers”) are cautioned against leaning forward, lest a “Niagara of nonentities” transpire. The side boxes (“ashtrays”) contain “mutes,” subject to ersatz sign language. Dame Edna’s take on senior subscribers is devastating. So are those on the front-row orchestra dwellers upon which the evening turns.

No potential patsy in the “Orange Counter” crowd escapes Dame Edna’s unerring instincts on where to ply her copious local research. The sing-along salute to Kenny, whose friends are everywhere, demonstrates her astute perception. So does Dame Edna’s psychic cognition via her victims’ footwear.

Act 2 brings Dame Edna’s Pax Americana gown, a blinding blend of majorette and mambo queen. This sight and her intractable topical thrust refreshes the classic set pieces. Like her onstage counseling via telephone, or the surreal dining sequence, where a couple enjoy a catered snack while enduring the acid-reflux afflicted dame’s tales of trailer-dwelling daughter Valmai. Or Edna’s salute to the British monarchy, with audience members modeling royal fashions, or the ending, as always an orgy of hurled gladioluses.

That the actual existence (and femininity) of this nonesuch is never in doubt bespeaks the seamless mastery of the man behind the maven, Barry Humphries. His peerless expertise at Dadaist subversion dovetails with exemplary character acting and the most astonishing ad-libs since Beatrice Lillie’s heyday.

During the flower-flinging finale, Humphries’ creation screeches, “I’m exactly what you needed!” She certainly is, and her incomparable three-step program (“You come, you laugh, you leave”) is a must-see experience, especially if you’ve seen it already.

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‘A Night With Dame Edna’

Where: Segerstrom Hall, Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa

When: Tonight, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2 and 7 p.m.

Ends: Sunday

Price: $34.50 to $64.50

Contact: (714) 740-7878, (213) 365-3500 or www.ocpac.org

Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes