Henry Thedens is a German performer who impersonates movie star Marlene Dietrich. (Henry Thedens)

The effort to import a female impersonator from Hamburg to Leonardtown, Md., to perform as Marlene Dietrich at a fundraiser for a children’s summer camp began in a Chinese restaurant in Venice over a plate of french fries.

I’m pretty sure that’s a sentence that has never been typed before.

“Who goes to a Chinese restaurant in Italy?” said Ellynne Davis.

Well, she does. In June 2017, the retired St. Mary’s County, Md., schoolteacher and her husband, Jim, were sitting in a Chinese restaurant in Venice. They had chosen that particular establishment because the french fries were supposed to be good, and it sells half-carafes of wine, which suited them.

“Henry swooped in,” Ellynne said. “There’s no other way to describe it.”

Henry is Henry Thedens, a performer from Hamburg who goes by the stage name Ginger.

“He saw the french fries,” Ellynne said. “I said, ‘Oh, please, won’t you have one?’”

They spoke for the next three hours.

Said Ellynne: “I feel like I’ve known him forever.”

When she learned Henry had performed in Europe, Asia and aboard cruise ships, but never in the United States, she vowed to orchestrate his American debut. After two years spent talking back and forth via Skype and WhatsApp, it’s finally happening. “An Evening With Marlene Dietrich” will be May 2 at the Olde Breton Inn. Tickets are $75 and benefit the Lions Club’s Camp Merrick.

I had many questions for Ellynne when I called her, the main one being, “What the heck?

“Good question,” said Ellynne. “What we’ve done is put together two things that are not related in any way.”

A quick primer: Marlene Dietrich was the German-born actress who found fame in such films as 1930s “The Blue Angel” and 1939’s “Destry Rides Again.” She sang too, crooning “Falling In Love Again” and “Makin’ Whoopee” in a weary, sultry voice. She left Nazi Germany for the United States and was a vocal critic of Adolf Hitler.

Lions Camp Merrick is a camp in Charles County, Md., that each summer hosts visually impaired and diabetic children from across the Mid-Atlantic.

Ellynne is a trained soprano and a fixture in community theater in Southern Maryland. “This time last year I was in ‘Calendar Girls’ up at the Port Tobacco Players,” she said.

And Henry, well, said Ellynne, “He is the most dynamic personality you can imagine.”

The news that Ellynne is importing a female impersonator from Germany “has raised some eyebrows, as you can probably imagine,” she said. But, Ellynne added: “Everybody has just been so nice when I say he’s coming all the way over here.”

I spoke with Henry on the phone and asked if he had a grasp of where it is he will be performing: Leonardtown, population 2,900, county seat of a jurisdiction that in 2016 voted for Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton by nearly two to one.

He said he did.

“It’s a nice town but maybe a little bit shy and conservative,” he said. But he is certain the people there are accepting.

“They’re very curious, and they go for us,” Henry said. Members of the community are pitching in. Someone is helping with the sound system, and a hairdresser has volunteered to style the platinum blonde wig Henry dons as Marlene. He’ll also arrive with a wardrobe’s worth of costumes: gowns and heels.

“She is still an icon of style,” Henry said. “She’s known even by young people. And of course many gays.”

Henry prizes a vintage swallowtail coat he owns, an echo of the kind Marlene wore when she scandalized moviegoers by dressing as a man and kissing a woman on-screen.

“She loved male clothes,” Henry said. He packs the tails in his carry on luggage, never checks it.

“It’s midnight blue, which is damned elegant,” he said.

Henry said his show isn’t drag, per se. As Ginger — well, as Ginger as Marlene — he doesn’t lip-sync, but sings to a backing track. He’s even translated some of Dietrich’s original German songs for his American audience.

“They’ve never been sung in English, not even by Marlene,” he said.

Henry will meet the mayor of Leonardtown, and on Monday he went on the T-Bone and Heather morning show on Star 98.3 FM.

“I’m really thankful for the Lions Club that they trust in Ellynne, and they trust in me, and they trust in this show,” he said.

The venue for Thursday’s show can fit 150. Ellynne estimates they have to sell 100 tickets to make a nice donation to the summer camp. So far, 75 have been sold. I’m hoping for a sellout. I mean, when else are you going to see Marlene Dietrich in Southern Maryland?

Twitter: @johnkelly

For previous columns, visit washingtonpost.com/john-kelly.