He's funny, he's a
very talented actor and wrote a Tony Award nominated Broadway show and looks
absolutely fabulous in a many gowns. He is the multi-talented Charles Busch and
he is appearing in his own creation, Die
Mommie Die!, playing at the New World Stage
on 340 W 50th Street.
Busch is the author
and star of such plays as The Lady in
Question, Red Scare on Sunset and
Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, which ran
five years and is one of the longest running plays in Off-Broadway
history. His play, The Tale of the Allergist's Wife ran for 777 performances on
Broadway and won Mr. Busch the Outer
Circle Critics John Gassner Award and received a
Tony nomination for Best Play. He wrote
and starred in the film versions of his plays, Psycho Beach Party and Die
Mommie Die!, the latter of which won him the Best Performance Award at the
Sundance Film Festival.
In 2003, Mr. Busch
received a special Drama Desk Award for career achievement as both performer
and playwright. Mr. Busch made his directorial debut with the film A Very Serious Person, which premiered
at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival, where it won an honorable mention. He is also the subject of the documentary
film The Lady in Question is Charles
Busch.
I caught Busch's
performance this past weekend and was mesmerized by his performance. So,
naturally, I wanted to speak with him about the infamous Lady in Question:
TJ: Charles, it
was so nice to meet you after the show. Who did you base the character of
Angela on?
BUSCH: The
character of Angela Arden is a composite of the sort of role Bette Davis or
Joan Crawford or Susan Hayward would have played late in their careers in a
suspense thriller in the 1960s'. I try to evoke these actresses without
actually doing an impersonation. It's sort of an intellectual appreciation of
their acting style.
TJ: Obviously,
this show is something very near and dear to you. When did you write the show
and how did you come up with the idea?
BUSCH: I wrote
the play in 1999. I was going to be in LA filming Psycho Beach Party and I knew I'd only be shooting around ten days
so it seemed safe to do a play at the same time. I had trouble coming up with
an idea and then thought maybe I should base it on a classical work of
literature. The ancient Greek myth of Clytemnestra came to mind and I thought
it would be fun to do it the style of a 1960's suspense film.
TJ: It seems so
effortless to you to create this person on stage. Do you have a special routine
to prepare for each performance?
BUSCH: My only
routine is that I go through all my lines every day before I get to the
theatre, and then around a half hour before the show I go onstage and go
through any section that I'm afraid I'll screw up. I'm always afraid of
forgetting lines or stuttering on them.
TJ: When was the
first time that you performed this character on stage and how was the audience
reaction to the show?
BUSCH: I've been
playing variations of my Angela Arden character since 1984. In all my plays, I
tend to play an elegant lady who pulled herself up from a tough past. Not only
am I influenced by watching a lot of old movies when I was growing up, but I
was also raised my Aunt in New York City, who was an elegant lady who came from
humble origins. I think my performances are very influenced by her personal
style.
TJ: How would you
describe this show to let audiences know what they are going to see?
BUSCH: Die Mommie Die! is a parody of 1960's
thriller movies that might have starred Bette Davis or Joan Crawford, but I
hope that while you're laughing, you might also find parts of it touching as
well as genuinely suspenseful.
TJ: Any plans to
take the show on the road after its NY run?
BUSCH: There is a
possibility we might take the play to San
Francisco, but I'm taking one day at a time.
TJ: So, how long
have you been doing the drag roles? I
know you did a great movie, one of my favorites, Psycho Beach Party.
BUSCH: I've been
writing myself female roles since I was in college at Northwestern University
in the 1970's. For a number of years, I was a solo performer and played male
and female roles but I always thought I was better in the female roles and when
I started my theatre company, Theatre-in-Limbo in 1984 in the East Village, it
was nice having other actors to play those male roles and I could focus on
being a leading lady.
