stage
CHARLES BUSCH: THE LADY AT THE MIC
by tony reverditto Charles Busch authored and stared inThe Divine Sister, Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, The
Tribute Artist andThe Tale of the Allergist’s Wife, the latter of which, ran for 777 performances on Broadway, receiving a Tony nomination for best play. He also wrote and starred in the film versions of Psycho Beach Party and Die, Mommie Die! and is a two-time MAC Award- winner, performing his cabaret act in cities all over the world. This brand new show, created for Lincoln Center’s American Songbook series, titledThe Lady at the Mic has Busch, along with his invaluable, longtime Musical Director Tom Judson, paying tribute through song and personal reminiscence to five extraordinary and much-missed women: Elaine Stritch, Polly Bergen, Mary Cleere Haran, Julie Wilson and Joan Rivers.
It’s mind-blowing that 25 years ago, I produced and directed three of your shows:Psycho Beach Party being my favorite. Of your female leads, which has been your favorite and why? Since I write ‘em myself, I’ve had a lot of great
roles. I loved playing Angela Arden in the play and movie of Die, Mommie Die! Making that movie was one of the happiest, exciting, creatively fulfilling times of my life. My favorite role on stage was a 1989 play of mine called,The Lady in Question. Often, I first think of a role I’d like to play…In this case I was day dreaming about how marvelous it would be to play a noble, self-sacrificing, great lady, a la Joan Crawford or Norma Shearer, in a
44 RAGE monthly | MARCH 2017 |
1940s anti-Nazi melodrama. It was quite a lavish production by Off-Broadway standards and it was the first play of mine to get rave reviews across the board. I adored playing Gertrude Garnet, an internationally-acclaimed, concert pianist who is incredibly selfish and narcissistic. Were you a drag queen who became a writer or a writer who became a drag queen? I’m not sure what to think about that term “drag queen...” At the risk of sounding pretentious and getting a pie in the face, I’ve always seen myself as an actor/playwright who has created female roles for himself to play in the context of a play or movie—I don’t have an offstage drag persona. Perhaps things are changing a bit with the great popularity of Rupaul’s Drag Race, but I’m not a hundred percent convinced that when a performer is called a “drag queen” that there isn’t an element of patronization going on. To me, it implies that drag is your lifestyle and the rage, bitchiness and outrageousness, wacky, neurotic behavior that often goes with it. I admire so many of the young drag performers, who now celebrate with pride being called drag queens. I may not even be the best
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