Чарльз Луи Буш: Американский драматург и актер в стиле кэмп

American dramatist

Charles Louis Busch (born August 23, 1954) is an American actor, screenwriter, playwright and drag queen, known for his appearances on stage in his own camp style plays and in film and television. He wrote and starred in his early plays off off Broadway beginning in 1978, generally in drag roles, and also acted in the works of other playwrights. He also wrote for television and began to act in films and on television in the late 1990s. His best known play is The Tale of the Allergist's Wife (2000), which was a success on Broadway.

Busch was born in 1954 and grew up in Hartsdale, New York. He is the Jewish son of Gertrude (née Young) and Benjamin Busch. His father, who wanted to be an opera singer, owned a record store. His mother died when Busch was seven. He has two older sisters: Meg Busch, who used to be a producer of promotional spots for Showtime, and Betsy Busch, a textile designer. Busch was intensely interested in films as a young child, especially those with female leads from the 30s and 40s. Busch and his collaborators soon created a series of shows, mostly at the Limbo Lounge, such as Theodora, She Bitch of Byzantium (1984) and Times Square Angel (1985, Provincetown Playhouse). and Psycho Beach Party, which ran from July 1987 to May 1988. Other works include The Lady in Question, which ran from July to December 1989 at the Orpheum Theatre, and Red Scare on Sunset, which ran from June to September 1991 at the Lortel Theatre. Busch rewrote the book for the musical Ankles Aweigh for a 1988 production staged by the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, Connecticut. His Charles Busch Revue was produced at the Ballroom Theatre in May 1993 in New York. Also in 1993, he performed in a revival of Jean Genet's The Maids at the Off Broadway Classic Stage Company in the role of Solange. In 1993, he wrote a novel, Whores of Lost Atlantis, a fictionalized re telling of the creation of Vampire Lesbians of Sodom. The Green Heart was adapted by Busch from a short story by Jack Ritchie into a musical which was produced by the Manhattan Theater Club at the Variety Arts Theatre in New York City, opening in April 1997. He took the male lead in his comedy, You Should Be So Lucky which opened at Primary Stages Company, New York City, in November 1994. Other works of the 1990s include Swingtime Canteen, produced at the Blue Angel, New York City, in August 1995. His one man show, Flipping My Wig ran at the WPA Theater, New York City, starting in December 1996. He wrote Queen Amarantha, which played at the WPA Theatre, starting in October 1997. His play Die, Mommie, Die! was first performed in Los Angeles, opening in July 1999 at the Coast Playhouse.

Busch's early film appearances include Ms. Ellen, a fortune teller in drag in Trouble on the Corner (1997). Busch has twice appeared in film versions of his own plays: Die, Mommie, Die! (1999) and the comedy horror Psycho Beach Party (2000). He co wrote, starred in and directed the film A Very Serious Person (2006), which starred Polly Bergen and received an honorable mention at the Tribeca Film Festival. In 2020, Busch co wrote, co directed, and starred in the film, The Sixth Reel (2021). Busch had a recurring role in the HBO series Oz from 1999 to 2000 (the third and fourth seasons) as Nat Ginzburg, an "effeminate but makeup free inmate on death row, certainly a departure from his usual glamour girl roles." He wrote television sitcom pilots and movie treatments as a source of extra income while he was a cult performer. He sold three pilots to CBS that were not produced.

Busch's work debuted on Broadway in October 2000, when The Tale of the Allergist's Wife opened, following an Off Broadway run in February through April 2000. The play, his first in which he did not star, and the first created for a mainstream audience, was written for actress Linda Lavin, who played opposite Michele Lee and Tony Roberts. Allergist's Wife received a 2001 nomination for Tony Award for Best Play and ran for 777 performances. His other Broadway work was rewriting the book for Boy George's short lived autobiographical musical Taboo. Since 2000, Busch has performed an annual one night staged reading of his 1984 Christmas play Times Square Angel. In January 2003, he headlined a revival of his 1999 play Shanghai Moon, costarring BD Wong, at the Drama Dept, Greenwich House Theatre, New York City. He has taken the eponymous lead in three productions of Auntie Mame: a staged reading in 1998; a benefit for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS in 2003; and a small scale summer touring production in 2004. Our Leading Lady, Busch's play about Laura Keene, was produced by the Manhattan Theater Club at the City Center Stage II Theatre, in 2007, and starred Kate Mulgrew. His play, The Third Story, premiered at the La Jolla Playhouse in September 2008 with Mary Beth Peil as Peg, and was then produced in New York by MCC Theater at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, starring Busch and Kathleen Turner (Peg), opening in February 2009. Busch wrote and starred in a play, The Divine Sister, a satirical take on Hollywood films about religion, including Doubt and the Sound of Music. It ran at the SoHo Playhouse in New York City, opening in September 2010. In 2013, Busch wrote and starred as Jimmy in the Primary Stages production of The Tribute Artist. In March 2019, Busch starred as Lucille Ball in I Loved Lucy by playwright Lee Tannen at the Bridge Street Theatre in Catskill, New York.

Busch's style is based on movie star acting rather than naturalistic femininity. Busch said, "I've always played a duality. I guess I've always felt a duality in myself: elegance and vulgarity. There's humor in that. I've always found that fun on stage, as well. It's not enough for me to be the whore. I have to be the whore with pretensions or the great lady with a vulgar streak. It's the duality that I find interesting." Busch has said that he was also inspired by seeing Joan Sutherland Busch recalled: "When I was about 13 years old, around 1968 or '69, I went to see Zoe Caldwell in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. I was so dazzled that I don't think I've ever recovered."

Busch released his memoir, Leading Lady: A Memoir of a Most Unusual Boy, in September 2023. In March 2024 it was shortlisted for the 2024 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Memoir or Biography.

Year Title Role Details Notes1976 Sister Act Esther Old Coozies Kit La Mere Vipere 1977 Myrtle Pope, the Story of a Woman Possessed Myrtle Pope Chicago, Illinois1978Hollywood Confidential One man show Scene One, New YorkPlaywright The Ridiculous Theatrical Company, One Sheridan Square, NYC Hollywood Confidential, Victory Gardens Theatre, Chicago1979 Elephant Woman One Sheridan Square, June 1, 1979 Replacement Vagabond Vignettes The Duplex, New York "That's Show Biz" / "People on a New York Bus" / "La Marquesa" 1980 A Theatrical Party Performing Garage, New York 1980Charles Busch Alone With A Cast of Thousands Source Theatre, Washington, DCPlaywright 1981 Valencia Rose, San Francisco 1982 Chicago Gay Arts Festival, Chicago 1984 Indiana Rep, Indianapolis 1981 Welcome to Corona1982 Before Our Mother's Eyes David / Andreas Theatre for the New City, New York City Charles Busch Works Alone Tonight Source Theatre, Washington, DCPlaywright 1984Sleeping Beauty or ComaFauna Alexander Theatre In Limbo, Limbo Lounge, New York, NY, October 1984 1985 Provincetown Playhouse, June 19, 19851985 Vampire Lesbians of Sodom Virgin Sacrifice/Madeleine Asarte Provincetown Playhouse, June 19, 1985 Times Square Angel Irish O'Flanagan Provincetown Playhouse, December 11, 19851986 Pardon My Inquisition, or, Kiss the Blood off My Castanets Marquesa del Drago / Maria Garbanza Theatre In Limbo Limbo Lounge, New York, NY, May 16 – June 1, 1986 Gidget Goes PsychoticChicklet Limbo Lounge, October 10–26, 1986 1987 Psycho Beach Party (a. k. a. Gidget Goes Psychotic) Players Theatre, July 20, 19871988 Ankles Aweigh Goodspeed Opera House, July–September 1998 Book The Lady in Question Gertrude Garnet WPA Theatre, November 18, 1988 Playwright1991 House of Flowers February 1991 BookRed Scare on SunsetMary Dale WPA Theatre, March 19, 1991Playwright Lucille Lortel Theatre, June 21, 19911993 The Maids Solange East 13th Street/CSC Theatre, September 21, 1993 The Charles Busch Review The Ballroom, February–May 1993, July 13–August 1993 Written by 1994 You Should Be So Lucky Christopher Primary Stages, November 2, 1994Playwright 1995 Swingtime Canteen Blue Angel, February 24, 1995 1996 Flipping My Wig WPA Theatre, December 19, 19961997 The Green Heart Variety Arts Theatre, April 10, 1997 Book Queen Amarantha WPA Theatre, October 23, 1997 Playwright; director 1999Die Mommie Die!Angela Arden Coast Playhouse, July 1999Playwright 2007 New World Stages/Stage I, October 21, 2007 2000 The Tale of the Allergist's Wife New York City Center/Stage II, February 29, 20002003 Shanghai Moon Lady Sylvia Allington Greenwich House, January 15, 2003 Taboo The Plymouth Theatre, October 28, 2003 Book 2006 An Oak Tree Father Barrow Street Theatre, November 4, 2006Replacement2007 Spalding Gray: Stories Left to Tell Minetta Lane Theatre, March 6, 2007 Our Leading Lady New York City Center/Stage II, March 15, 2007Playwright 2009 The Third Story Queenie Bartlett/Baba Yaga Lucille Lortel Theatre, February 2, 2009 2010 The Divine Sister Mother Superior SoHo Playhouse, September 22, 2010 2011 Olive and the Bitter Herbs 59E59 Theaters/Theater A, August 16, 2011 2013 Bunnicula: A Rabbit Tale of Musical Mystery DR2 Kids Theatre, February 10–April 14, 2013 Written by 2014 The Tribute Artist Jimmy 59E59 Theaters/Theater A, February 9, 2014 Playwright 2019 I Love Lucy Lucille Ball Bridge Street Theatre, March 22–23, 2019 2020 The Confession of Lily Dare Lily Dare Cherry Lane Theatre, January 29, 2020 Playwright 2024 Ibsen's Ghost: An Irresponsible Biographical Fantasy Suzannah Thoresen Ibsen 59E59 Theaters, March 2 April 14, 2024 Playwright