When Charles Busch and the other members of his fringe theater company got a booking for his new play, Vampire Lesbians of Sodom at the Limbo Lounge in New York's East Village back in 1984, they decided to videotape it. 'We were all best friends,' Busch recalls, 'and we thought it would be fun to watch ourselves on TV. It was supposed to be for the weekend and it wasn't like I was going to be a female impersonator or anything.' But as many avid theatergoers know, the play was a huge hit and began the long succession of projects for the openly gay actor and playwright. Most of these have found Busch playing the lead role in drag—usually in homage to one of his beloved Hollywood icons.
More than 20 years later, Busch has conquered Broadway via his offbeat play The Tale of the Allergist's Wife; Hollywood with starring roles in film adaptations of his parody shows—most notably in Die! Mommie! Die!; TV with his recurring character on HBO's Oz series; and his hilarious camp novel, Whores of Atlantis.
Now the prolific Busch stars in his own life story, The Lady In Question is Charles Busch, a new documentary by Jack Catania and Charles Ignacio that features a compelling and inspirational portrait of Busch both in and out of drag ( thanks to those old videotapes ) .
Chicagoans will have the opportunity to meet Busch and the documentary's directors, Catania and Ignacio, at an exclusive, one-night-only screening of the film on June 2 at 7 p.m. at Film Row Cinema at Columbia College, 1104 S. Wabash. A reception honoring the star and filmmakers follows. The evening is a benefit for Chicago Filmmakers and Reeling, in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the gay and lesbian film festival, and is being underwritten by philanthropist Michael Leppen. Tickets are $75. Visit www.reelingfilmfestival.org or call 773-293-1447.
Highlights from my conversation with the delightfully funny, forthcoming Busch:
WCT: First I just want to tell you that it's an honor to talk to you. You have been a personal hero of mine for a very long time.
CB: Oh, how sweet of you. Have you seen the documentary yet?
WCT: I have and I must tell that it 'spoke to me' for I, too, was a lonely little boy engulfed in movies growing up … in Nebraska of all places.
CB: Oh dear. ... Well I think it came out terrific. The night before it opened in New York I was talking to my dear friend Julie Halston who's in the movie so much and I said, 'I'm kind of nervous. It's not my movie but it is sort of my movie' and she said, 'What can you be nervous about?' and I said, 'Well, you know, somebody could say, 'Who does Charles Busch think he is?' So we were very lucky that it got some very good reviews and nobody said my worst fear which is that I wasn't worthy of such examination.
WCT: That was my first question …
CB: Do I think I'm worthy of examination? ( laughs )
WCT: ( laughs ) Yes! How dare you! Who do you think you are!? Seriously, after you saw the film it must have been very validating.
CB: It was very emotional. The filmmakers shut me out after they'd been stalking me for four years.
WCT: How did the film happen?
CB: Jack Catania and Charles Ignacio for 10 years were producers for the PBS series, In the Life and over the years I'd done a number of stories with them and we always hit it off well, and they said they wanted to do a feature-length documentary and thought I would be an interesting subject. Maybe it shows my narcissism but I said, 'Wow, OK, cool' because chances are I'm not going to get an Intimate Portrait or E channel life story anytime soon.
WCT: How was it seeing the finished movie the first time?
CB: It was very emotional seeing my life pass before my eyes and at the same time the cold eye of professionalism was also working and thinking, 'Oh gee, it's interesting how they pulled that off.' But the most intense thing for my sister and I was seeing our mother because she died when I was 7 and my sister was 11 and she's just a very mysterious figure, a sort of ghost in our lives and seeing her picture on this huge screen was really intense for us.
WCT: I would think so. One thing I didn't see and I wonder if you want to talk about this—your father kind of disappears from the movie after an early appearance.
CB: Yeah, and he disappeared from my life as well. My mother's sister really stepped up to the plate and adopted me legally and I went to live with her. My aunt was extraordinarily wise but due to her own fears and insecurity she felt somehow very threatened by my father and she had no reason to at all. My devotion to her and gratitude toward her and affection toward her was so profound and yet it was never quite enough for her. My father demanded so little that I turned him off to sort of appease the situation. Fortunately, in his last years I was able to be closer to him. He was kind of like a gay guy in a way—except for the fact that he liked fucking stewardesses—
WCT: ( laughs ) —except for that one little thing!
CB: Other than that he was totally gay. He loved opera and old movies and it wasn't like he was into westerns. He loved Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. He didn't particularly care that I wasn't athletic and was totally accepting.
WCT: I grew up with Judy and Bette and Joan but I sense when I talk to my young gay friends that this next generation isn't quite so into these gay icons. What's your take on that? Are they still important?
CB: I have a 19-year-old friend and a 24-year-old who are as knowledgeable about these people as we are. My feeling is that the majority of gay people were never into these people. It's always been a smaller group. I would think that in the '30s there were people into the young Bette Davis and Katharine Hepburn but a couple of queens were really into Theda Bara or whoever was the camp figure from 30 years before that. Today with TCM on 24 hours and Netflix and the internet, if a young gay boy has any interest at all in the past, it's so available. I think it's going to go on and on and on, my dear—nothing to fear!
WCT: I just got the new Bette Davis boxed set today. Didn't I see you interviewed for that new documentary about her, Stardust?
CB: Yes, now I have this odd new career as film pundit.
WCT: It's wonderful to have that knowledge and to put it to work. My mother saying, 'If only you could get paid for everything you know about old movies' is still ringing in my ears.
CB: Yeah, it is. I've been doing the commentary tracks on these and I did the new Baby Jane DVD with Lypsinka and we had so much fun. I was ready to do the second one in the series so I emailed the producer and said, 'Ready for The Damned Don't Cry?' and then there was one of those 'Well, we're rethinking the whole thing' and we kept waiting and waiting and Lypsinka was asking, 'When?' and finally I said, 'Honey, they fucked us once and they want two different whores for the next one.'
WCT: Well I'll have my fingers crossed for you and the Lyp. Can you talk a little bit about A Very Serious Person, which is a different kind of project for you? You wrote, star and directed this movie. It sounds like a real departure.
CB: We haven't really put it out on the festival circuit yet but yeah, this movie I'm so proud of it. It's really where I'm going. My friend Carl Andress and I co-wrote it together and it was my first real directing job. It's emotionally autobiographical. Polly Bergen plays a lady very much like my aunt raising her 13-year-old grandson and she's terminally ill and I play this rather austere Scandinavian male nurse who comes to take care of her and I become a reluctant mentor to this gay 13-year-old. It premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival a couple of weeks ago and won Honorable Mention.
WCT: Congratulations. I look forward to seeing it. What's next for you?
CB: I have a new play that Manhattan Theatre Club is going to produce in December. It's a play that I've been working on for so long I can't remember when I wasn't working on this thing. It's called Our Leading Lady and it's based on episodes in the life of this 19th century stage actress Laura Kean who was onstage the night Lincoln was shot. It's a backstage comedy/drama about a theatrical troupe who are performing in Ford's Theatre and sort of collide into history.
WCT: Will you be appearing in the play, Charles?
CB: I hope not. I'm looking for an actress with a vagina.
WCT: ( laughs )
CB: And if we cannot find her, if called, I will serve, but I do prefer a wonderful actress who has a vagina.
WCT: That can do a monologue at the same time.
CB: Yes, must have a vagina and also be able to act.
