|
When actor and writer Charles Busch talks about having limitations, it can be difficult to imagine how he defines the word. Although Busch is best known as a drag legend in the New York theater scene, it's the rare actor's résumé that includes such diverse roles as a scheming inmate on HBO's gritty prison drama Oz and a glamorous modeling agent on the soap opera One Life to Live.
As a writer, his most recent work is the book for the musical Taboo about '80s pop star Boy George; the musical opened two weeks ago on Broadway. Busch has also written a novel, two screenplays and about 25 plays and musicals, among them popular drag revues and movie homages--in which he often stars as leading lady--and a thought-provoking comedy, which won the Outer Critics Circle award and became a Broadway success, garnering several Tony nominations in 2001. That play is The Tale of the Allergist's Wife, which will open at San Jose Stage Company on Nov. 29.
"The Tale of the Allergist's Wife is a whole different kind of thing for me, because it was not written for me to perform in. That was actually very liberating for me, because as a performer, I have a lot of limitations," says Busch. "I perform in drag, and so I'm playing these female roles, and I'm kind of a parody actress in a way. I comment through my performances on the history of star acting. And so I have to be in a certain play to be able to do that, and I have to be seen in a certain context. But if I'm not in the play, I'm totally free to just write whatever I want to."
Busch got his start in the late '70s and early '80s performing in drag in off-Broadway shows that he wrote for himself and the theater company he founded. "One of the reasons I ended up writing my own parts was that I couldn't think of any male roles I wanted to play," says Busch. "And then I thought it was sort of ridiculous to think of any famous female roles because I probably will never have a chance to do them, so I just had to write my own parts for myself."
Undeniably Busch's trademark works are those in which he writes and plays the femme fatale. Often these pieces draw on his love of film. "In the theater, my whole career as an actor/performer has been: "Hmm, who would I like to be? Wouldn't it be fun to be Barbara Stanwyck in a Capra film, wouldn't it be fun to be Norma Shearer in an anti-Nazi war film?' So there's a heavy level of fantasy in all of my work," says Busch.
By contrast, Marjorie Taub, the titular character in The Tale of the Allergist's Wife, needs a little fantasy in her life. Marjorie is a bored New York society matron coping with some midlife depression. So when a fun-loving childhood friend comes to town, she ends up sowing more than a few wild oats. The character evolved from several of Busch's other theater pieces. "I realize now more and more that I've been sort of toying with the character of this raging middle-aged lady in midlife crisis for quite a while," Busch says, "And you know, I just kept thinking she really demanded her own play."
Busch says that he hopes that audiences "all have a marvelous time and I hope they laugh a lot, but I hope underneath the laughter, they sense the pain of this woman. There are certain points in our lives where we are confronted with our own limitations and who we are and who we may never be, and how do you deal with that?"
Busch has branched out in a new direction with The Tale of the Allergist's Wife, but that doesn't mean his days as a diva are over, either. In fact, Busch got to be a real Hollywood leading lady--his first starring role on film--for the movie version of his play Die, Mommie, Die, which came out in theaters several months ago. Busch plays Angela Arden, a faded star who doesn't get mad but gets even with a cheating husband. The film won Busch a best performance award at the Sundance Film Festival.
For the self-professed film lover, the movie bug has bitten hard, and Busch is working on writing another film, which he also hopes to direct. But theater still calls, as well. "Now with Taboo, I will have been twice represented on Broadway as a writer, and I would love to be able to say that I acted on Broadway. The Manhattan Theatre Club has renovated the wonderful old Biltmore theater, and so I think they're saving me a slot in 2004 or 2005 to do a play, and so I'm determined: this one is going to star me!" Busch says with a laugh.
San Jose Stage Company presents The Tale of the Allergist's Wife Nov. 29Dec. 21 (previews Nov. 26 and 28) at The Stage, 490 S. First St., San Jose. Tickets are $20$42. For more information, call 408.283.7142.
|
