Charles Busch Returns to Provincetown, 8/18-19

Charles Busch, the author and drag star of many Broadway and off-Broadway hit plays and feature films, makes a highly anticipated return this summer after his sold-out Provincetown debut at The Art House a year ago. This year Mr. Busch will be performing his shows in drag. Varla Jean Merman will also guest star. His plays include popular spoofs of classic film genres, such as Psycho Beach Party, 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, among many others. His Broadway smash The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife ran for 777 performances and was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Play. His latest hit The Divine Sister just ran to sold-out houses off-Broadway for nine months, prompting Ben Brantley of the New York Times to call it “Mr. Busch’s freshest, funniest work in years, perhaps decades.” On August 18th and 19th he joins the Broadway at the Art House series, in drag, with Seth Rudetsky at the piano.

Busch will perform scenes from his plays and sing some of his favorite songs with Rudetsky hosting the evening at the piano. Lively conversation will touch on his career on Broadway (The Tale of the Allergist's Wife, Taboo), Film (Die Mommie Die) and television (OZ). They'll discuss Busch's wild early years performing with his own troupe in such plays as Vampire Lesbians of Sodom and Psycho Beach Party. Audience members can expect an unforgettable evening with a true original.

In 2003, Charles Busch received a special Drama Desk Award for career achievement as both performer and playwright. He also wrote and starred in the film versions of his plays Psycho Beach Party and Die Mommie Die – which won him the Best Performance Award at the Sundance Film Institute, and wrote, directed and starred in the film A Very Serous Person, which won honorable mention at the Tribeca Fim Festival. Other film appearances include Addams Family Values, It Could Happen to You, and Trouble on the Corner. His television roles include Peg Barlow on One Life to Live and cross-dressing inmate Nat Ginzburg in OZ. As though his career were not storied enough, he also wrote the book to the Broadway musical Taboo with music by Boy George, he is the subject of the documentary film The Lady in Question is Charles Busch, and his first novel Whores of Lost Atlantis was published by Hyperion Press and by Penguin paperback. The Art House is proud to welcome back the legendary Charles Busch on August 18th and 19th.

Broadway at The Art House is sponsored by The Anchor Inn Beach House, Cape Air, and Ptown Bikes.

More Articles by This Author...