‘Mommie’s’ Dad

Other than maybe Kelly Clarkson, Charles Busch is this year’s most unexpected silver screen leading lady. The drag performer and playwright (“The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife”) stars as the female title character in the film version of his play “Die Mommie Die!,” an affectionately silly sendup of the women-centered melodramas of classic Hollywood -- everything from “Mildred Pierce” to “Imitation of Life” to “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?”

Taking his cue from screen icons like Bette Davis, Susan Hayward and Joan Crawford, Busch plays Angela Arden, a washed-up, defiantly glamorous songstress who connives to off her elderly husband after her affair with a younger actor is exposed. For his performance in the film, in limited release as part of the Sundance Film Series, Busch won a special jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival in January.

Busch, who’s done stints on “One Life to Live” (in drag) and “Oz” (out of drag, playing a transvestite prisoner), has lampooned Hollywood on the stage before in his surf-movie spoof “Psycho Beach Party” (also made into a film) and the horror-comedy “Vampire Lesbians of Sodom,” his breakthrough off-off-Broadway success. More recently, Busch was tapped by Rosie O’Donnell to rewrite the book of the hit West End musical “Taboo,” based on the life of and featuring new songs by Boy George, for its Broadway bow. He’s also working on an original script , a new play that he will star in for Manhattan Theater Club (he’ll say only that it’s about a “historical figure”), and perhaps directing a film. “It’s the most frenetic time for me,” Busch says.

Where did the idea for “Die Mommie Die!’s” zany plot come from?

Oh, Sophocles, my dear. I was going to L.A. to do “Psycho Beach Party” and I had a director friend living in L.A. who was trying to get his career started on the West Coast, and he said it would be nice if we could do a play out there, so I quickly needed a vehicle. I thought maybe if I thought in terms of classical dramas or an ancient myth, maybe that would jump-start something for me and I thought of Clytemnestra and the House of Atreus -- which is always a natural starting-off point for comedy. And I thought, instantly: Clytemnestra married a powerful man, killed him because she had a lover, has difficult children. It just immediately suggested a ‘60s suspense film to me and particularly the strange little sub-genre that has been deemed Grand Dame Guignol, which is all those films from the early to mid-’60s starring aging film actresses.

Any films in particular that inspired you?

I don’t get that specific. It’s like that type of movie. There’s certain elements of “Imitation of Life”; a feeling, a suggestion of “Sunset Boulevard” at the end, but not really. It’s just that kind of film and that kind of lady, which helps for an audience that’s not that familiar with old movies. Actually, I was very influenced by a great Z Lana Turner movie called “The Big Cube,” which nobody has seen. I don’t even know if Lana ever saw it. I think she shot it in Mexico in the ‘60s and it has an LSD scene. She must have made it for the price of a bottle of vodka. It was funny, it’s such an obscure movie and we showed “Die Mommie Die!” at the Provincetown Film Festival and they showed it at a drive-in and we were sitting there and in the next car happened to be John Waters and I was thrilled that he was watching my movie. And at a certain point, he stuck his head out of his car and shouted to me, [in John Waters’ voice] “Can’t believe you’re doing ‘The Big Cube’!” [Laughs] Talk about your target audience!

May I ask your age?

You can ask it. I’m in my 40s -- can we leave it at that, dear? Although, I have to say, it hurt my vanity; now I’m suddenly playing mother roles. But I guess they say, choose to play a mother before they force you to.

How did you get involved with “Taboo”?

I got a call from Rosie O’Donnell’s office, and I didn’t really know Rosie at all. We met in a hotel room, and she was just very enthusiastic about the show that she had seen in London with Boy George and I was to write a new book for it because she didn’t think that the book was everything it should be. I had just made a movie, I wanted to make another movie, I had my own plans, so I was going to say no. Then she said, “Just come with me this weekend to London and meet Boy George.” Well, that’s certainly worth an anecdote to tell my friends, a free weekend in London with Rosie O’Donnell and Boy George. Who would pass that up? And then we went and I saw the show and it’s all about London in the early ‘80s, this whole fashion-art-music scene that exploded at that time, and it reminded me a bit of the East Village scene in the mid-’80s where I came from and I identified. I was like, “Actually, I think I have something to offer here.” I just think it’s really cool that Rosie chose this to be the show that she produces, that it’s not just a fun, silly Broadway entertainment but it’s a very ambitious musical drama.

Did she contact you because she was a fan of your work?

She loved “The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife,” and she was very supportive of it on her TV show and what she says she responded to is that it was very funny but it had a very emotional underpinning and that’s what she wanted for “Taboo.” The play in London had a much archer camp quality, and she wanted to humanize this a bit more and flesh out the characters and have a more emotional story and that’s exactly what I felt it needed. I kind of de-camped it and most people think, “Oh, Charles Busch is going to make it into a camp parody,” but it’s totally the opposite.

-- Andre Chautard