Actor/playwright/cabaret entertainer, Tony nominee and two-time MAC Award winner Charles Busch appears in a musical entertainment that gets to the essence of this legendary theatrical figure. Through an eclectic songbook from the seventies and early eighties, Busch unfolds an outrageously comic yet also poignant tale of his early years striving to find a place for himself in show business. Songs include the work of Michel Legrand, Rupert Holmes, Stephen Sondheim, Jim Croce among the best of Broadway, film and pop. He will be joined by his longtime musical director Tom Judson. The performance will be followed by a reception with the performers.
CHARLES BUSCH is the author and star of such plays as The Divine Sister, The Lady in Question, Red Scare on Sunset, The Tribute Artist and Vampire Lesbians of Sodom; one of the longest running plays in the history of Off-Broadway. His play The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife ran for777 performances on Broadway, won the Outer Circle Critics’ John L. Gassner Award for playwriting, received a Tony nomination for Best Play and is the longest running Broadway comedy of the past twenty-five years. He wrote and starred in the film versions of his plays, Psycho Beach Party and Die Mommie Die, the latter of which won him the Best Performance Award at the Sundance Film Festival. For two seasons, he appeared as Nat Ginzburg on the HBO series OZ and is the author of the auto-biographical novel Whores of Lost Atlantis. He has directed two films; the Showtime short subject, Personal Assistant, and a feature, A Very Serious Person, which won an honorable mention at the Tribeca Film Festival. Due to his love and knowledge of film and theatre history, he has appeared as a guest programmer and in numerous documentaries for Turner Classic Movies, and has lectured and conducted master classes at many colleges and universities including NYU, Harvard, UCLA and Amherst College. In 2003, Mr. Busch received a special Drama Desk Award for career achievement as both performer and playwright and was given a star on the Playwrights Walk outside the Lucille Lortel Theatre. He is also the subject of the acclaimed documentary film The Lady in Question is Charles Busch.
He is a two-time MAC award winner and has performed his cabaret act in many cities including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, New Orleans, Philadelphia, London, Paris, Barcelona and in New York at Feinstein’s 54 Below. In winter of 2016, his show The Lady at the Mic premiered at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s American Songbook series. His first CD, Charles Busch Live at Feinstein’s 54 Below, has just been released by Broadwayrecords.
TOM JUDSON has appeared on Broadway in the Roundabout Theater production of Cabaret at Studio 54. He toured the country in that show and in 42nd Street. He composed the score to Whit Stillman’s indie film classic Metropolitan and has written songs for Sesame Street, Ann Magnuson, Lisa Kron and many others. Tom is also an author (Laid Bare), magazine columnist and Huffington Post contributor.