Also this issue: Trading Spaces Fleisher/Ollman Gallery celebrates a milestone anniversary with a change of location. -Susan Hagen Degas Vu The Art Museum transports you back to Degas' world. -Robin Rice Ballet Lessons A dance critic's perspective on “Degas and the Dance.” -Janet Anderson 19th Annual Celebration of Black Writing -Elisa Ludwig Concerts for the Community -David Shengold Tango Buenos Aires -Deni Kasrel Jeanne Ruddy Dance -Deni Kasrel The Magic Flute -Steve Cohen

February 13-19, 2003

theater

Q & A with Charles Busch

by Interview by Steve Cohen

Charles Busch's prize-winning play, The Tale of the Allergist's Wife, has local roots. While the show is set in Manhattan and won a Tony Award on Broadway, Busch got his inspiration for it right here in Philly. A two-week run of Allergist's Wife, starring Valerie Harper, opens at the Forrest Theatre this week.

Busch was first noticed for Vampire Lesbians in Sodom, a campy parody. After his turn as a transvestite in Vampire, Busch is now starring in Shanghai Moon at New York's Drama Dept. Busch also wrote the hilarious novel, Whores of Lost Atlantis, which he admits -- or brags -- is autobiographical. He spoke with City Paper last week.

City Paper: You've gotten a lot of attention recently for Allergist's Wife.

Charles Busch: With the success of Allergist's, people are acting as if I'm Venus on a half shell bursting out of Times Square. But I've been around for years. It's taken me a long time and a lot of work to become a sudden hit. I wrote and starred in a bunch of campy club parodies where I wore gaudy women's clothes, with titles such as Myrtle Pope: The Story of a Woman Possessed, Theodora the She-Bitch of Byzantium, Gidget Goes Psychotic and Pardon My Inquisition or Kiss the Blood Off My Castanets.

I also wrote a man's role for myself in You Should Be So Lucky, where I played a male Cinderella. It had a four-month run off-Broadway in 1995, then we brought it to The Wilma Theater here, when it was on Sansom Street.

CP: How did Allergist's Wife get started?

CB: The [American Musical Theater Festival, now the Prince Music Theater] brought me back to Philadelphia to do a cabaret act in 1996. I created the character of Miriam Passman, a middle-aged suburban Jewish woman who develops her own cabaret tribute to Edith Piaf. I loved that character so much that I wanted to develop her further. The character had vitality and seemed so rich that I made her the basis of my new play.

CP: Currently you're appearing off-Broadway and you just had a film at Sundance.

CB: I'm so excited. I just won an award for acting at Sundance. This is the first time I've been honored for my performing. It's a parody of Joan Crawford and Bette Davis that I wrote and shot in two weeks in L.A.

CP: How do you feel about the fact that your directing and writing of Die, Mommie, Die! didn't win awards?

CB: Look, I'll take anything I get.

CP: Did your background help you create Allergist's Wife?

CB: I was raised in Cincinnati. My mother died when I was 7 and I moved in with two aunts who lived in Hartsdale, in Westchester County. When I was 12 they moved to Manhattan. Neither Aunt Lillian or Aunt Belle were very religious, but in middle age Belle rediscovered her roots and started learning Yiddish, which she passed on to me. In The Allergist's Wife, the wife makes fun of her aged mother's Jewish identification, saying: "You never spoke a word of Yiddish till you were 65!" It's my tribute to Aunt Belle. She's now 91.

CP: Are there any differences between the public and private Charles Busches?

CB: In real life I have a fear of being a public clown, of being ridiculous. I have a 12-year steady relationship with Eric Myers, author of Uncle Mame, a biography of Patrick Dennis, who created Auntie Mame. We both live in the West Village, but not together. We each have busy lives and need privacy. Eric's place looks like a home decorating magazine, but my style is messy. My place is a cross between Sarah Bernhardt's boudoir and a 1960s steak house.

CP: What's next?

CB: Drag is what I do best, and audiences seem to like it. I sure intend to keep doing it. I'm writing a marvelous big drag vehicle for me, based on the life of a 19th-century actress. I'm a student of theater history and I always wanted to write a valentine to the theater. I'm [also] rewriting the book to a musical by and about Boy George, Taboo, which is now in London. Rosie O'Donnell is going to produce it on Broadway next season.

The Tale of the Allergist's Wife, Feb.18-March 2, $20-$65, Forrest Theatre, 1114 Walnut St., 800-447-7400.