Leading Lady, Charles Busch
Leading Lady, Charles Busch
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Leading Lady
A Memoir of a Most Unusual Boy

Author: Charles Busch

Narrator: Charles Busch

Unabridged: 9 hr 22 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 10/24/2023

Synopsis

The Tony Award-nominated writer of The Tale of the Allergist's Wife and the long-running hit Off-Broadway play Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, and a Sundance Festival award winner, Charles Busch has created a unique place in the entertainment world as a playwright, LGBT icon, drag actor, director, and cabaret performer, with his extraordinary gift for both connecting with and channeling the leading ladies of show business.

Charles writes how ever since his mother's death when he was seven, he has sought out surrogate mothers in his life. In his teens, Charles moved to Manhattan to live with his Auntie Mame-like Aunt Lil, who encouraged Charles's talents and dreams, and eventually he discovered his gifts for writing plays and performing as a male actress.

Busch also shares his colorful and sometimes outlandish interactions with film and theatrical luminaries, including Joan Rivers, Angela Lansbury, Rosie O’Donnell, Claudette Colbert, Valerie Harper, Kim Novak, and many others.

Full of both humor and heart, Leading Lady is for fans of entertainment books as well as anyone who enjoys real-life stories of artists who break the mold, ditch the boundaries, and find their own unique way to sparkle.

About Charles Busch

Charles Busch is an actor, playwright, and drag legend. He is the author and star of many plays, including Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, one of the longest-running plays in Off-Broadway history. His play The Tale of the Allergist's Wife played 777 performances on Broadway and received a Tony nomination for Best Play. Busch 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. He has been honored with a special Drama Desk Award for career achievement as both performer and playwright and he also received the Flora Roberts Award for Sustained Achievement in the theater by the Dramatist's Guild.

Reviews

Goodreads review by V. on October 15, 2023

When I was coming of age in the very early 1980s, I weekly would pore over the pages of the Village Voice and dream of abandoning the backwater Southern college town in which I felt trapped, for the more glamorous night life of New York City. I'd light up over any mention of Charles Busch's troupe,......more

Goodreads review by Kevin on July 31, 2023

Busch, a prolific and award-winning playwright, screenwriter, and actor, has written an absolutely captivating memoir. A born raconteur, Busch spins enthralling tales into short, buoyant chapters. Occasionally the chronological storytelling is interrupted with flash-forward chapters, which sweep rea......more

Goodreads review by Duncan on October 14, 2023

Great menoir by an entertaining figure, bopping around in time from his early days growing up, working on Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, looking up to and then doing theatre with Charles Ludlam, working with Joan Rivers on her one-woman show,, working on the book of the Broadway musical Taboo, doing cab......more

Goodreads review by Rick on October 17, 2023

A delightful memoir, full of laughter, tears, sex, joy, and, ultimately, a love of theater and camp (not the sleepaway kind, though). Highly recommended for lovers of theater, drag, B-movies, show-biz gossip, and the importance of family, both blood and chosen.......more

Goodreads review by Alexis on June 05, 2024

I was unfamiliar with Charles Busch going in, but I love theatre and memoirs. I found his career and personal life interesting, particularly his thoughts on drag. I really enjoyed hearing about the early years of his theatre company and his relationship with Joan Rivers as well. I'd like to check ou......more

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