Interview: Charles Busch Rings in the New Year at 54 Below

Charles Busch has written over 25 plays, including the Broadway comedy The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife and the first of many Off-Broadway hits, Vampire Lesbians of Sodom. Besides being a playwright, he’s also a respected actor and beloved drag icon known for his witty, genre-bending works. As he prepares for his upcoming New Year’s Eve cabaret at 54 Below, many may not realize that before he established himself onstage, he began his early days in New York doing cabaret. Throughout his 43-year career, here (in his own words) is how he remembers the three distinct periods of cabaret.

Chapter One:

Around 1982, after graduating Northwestern and staying in Chicago two more years, trying to figure out exactly who I was theatrically, I came back to New York where my dream was to establish myself as an actor/playwright with my own theater company. But how do you start when you’re unknown, with no money to put on a showcase, and don’t know anyone in the theater? I had written a play while I was in Chicago for an ensemble, and I thought—maybe I could turn it into a solo show, playing all the parts, male and female and book myself into a cabaret room.

One afternoon, I wandered around the Village and found a little club on Hudson Street called Scene One. I introduced myself to the manager, Bobby Kneeland, and performed ten minutes of my act. I was booked. Of course, Scene One would have booked anyone. You could’ve had a sign on your back saying, RECENTLY ESCAPED FROM PENTITENTIARY, and they would’ve booked you.

Around the exact same time, also wandering around the village, I saw The Duplex reopening, across the street from where it is today. It was a legendary club from the 50s and 60s, but dark for years. The door was open. I stumbled in and introduced myself to Erv Raible and his partner, Rob Hoskins, who had just bought the moribund club—which they were in the midst of refurbishing. Again, I performed ten minutes of my act and was hired on the spot.

What I was doing was more theater than cabaret, performing solo pieces where I played multiple characters. Erv and Rob made The Duplex a home for a group of unique performers, Julie Kurnitz, Bruce Hopkins, Ruby Rims, and others who weren't strictly comics or singers. They made me part of that family. Erv had great faith in me. How many times can you get your friends to pay the $6 cover charge? Being unknown, without a following, I had to cancel as many performances as I gave.

Chapter One ended when Charles created his theater company at the Limbo Lounge where Vampire Lesbian of Sodom began prior to its long, successful Off-Broadway run.

Chapter Two: ten years later

Around 1992, at the height of the AIDS crisis, a club in Chelsea called The Ballroom was doing informal cabaret benefits to raise money for AIDS. The owner, Tim Johnson, asked if I’d like to do one, I thought, well, here’s my chance to be Josephine Baker or Mistinguette! And I put together a lavish nightclub revue with a band, dancers, singers, comedy sketches, and eight costume changes! It was a cross between “The Carol Burnett Show” and “The Judy Garland Show.” People were saying, “Are you nuts? Why are you doing all this for one night?” I could afford to do it because since it was a benefit, I didn’t have to pay anyone! However, that began my professional relationship with the late musical director/pianist Dick Gallagher.

Afterwards, Tim Johnson said he'd love to book us for a longer run. There was no way to break even, but I adored every minute of it. Dick and I took some of the material from that revue and turned it into a solo act that we performed for several years.

Chapter Three: 15 years later

When 54 Below first opened, they contacted me about whether I would be interested in appearing. I put it off for a few years because I didn’t think I was Ready to Play such an important room. I had to sharpen up my singing and figure out exactly what sort of cabaret performer I’d be at this stage of my life. I tried out material at different, less intimidating places and began working with a wonderful musical director, Tom Judson. After a few years, I finally felt secure enough and I played the first of many engagements at 54 Below.

Has there been a big difference with this last period of doing cabaret?

Two things really. I’m doing much more singing. And I’m no longer in drag.

In phase one, I wasn’t in drag because I was a storyteller playing multiple characters, flipping back and forth. I wore my own neutral boy’s clothes. In my second cabaret phase, I was at the height of my career as a male actress. The whole idea of the evening was to evoke the glamour of a female-driven variety show.  When I returned to cabaret around 15 years ago, I assumed I had to be in drag because I felt that’s what people expected of me. But it never made intellectual sense because if you're going to one of my plays, I'm playing a female character, which was why I was in drag. But for cabaret, being introduced as Charles Busch, telling true stories about my life and singing Sondheim and Jerome Kern—why was I in drag? After several years of this, I found the courage to strip off the seventh veil and be my own androgynous, Peter Pan-as-played-by-Greer Garson self. Cabaret performance is very much about presenting an honest version of who you are. It’s helped my singing. I have better breath control because I’m no longer laced into a Scarlett O’Hara corset!

I do believe the more you do something, the more confidence you get, and the stronger you are.

And certainly, being an actor and storyteller doesn’t hurt.

Yes, I approach each song as a little play. I began talk-singing, with the tendency that whenever a dramatic moment came along, I would speak it. What I've been learning is to trust the composer’s melody to also convey emotion. I find it easier to be in the moment with a song than in an acting scene. Somehow the melody encourages spontaneity.

This will be your fifth New Years Eve cabaret at 54 Below. [2016, 2018, 2021, 2023]. How will this one be different?

I'm honored to be asked back because 54 Below is a marvelous place to be on New Year's Eve, and mind you, I’m doing the 7 o'clock show, so I can be home and reclining on my sofa by 9 pm! [Joy Woods is doing the 11 o'clock show, which will end at the stroke of midnight.]

How will it be different? For most of my cabaret career, I've only performed with a piano. Last March, I did a couple nights at 54 Below, and we added a few instruments. For this New Year’s Eve, we’ve got seven pieces all together. On that little cabaret stage, that's like the Philharmonic! I hope there'll room for me to toss the hips, you know?

Who’s your musical director?

Jono Mainelli, a marvelous musician and collaborator. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of popular music and a Svengali-like ability to convince that I won’t be making a fool of myself. We’ve been friends for a long time but have been working together for about a year and a half.

Any special guests?

It's a bit of a family affair, because my nephew, Jimmy Stull, is a talented rock guitarist, and my second cousin, John Miller, will be on bass. Cousin John’s one of the great Broadway instrumentalists. He was in the onstage band in the original production of I Love My Wife.

The evening’s repertoire will be a mix of new stories, new songs, and a few of my favorite song I’ve done in previous shows. It’s a grab bag of different styles.

Do you have any major influences as a cabaret artist?

I was friends with the late jazz singer Mary Cleere Haran. She was not only a great performer but truly a popular music historian. Growing up, I responded to dramatic tour de force singers like Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand, still my favorites. However, Mary Cleere taught me to appreciate singers with a quiet intimate approach like Doris Day and Peggy Lee. And I know it may sound kooky, but I also learned from watching Audrey Hepburn—the two times she sung in movies: “Funny Face” and “Breakfast at Tiffany's.” She’s an actor-singer. Her phrasing is so beautiful and delicate. I find that has helped me a lot as a performer. Recently, I was part of Susie Mosher’s cabaret show, the Lineup at Green Room 42. I was so dazzled by the way she can improv so effortlessly from speech into song, I found her very inspiring.

Besides influences, are there other cabaret performances that you’ll always remember?

Alberta Hunter at the Cookery! Wow! She was a great blues, jazz singer in the 20s and 30s. And then she retired and became a nurse for decades! She came back in the early 1990s, in her 80s, performing in a restaurant called The Cookery down in the village. She became a bigger star than ever during the last years of her life. A great entertainer, effervescent but with a subtle yet profound depth of emotion. And of course, Marilyn Maye! I was a big fan of her records, especially “Marvelous Marilyn Maye” from the 1960s. She’s based in Kansas City. Sometime in the late 1990s, she performed in New York for the first time in many years. I went to see her—thinking, well, you know, she's not going to be what she was on those records, but we can appreciate whatever she can still give us. Well, she was phenomenal; in some ways, deeper and richer than she had ever been.

It's so wonderful when you see an older performer excel with no allowances made. I remember seeing the 1979 Broadway Musical Revue Sugar Babies starring Ann Miller and Mickey Rooney who were both close to their 60s. They were truly at the top of their form. It’s marvelous when that happens.

Will this cabaret at 54 Below be the usual one-hour show?

Around an hour and 15 minutes. I don’t like to wear out my welcome.

By the way, I love your book, Leading Lady, and also the audio recording. It’s such a tell-all! Was there anything not covered in that book?

I think I pretty much told everything about my louche past. It's extremely uncensored. I worked on it for so long without knowing what the structure was going to be. I thought initially it would be a series of anecdotes. The original title was: This Never Leaves the Dressing Room. Then a friend read it and suggested I turn it into a linear memoir. I started from the beginning, “Chapter One, I am born” and filled in all the blank spaces. It was read by a legendary book editor, and she thought it was hokey and old-fashioned. Then, I went back to the typewriter and changed the structure again to something more like a mosaic.

I'm thrilled people like the audio book. I suggested the publisher get someone great like John Cameron Mitchell or Matt McGrath. They had me read the first five pages as a kind of audition, and I guess they liked it. I'm so glad it worked out.

What’s coming next?

I just finished a draft for my first mystery novel. It's set in 1971 in Manhattan. It’s somewhat autobiographical. I mean, I’ve never solved a murder, darling, except maybe when an actor in one of my plays ‘kills’ a laugh, but the amateur sleuths in this story are—me at 16 and my Aunt Lil, who I write so much about. I came to live with her in New York City when I was in my early teens, and she adopted me. This part is true. When I was 16, my aunt insisted I get an after-school job, and I found one in a unisex men's boutique called ‘Michael's Closet’ on 34th and Lex. It was the gayest store ever! During my first day on the job, one of the gorgeous young salesmen called me ‘Miss Thing’ causing the equally handsome store manager to finger wag, ‘Don’t call her she.’ The novel is a little bit like Auntie Mame and Patrick solve a murder.

Are you nervous about anything coming up in the 54 Below cabaret?

I wrote some of the lyrics, which I’ve never done before. I’ll be doing a famous Édith Piaf song, “My Foule.” I couldn't find any English translation. I found a literal translation on Google. I thought I’d take a crack at finessing it into a lyric. I've also written the lyrics to a comic blues song about my career— rawther on the bawdy side. A major part of my cabaret shows are the stories between numbers. I think of the banter as the up-tunes.

I didn’t suffer from stage fright when I was young. Maybe I was too ignorant to know what could go wrong. But when I hit my forties, it really kicked in. When I do a staged reading of a play with script in hand, I'm as cool as a cucumber. I'm Ethel Merman. I could sing Tosca at Yankee Stadium. But if there’s an element of memorization involved, I’m in the wings wringing my hands. And I don’t have a problem with forgetting lines. It’s so silly. Once, I hit the stage, I calm down and get to work.

You'll be surrounded by so much love at 54 Below that it won't even be an issue.

I've been around for over 40 years and it’s lovely to have an audience that has been with me for so long, as well as people who have only recently discovered me. I'm truly grateful for their loyalty and enthusiasm. I can’t complain. Things have worked out fine.

More than fine! Break a leg on the 31st!

Learn more about Charles Busch and where to find him on social media at www.charlesbusch.com