The Lady in Question Is Charles Busch
by John Catania, Charles D. Ignacio
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DVD details
Actor: Arnie Kolodner, Edward Taussig, Eric Myers (IV), Jeff Melnick, Julie HalstonDirector: Charles D. Ignacio, John Catania
Brand: New Video
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Format: Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 94 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-09-26
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Docurama
DVD Reviews of The Lady in Question Is Charles Busch
DVD Review: No closed captioning
Summary: 1 Stars
I give this DVD a ZERO. Docurama didn't care enough to caption this DVD for hearing-impaired people.
With the DVD being totally useless to us and all, I shouldn't care about saying anything nice about this DVD.
Shame on you Docurama for NEVER captioning your DVDs all these years. :(
DVD Review: Charles Busch genious
Summary: 5 Stars
Charles Busch has a flair that's pure genious. Like all good parody it's rapier sharp with just enough camp to take the edge off. He spoke at the Image Out film festival in Rochester, NY last year where his film had already won the hearts of the audience. You can't loose with him.DVD Review: Well worth watching.
Summary: 4 Stars
I had never heard of Charles Busch until I saw this DVD on Amazon. I have a keen interest in theatre and it looked intriguing so I ordered it and watched it (twice).
This documentary gives you an excellent introduction to Charles Busch - who he is, and what he's done.
I have to say that the old video footage shot in the 1980s and 1990s is PRICELESS. There is a lot of these old video tapes edited into this documentary. The tapes show Charles doing his one man show, and show many of the actual stage productions of the plays he wrote and starred in. This footage is REAL theatre history. It shows an actor/writer go from being a very young man doing a one man show in way way way off Broadway venues, to being the creator of a theatre company in the East Village in New York in the early 80s doing campy movie parodies in drag, to being the playwright of a hugely succesful Broadway comedy and a major stage musical. Intercut with all this archival video footage are interveriews with Charles Busch and the members of his theatre company who were with him from the very begining. It's fascinating and increadible.
DVD Review: Fantastic!
Summary: 5 Stars
Charles Busch is an incredibly talented artist and this film is brilliant!
I can't wait to see his guest appearance in Spalding Gray: Stories Left to Tell this week in New York at the Minetta Lane Theatre! It is suppose to be great!
DVD Review: A Documentary of Merit
Summary: 4 Stars
"The Lady in Question is Charles Busch"
A Documentary of Merit
Amos Lassen and Cinema Pride
Charles Busch is one of the most prolific, talented and outrageous New York artists of recent times. He is a playwright, an actor, a novelist, a drag performer and a leading lady "The Lady in Question is Charles Busch" is a stunning look at him. He came into the life of New York in 1984 as a new artist in East Greenwich Village with his cross dressing classic, "Vampire Lesbians of Sodom" which even though it was filled with sex, became a theatre classic. It ran for five years and become listed as one of the longest running shows in off-Broadway history. His other forays into performance art. "Theatre-in-Limbo" were produced at the dirty but inspired Limbo Lounge and were made of fascinating groups of all kinds of people.
"The Lady in Question..." begins in 2000 at the opening night of Busch's first hit on Broadway, "The Allergist's Wife" with a stellar cast. From there we go backwards and through interviews and film clips, we get an inside view of Mr. Busch and learn of his traumatic childhood. It was his interest in Hollywood and his "Auntie Mame" like aunt that saved him from going astray. He became a writer and was willing to go anywhere and do anything.
His parodies of Hollywood films he showed the world his talent and began to appear ala Tracey Ullman. Directors John Catania and Charles Ignatio have given us a beautiful look at one of America's most versatile performers.
Watching the movie is like opening a chest full of treasures as we sit and watch a thorough account of Charles Busch's life. We are privy to his early successes with "Vampire Lesbians" and "Psycho Beach Party" as well as the play that gives the documentary its name, "The Lady in Question". Busch also made the transition to film with the movie version of "Psycho Beach Party" and "Die, Mommy, Die!" We also learn that he almost died form a congenital heart condition.
Busch is living proof that all the great movie stars are not gone--they live in the impersonations of Busch. He is a one-man reincarnation of the great ladies of the stage and screen. The documentary is affectionate and beautifully edited. Busch is more than just the run-of-the-mill gender bender. He is a genius who in his heyday was the master of camp and pastiche who brought back historical pageants, anti-Nazi melodramas and beach movies of the `60s. This is a priceless look at a man who0 is able to do anything...and does.
Description of The Lady in Question Is Charles Busch
Tender and upbeat, THE LADY IN QUESTION IS CHARLES BUSCH is the affectionate and entertaining tribute to actor, writer, drag performer, and glamorous leading lady Charles Busch. From a tragic, lonely childhood lived through classic Hollywood films, to writing and starring in the riotous and raw Off-Broadway hit "Vampire Lesbians of Sodom" at a gloriously rundown theater in theEast Villate, to giant success on Broadway and Hollywood with such hits as Die Mommy Die!, the film wonderfully casts Busch's fascinating life as a turbulent and triumphant "drag to riches story" (Village Voice). Expertly cut with awe-inspiring performances of Busch channeling the great female actors of classic Hollywood, the film also intertwines interviews with admirers and renowned colleagues who are charmingly eccentric characters themselves, and an original short film made by Busch about his near-death experience. Directed by award-winning directors John Catania and Charles Ignacio, the film roars as an informative, graceful, and energetic reflection on themes of success and failure, gender, sexuality, and the magic of theater. A must-see for theater fans and the uninitiated alike, THE LADY IN QUESTION IS CHARLES BUSCH makes for a worthy tribute to a true gay icon. DVD Features: Featurettes: 1980s East Village Scene" & "Taboo Broadway Opening"; Photo Galleries: Fabulous Fashions & Set Design, East Village Stage & Streets; Theatre-in-Limbo Clips; Short Film Her Royal Escape to Love (2005); In the Life Backstory; Filmmaker Biographies; Charles Busch Biography & Filmography; Interactive Menus; Scene SelectionPlaywright and drag grand dame Charles Busch had a classic showbiz life: After early tragedy (his mother died when he was seven) and a bit of floundering, a play begun as a lark--Vampire Lesbians of Sodom--becomes a camp sensation, moving from a hole-in-the-wall club in New York's East Village to an off-Broadway run, launching a vital gay theater with a close-knit family of performers who produce wild comedies with names like Theodora, She-Bitch of Byzantium and Pardon My Inquisition, or, Kiss the Blood Off My Castanets. This adoring documentary mixes video of Busch's stage successes with interviews with Busch and his cohorts, tracing the rise and decline of Busch's troupe (including the deaths of core actors from AIDS), and reveling in Busch's mainstream success with the non-camp play The Allergist's Wife and movie versions of his stage hits Psycho Beach Party and Die, Mommie, Die!. Busch delivers performances that simultaneously mock and celebrate the raging egos and stylized emotions of old Hollywood glamour queens like Joan Crawford and Barbara Stanwyck. Though theater translates poorly to video, The Lady in Question is Charles Busch communicates a whiff of the madcap inspiration of Busch's stage work and provides a detailed, affectionate portrait of this ingenious writer/performer. --Bret Fetzer
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