Busch League

In the right hands, the Charles Busch formula – camp up a film niche, turn it into a simultaneous homage and parody, then throw in a guy in drag – is fail-safe funny for anyone already enamored with pop culture. Such is the case with a new production of Die Mommy, Die!, Busch’s sendup of those Bette Davis/Joan Crawford/Lana Turner B-movie thrillers of the late ’60s, which opens July 18 at the Avenue Theater for a summer-long run. In it, a pop diva in decline plots to kill her husband; in the Busch tradition, that character, Angela Arden, is played without mercy by actor Chris Whyde.

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More About

• Charles Busch
• Bob Wells
• Lana Turner
• Joan Crawford
• Bette Davis

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“It’s not quite film noir, but it does include all the crazy ways to kill your husband,” says Avenue’s Bob Wells. “One weapon used is an arsenic-laced suppository, with the attempted murder performed in full view of the audience. You can tell where it goes from there....” Throw in a lot of “silly, edgy, crisp dialogue” and the magic touch of director Nick Sugar (a veteran of the late Theatre on Broadway, where Busch-style fare thrived), and you’ve got a true gem of camp. “This is really Nick’s forte,” Wells adds. “In a previous life, I believe he was Lana Turner.”

Die Mommy, Die continues on Fridays at 10 p.m., Saturdays at 8:30 p.m. and Sundays at 6 p.m., through August 29 at the Avenue Theater, 417 East 17th Avenue. For details or to reserve tickets, $15, visit www.avenuetheater.com or call 303-321-5925.
Saturdays, 8:30 p.m.; Fridays, 10 p.m.; Sundays, 6 p.m. Starts: July 18. Continues through Oct. 10, 2009