Early life Busch was born in 1954 and grew up in
Hartsdale, New York. He is the Jewish son of Gertrude (née Young) and Benjamin Busch. His father, who wanted to be an opera singer, owned a record store. His mother died when Busch was seven. He has two older sisters: Meg Busch, who used to be a producer of promotional spots for
Showtime, and Betsy Busch, a textile designer. Busch was intensely interested in films as a young child, especially those with female leads from the 1930s and 1940s. Busch and his collaborators soon created a series of shows, mostly at the Limbo Lounge, such as
Theodora, She-Bitch of Byzantium (1984) and
Times Square Angel (1985, Provincetown Playhouse).
Psycho Beach Party, which ran from July 1987 to May 1988;
The Lady in Question, which ran from July to December 1989 at the Orpheum Theatre; and
Red Scare on Sunset, which ran from June to September 1991 at the Lortel Theatre. Busch rewrote the book for the musical
Ankles Aweigh for a 1988 production staged by the
Goodspeed Opera House in
East Haddam, Connecticut. His
Charles Busch Revue was produced at the Ballroom Theatre in May 1993 in New York. Also in 1993, he performed in a revival of
Jean Genet's
The Maids at the Off-Broadway
Classic Stage Company in the role of Solange. In 1993, he wrote a novel,
Whores of Lost Atlantis, a fictionalized re-telling of the creation of
Vampire Lesbians of Sodom.
The Green Heart was adapted by Busch from a short story by
Jack Ritchie into a musical which was produced by the
Manhattan Theater Club at the Variety Arts Theatre in New York City, opening in April 1997. He took the male lead in his comedy,
You Should Be So Lucky which opened at Primary Stages Company, New York City, in November 1994. Other works of the 1990s include
Swingtime Canteen, produced at the Blue Angel, New York City, in August 1995. His one-man show,
Flipping My Wig ran at the WPA Theater, New York City, starting in December 1996. He wrote
Queen Amarantha, which played at the WPA Theatre, starting in October 1997. His play
Die, Mommie, Die! was first performed in Los Angeles, opening in July 1999 at the Coast Playhouse.
Film and television Busch's early film appearances include Ms. Ellen, a fortune teller in drag in
Trouble on the Corner (1997). Busch has twice appeared in film versions of his own plays:
Die, Mommie, Die! (1999) and the
comedy horror Psycho Beach Party (2000). He co-wrote, starred in and directed the film
A Very Serious Person (2006), which starred
Polly Bergen and received an honorable mention at the
Tribeca Film Festival. In 2020, Busch co-wrote, co-directed, and starred in the film,
The Sixth Reel (2021). Busch had a recurring role in the
HBO series
Oz from 1999 to 2000 (the third and fourth seasons) as
Nat Ginzburg, an "effeminate but makeup-free inmate on death row, certainly a departure from his usual glamour girl roles." He wrote television sitcom pilots and movie treatments as a source of extra income while he was a cult performer. He sold three pilots to
CBS that were not produced.
Stage work, 2000–present Busch's work debuted on
Broadway in October 2000, when ''
The Tale of the Allergist's Wife opened, following an Off-Broadway run in February through April 2000. The play, his first in which he did not star, and the first created for a mainstream audience, was written for actress Linda Lavin, who played opposite Michele Lee and Tony Roberts. Allergist's Wife'' received a 2001 nomination for
Tony Award for Best Play and ran for 777 performances. His other Broadway work was rewriting the book for
Boy George's short-lived autobiographical musical
Taboo. Since 2000, Busch has performed an annual one-night staged reading of his 1984 Christmas play
Times Square Angel. In January 2003, he headlined a revival of his 1999 play
Shanghai Moon, costarring
BD Wong, at the Drama Dept, Greenwich House Theatre, New York City. He has taken the eponymous lead in three productions of
Auntie Mame: a staged reading in 1998; a benefit for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS in 2003; and a small-scale summer touring production in 2004.
Our Leading Lady, Busch's play about
Laura Keene, was produced by the
Manhattan Theater Club at the City Center Stage II Theatre, in 2007, and starred
Kate Mulgrew. His play,
The Third Story, premiered at the
La Jolla Playhouse in September 2008 with
Mary Beth Peil as Peg, and was then produced in New York by MCC Theater at the
Lucille Lortel Theatre, starring Busch and
Kathleen Turner (Peg), opening in February 2009. Busch wrote and starred in a play,
The Divine Sister, a satirical take on Hollywood films about religion, including
Doubt and the
Sound of Music. It ran at the SoHo Playhouse in New York City, opening in September 2010. In 2013, Busch wrote and starred as Jimmy in the
Primary Stages production of
The Tribute Artist. In 2017, Busch and his former
Auntie Mame co-star Penny Fuller both appeared in voiceover roles in the world premiere production of
DIVA: Live From Hell. In March 2019, Busch starred as
Lucille Ball in
I Loved Lucy by playwright Lee Tannen at the Bridge Street Theatre in Catskill, New York. In 2020, Primary Stages mounted another Busch play,
The Confession of Lily Dare, which opened at Cherry Lane Theatre. For this production, Busch received
Lucille Lortel and
Drama Desk Award nominations for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Play and an Off Broadway Alliance Award nomination for Best Play. Primary Stages later selected Busch and his frequent collaborator Carl Andress to be the honorees at their annual gala and the joint recipients of the 2022 Einhorn Mentorship Award. In 2024, Busch's play ''Ibsen's Ghost'' was co-produced by Primary Stages and the George Street Playhouse. ==Performance style and influences==