Old Habits Die Hard: Charles Busch Resurrects "The Divine Sister"

 
In some ways, Charles Busch lives like one of his glamorous leading ladies. Nestled in a picturesque corner of the West Village, his apartment is filled with theatrical posters, mementos from past productions and candid photos with friends, family and costars. His bedroom is a brazen all-white affair right out of a 1940s Hollywood drama, while the sitting room suggests an opium den with Chinese-red walls and black-lacquer furniture. There’s even a custom-made staircase in the hallway, perfect for any number of grand entrances. (Busch had it built when he bought the unit upstairs and converted his studio into a roomy two-story flat.) It’s exactly how you’d think Busch would live, but it’s a far cry from the austere life of the nuns at the center of his latest camp comedy, The Divine Sister.
 
“The movies I grew up with and just loved were The Bells of Saint Mary’s and The Trouble with Angels,” says Busch, citing classic nun films from yesteryear. “[Trouble’s] Rosalind Russell was my favorite. She’s so sanctimonious—looking up with that wink in her eye like [she] and Jesus are in on some private joke.”
 
The premise of Divine Sister—which had a brief trial run at Theater for the New City back in February—is a pastiche of nun-film clichés, with everything from The Song of Bernadette and Black Narcissus to Agnes of God and Doubt getting a nod. Busch plays Mother Superior at St. Veronica’s, an urban convent in the 1960s that’s threatened by changes in the neighborhood and society at large. She’s a ballsy gal-reporter-turned-bride-of-Christ who’s rattled by the arrival of an old flame. “She’s pretty hardline,” Busch admits. “She’s got a new book out—it’s called The Middle Ages: So Bad?” Julie Halston, Bush’s real-life muse, plays Sister Acacius, a convent gym teacher plagued by wild sexual hysteria. Another Busch friend, Alison Fraser, plays Sister Walburga who’s visiting from the motherhouse in Germany. And rounding out the sister act is Amy Rutberg as Agnes, a novice who sees the image of Jesus in her unmentionables.
 
Despite Sister’s irreverence, Busch isn’t worried about being pilloried by the pious. “The point of the show isn’t to make fun of Catholicism. It’s a satire of Hollywood’s portrayal of spirituality,” he says. “Trying to be politically correct just kills comedy. You end up with movies where people just get hit over the head with things.”
 
After three decades as an actor and playwright, Busch jokes that his career path has followed that of a classic Hollywood actress—from perky ingénue (Psycho Beach Party) to slightly-over-the-hill siren (Die Mommy Die) to tough-but-loveable Mother Superior (The Divine Sister). “I don’t know what’s next for me—except for maybe a spot on Dynasty.”
 
Busch also says all the parts were written specifically for the cast. “It’s one of the benefits of being in the business for so long and developing relationships with certain actors,” he explains.Doing a play on what he calls “Hollywood religiosity” has long been a dream for Busch. “But since you can’t make a career out of doing nun plays, I have to put every single thing I’ve ever wanted to do into this one,” he says. “When I was doing rewrites, I kept thinking things like, ‘Oh wait, I need to teach a little boy how to play baseball!’” He calls the show a labor of love and has no formal plans to restage it as a bigger production. “This isn’t a workshop. I’m not hoping it’ll move. I just want to make it a fun experience for the cast and hopefully the audience. Even the choice of making it a nuns’ story [means] I don’t have to wear a corset for once!” (Busch borrowed the original habits from Nunsense for Divine Sister’s photo shoot.)
 
Busch was born Jewish, making his choice of subject matter somewhat un-convent-ional. But, he confesses, “I just loved Jesus,” and cites the Son of God, Judy Garland and Marie Antoinette as his  favorite people. A tale Busch tells of a summer at the Boardwalk in Wildwood might also account for his religious zeal. “There were some Born Again kids, one of whom was just really gorgeous. I think he was trying to seduce me into his Church while I was trying to seduce him into my bed!”
 
The Divine Sister plays through January 2 at Soho Playhouse, 15 Vandam St (btwn Sixth Ave/Varick St), 212-352-3101. Visit SohoPlayhouse.com for more info.