You can call him a drag queen, but he prefers to be called a “gender illusionist”. Playwright, actor, stand-up comedian and devotee of old movies and their memorable women leads, Charles Busch leaves the safety of sophisticated Manhattan for the warm and certain welcome of Club Helsinki in Hudson, New York. One can only wish that someone in the Berkshires had the same adventurous imagination to welcome this brilliant and erudite comedian. This past summer his play, The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife was a summer long offering at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox with the brilliant Anette Miller playing Busch’s role of Marjorie to hilariously happy audiences.

We only learned by accident that Club Helsinki in association with Showstoppers NY is presenting Charles Busch himself as part of their Sunday nights at seven series called Helsinki on Broadway. We wrote about the series when it first began but have not heard a word from them since. Oh well.

Busch has donned drag to recycle such classics as Die Mommie Die and Pschco Beach Party. In the video clip above you can see a bit of his biggest hit, Vampire Lesbians of Sodom. As the New York Times noted, “That the lady in question is a man becomes beside the point. What matters here is that the performer in question is a star.”

Busch appears on Sunday, November 11 at 7:00 and offers a roller-coaster ride of glamour, music, comedy, and gossip for a Sunday night. The Club serves dinner before the show and after. helsinkihudson.com