On Monday, June 19th, at 7:30 pm at The Hudson Theatre, over 650 guests were in attendance for a one-night-only staged reading of the Charles Busch cult classic play Die Mommie Die!, produced by The Actors' Fund of America. The event raised $65,000, and to celebrate, a cast party was held at etcetera etcetera.
The reading, which raised over $65,000, starred playwright-actor Charles Busch as Angela Arden, Christopher Meloni (Detective Eliot Stabler on "Law & Order: SVU") as Tony Parker, Tony-nominated Jayne Houdyshell (Well) as Bootsie Carp, Jenn Harris (Silence! The Musical at last year's Fringe Festival) as Edith Sussman, Keith Nobbs (The Lion In Winter, the film Phone Booth) as Lance Sussman, and "Oz" veteran Tom Mardirosian (Wonderful Town and My Favorite Year), as Sol Sussman. Other cast members included Harry Bouvy, Bret Shuford, and Sam Turich. Carl Andress directed the production, which featured costumes by Michael Bottari and Ronald Case (who also designed Busch's gowns in the film version, as well as those in the original stage play).Busch returned to the role he premiered in Los Angeles in 1999, playing fallen pop diva Angela Arden who, trapped in a loveless marriage and anxious to be with her ne'er-do-well young lover (Meloni), plots to murder her husband. Busch also starred in the film version of the play, for which he won a 2003 Sundance Film Festival award for best performance.
The evening benefited The Actors' Fund of America, a nationwide human services organization that helps all professionals – both performers and those behind the scenes – in performing arts and entertainment. Visit www.actorsfund.org for more information.