Charles Busch has narrated 6 audiobooks on Listento.it by 10 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.5★ across 31 ratings. The most-rated is The Importance of Being Earnest (Dramatized).
The Importance of Being Earnest (Dramatized)
Summary
This final play from the pen of Oscar Wilde is a stylish send-up of Victorian courtship and manners, complete with assumed names, mistaken lovers, and a lost handbag. Jack and Algernon are best friends, both wooing ladies who think their names are Ernest, "that name which inspires absolute confidence". Wilde's effervescent wit, scathing social satire, and high farce make this one of the most cherished plays in the English language. Includes an interview with director Michael Hackett, professor of Theater in the School of Theater, Film and Television at UCLA. An L.A. Theatre Works full cast performance featuring: James Marsters as Jack Charles Busch as Lady Bracknell Emily Bergl as Cecily Neil Dickson as Lane and Merriman Jill Gascoine as Miss Prism Christopher Neame as Chasuble Matthew Wolf as Algernon Sarah Zimmerman as Gwendolen Directed by Michael Hackett. Recorded before a live audience at the Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles.
©2009 L.A. Theatre Works (P)2009 L.A. Theatre Works
The Oscar Wilde Collection
Summary
Four classic comedies from one of the wittiest playwrights in Western literature: Lady Windermere's Fan, A Woman of No Importance, An Ideal Husband, and The Importance of Being Earnest, all featuring star-studded casts with the likes of Jacqueline Bisset, Miriam Margolyes, James Marsters, Alfred Molina, Roger Rees, Yeardley Smith, Eric Stoltz, and many more. This audio also includes a chilling dramatization of Wilde's sole novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray. Lady Windermere's Fan: The irreverent satire that launched Wilde's succession of classical comedies. A lord, his wife, her admirer, and an infamous blackmailer converge in this delicious comic feast of scandal. A divinely funny comedy of good girls, bad husbands, and the moral hypocrisy of British high society in the late 19th century. Stars Roger Rees, Eric Stoltz, Miriam Margolyes, Joanna Going, Gina Field, Judy Geeson, Arthur Hanket, Lisa Harrow, Dominic Keating, James Warwick, and Tom Wheatley. Directed by Michael Hackett. A Woman of No Importance: Devilishly attractive Lord Illingworth is notorious for his skill as a seducer. But he is still invited to all the "best" houses while his female conquests must hide their shame in seclusion. In this devastating comedy, Wilde uses his celebrated wit to expose English society's narrow view of everything from sexual mores to Americans. Stars Rosalind Ayres, Jane Carr, Peter Dennis, Judy Geeson, Paul Gutrecht, Martin Jarvis, Cherie Lunghi, Robert Machray, Miriam Margolyes, Samantha Mathis, and Jim Norton. An Ideal Husband A tender love story, a glittering setting in London society, and a shower of witticisms are only a few of the reasons this play has enjoyed hugely successful revivals.
©2010 L.A. Theatre Works (P)2010 L.A. Theatre Works
Poetic License
Summary
Why a poetry album? Easy answer: I love poetry. I love reading it. I love memorizing it. I love hearing great actors recite it. As the poet Mark Strand wrote, “Ink runs from the corners of my mouth / There is no happiness like mine / I have been eating poetry.” In the past, when I was full from eating, I have had the audacity to set poetry to music. But, on this audiobook, you will hear the music of the poems. Poetry unadorned. Words. Because in truth, great poetry needs nothing but a great actor, a voice as eloquent and expressive as the poem itself, to lift the poem off the page and into the heart. I have never done a project that has elicited so much enthusiasm. From the actors arriving at the studio who thanked me for inviting them to participate, "Are you kidding?" I’d say, "Thank you!" to the engineers who would say, "I never got this stuff, but these guys make it so beautiful." This audiobook has been a joy from beginning to end, a true labor of love. And whenever I heard my stomach rumbling during the production process, I always knew I could find something delicious to eat in the studio. Mmmm. Yeats? That hits the spot.
©2010 GPR Records - Spoken Word (P)2013 GPR Records - Spoken Word
The Divine Sister
Summary
A crumbling convent school is on the verge of insolvency, when a young postulant begins to display strange heavenly powers. And when a dashing film executive arrives to buy the rights to her story, the Reverend Mother refuses to put profits over prayer. Playwright Charles Busch made his name with genre-skewering hits like Psycho Beach Party, Die Mommie Die, and The Tale of the Allergist's Wife, which L.A. Theatre Works recorded in 2007. This time around, we present Busch's high-voltage spoof of religious melodramas, starring three of the principal players from its original 2010 Off-Broadway run. An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring: Emily Bergl as Agnes, Charles Busch as Mother Superior, Maxwell Caulfield as Jeremy/Brother Venerius, Alison Fraser as Sister Walburga/Mrs. MacDuffie,Julie Halston as Sister Acacius/Juliet Mills/ Mrs. Levinson/Timothy Directed by Carl Andress. Recorded by L.A. Theatre Works before a live audience.
©2011 Charles Busch (P)2013 L.A. Theatre Works
Die Mommie Die
Summary
Angela Arden wants to be free of her suffocating marriage to film producer Sol Sussman. What better way than poison! Distraught by her father’s death and convinced of her mother’s guilt, Edith Sussman plots to get the truth out of Angela using any means necessary. Charles Busch stars in the role he originated in this camp send-up where tongues aren’t the only thing dipped in acid. Recorded before a live audience at the UCLA James Bridges Theater in May 2019. Directed by Carl Andress With original music and songs by Lewis Flinn Producing Director Susan Albert Loewenberg Charles Busch as Angela Arden Sussman Mark Capri as Tony Parker Willie Garson as Sol Sussman Ellis Greer as Edith Sussman Jeffery Self as Lance Sussman Ruth Williamson as Bootsie Associate Artistic Director, Anna Lyse Erikson. Recording Engineer, Sound Designer and Mixer, Mark Holden for The Invisible Studios, West Hollywood. Senior Radio Producer, Ronn Lipkin. Foley Artist, Brian Wallace. Production Manager, Zack Myers. Editor, Julian Nicholson. “The Missing Girl” performed by Mary Birdsong, music and lyrics by Lewis Flinn. “The Salt and Pepper Polka” performed by Mary Birdsong, music by Lewis Flinn, lyrics by Dick Gallagher and Charles Busch.
©2019 L.A. Theatre Works (P)2019 L.A. Theatre Works
Three New American Plays
Summary
Here are three new American plays written by the brightest names working in the theater today. Dancing Lessons centers on Ever, a young man with Asperger's syndrome who seeks the instruction of a Broadway dancer to learn enough dancing to survive an awards dinner. The dancer, Senga, however, is recovering from an injury that may stop her dancing career permanently. As their relationship unfolds, they're both caught off-guard by the discoveries - both hilarious and heartwarming - that they make about each other and about themselves. Judith of Bethulia, written by and starring Broadway legend Charles Busch, is the world premiere of his new play which is an outrageous and bawdy celebration of the Hollywood biblical epic genre! Lepers, whores, eunuchs, centurions, evil generals, youthful poets, and a beautiful redheaded widow make Charles Busch's comedy a story worth praying for. The world premiere recording of Jeffrey Sweet's Kunstler brings to life William Moses Kunstler who journeyed from comfortable suburban lawyer to America's most revered and reviled attorney for the civil rights and radical movements of the last half of the 20th century. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©2017 Roven Records Spoken Word (P)2017 Roven Records Spoken Word