Charles Busch Shows Off His Backstage Convent at The Divine Sister

As the revered Mother Superior in the wildly outrageous nun comedy The Divine Sister, Charles Busch exits his dressing room at the start of each performance looking quite different from when he when entered. "So often, dressing rooms are rather dreary," Busch observes, so the iconic drag actor has filled his backstage space at the Soho Playhouse with plenty of glamorous reminders of friends and family. Take a look Busch's prized possessions below!

Photo by Jenny Anderson for Broadway.com



“John Carter Wolfe, a very talented fellow who’s the partner of one of our producers, Greg Santos, drew this caricature. He’s a wonderful caricaturist and did drawings of everyone in the cast. I think he really got us down right!”


“I wore this piece of jewelry for a costume in The Lady in Question. As Mother Superior I’m not too glamorous, so it’s nice to have a little vestige of what I once was.”


“This little box is a present from Joan Rivers. It once belonged to Lillian Gish. I think it’s perfect, because I’d say I’m sort of a cross between Joan Rivers and Lillian Gish."


“[Co-star] Alison Fraser’s sister is a very talented artist and has made paper dolls for every show Alison has ever been in, so she made dolls of all of us in The Divine Sister. She actually drew them kind of in the style of 1960s paper dolls. I just love it!”


“This is a photograph of my Aunt Lil, who adopted me when I was 12 years old, and me. She was the most influential person in my life and was kind of my real life Auntie Mame. She totally nurtured and cultivated me like a hothouse flower so I owe everything to her. I like this particular picture because we’re out of focus. Sometimes out of focus pictures are more honest than [focused] ones.”