Celebrated drag performer, actor and playwright Charles Busch will return to the Off-Broadway scene next year with his latest work, Shanghai Moon . The play, which will also star Busch and be directed by Carl Andress, will begin performances Jan. 20, 1999 at Theatre for the New City. It will run through Feb. 14, 1999. No opening night has been set. Shanghai Moon is only the latest playwriting effort by Busch, who first made his name as a performer in such camp spoofs as Vampire Lesbians of Sodom , The Lady in Question and Red Scare at Sunset. After last year's ambitious but poorly-received Queen Amarantha, Shanghai marks Busch's return to that sort of outlandish material. A parody of 1930's movie melodramas such as "Shanghai Express," the play is about Lady Sylvia Allington, the glamorous wife of a British diplomat. Sylvia sets off international fireworks when she takes up with a Chinese warlord.
The cast features Sekiya Billman, Becky London, Jodie Lynne McClintock, Marcy McGuigan and James Saito.
Last year saw two of Busch's works: Queen Amarantha at the WPA Theatre, and the musical The Green Heart at Manhattan Theatre Club.
For information, call (212) 254-1109.
-- By Robert Simonson