 A comic melodrama
that evokes the 1960’s “grande guignol” films that featured aging
stars such as Bette Davis, Joan Crawford and Lana Turner.
Ex-pop singer, Angela Andrews, is trapped in a hateful marriage with
film producer Sol Sussman. Desperate to find happiness with her younger
lover, an out of work TV actor, Tony Parker, Angela murders her husband with
the aid of a poisoned suppository. In
a plot that reflects Greek tragedy as well as Hollywood kitsch, Angela’s
Elektra-like daughter, Edith, convinces Angela’s emotionally disturbed
son, Lance, that they must avenge their father’s death by killing their
mother. Lance, demanding proof of Angela’s crime, slips some LSD into her
after-dinner coffee. Angela is plunged into a wild acid trip that reveals
that not only did she kill the children’s father but also their mother,
for she isn’t their mother at all but rather their Aunt Barbara. A
surprising twist ending has all of the Sussman family’s dirty laundry
aired out for once and for all. Angela or rather Aunt Barbara realizes that
happiness cannot be built upon a foundation of lies and turns herself in to
the police.
“Die,
Mommy,
Die!” was produced in July, 1999 by Kenneth Elliott and Don Fairbanks at
the Coast Playhouse, Los Angeles. Directed by Kenneth Elliott with set
design by B.T. Whitehill, lighting by Vivien Leone, sound design and
original music by Jeremy Grody, costumes by Dione H. Lebhar, with Mr.
Busch’s gowns by Michael Bottari and Ronald Case.
CAST:
Dorie Barton (Edith
Sussman/Verna), Wendy Worthington (Bootsie), Mark
Capri (Tony Parker), Charles Busch (Angela Andrews
Sussman), Greg
Mullavey (Sol Sussman), Carl Andress (Lance Sussman).
 
Stock and amateur
rights available through Samuel French,
Inc. 45 West 25th Street, NY, NY 10010. For all other rights,
please contact Marc Glick, Glick and Weintraub, 1501 Broadway, Suite 2401,
New York, NY 10036
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