‘Allergist’s Wife’ last curtain

TOM TITUS

When a playwright’s past credits include a show called “Vampire

Lesbians of Sodom” and the novel “Whores of Lost Atlantis,” a

playgoer’s first thought might be, “Do I take this guy seriously?”

Well, when his work is nominated for a Tony and receives the Outer

Critics Circle John Gassner award for playwriting, it sort of puts

the fellow’s career into perspective. Laguna Playhouse audiences will

be able to judge for themselves starting next weekend.

That’s when Charles Busch’s “The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife,”

which earned the aforementioned accolades, opens as the closing

attraction of the playhouse’s 2004-05 season. The original Broadway

production ran for 777 performances and earned kudos from the New

York Times, which labeled it “uproarious” and said it “earns its

wall-to-wall laughs.”

Busch’s play centers on a doctor’s wife, bored and depressed,

who’s suddenly reunited with a mysterious childhood friend who shows

her the time of her life. Following its Broadway run, the play toured

nationally, including a stop in Los Angeles, but Laguna’s will be its

first original Southern California production.

Directing the Laguna version will be Joel Bishoff, who staged the

original off-Broadway, London and Laguna (1997) productions of the

long-running hit musical “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change.”

Busch is known in theatrical circles for being “out there,” and

apparently is to the theater what John Waters is to movies. The

prolific writer’s plays include “Psycho Beach Party,” “Times Square

Angel,” “The Lady in Question,” “Red Scare on Sunset,” “You Should Be

So Lucky,” “Queen Amarantha” and “Shanghai Moon.”

“Psycho Beach” and “Red Scare” were produced in Orange County by a

now-defunct group known as the Way Off-Broadway Theater.

The playwright also has performed in many of his own and other

scripters’ works -- including a stint in the title role of “Auntie

Mame” with the likes of Juliet Mills, Barbara Feldon, John Davidson

and the late Peggy Cass, recreating her original role of Agnes Gooch.

He starred in the movie version of his play “Die Mommie, Die,” which

earned him a 2003 Sundance Film Festival award for best performance.

The Laguna comedy will focus on an allergist who treats homeless

sinus sufferers in his free clinic, and his wife, who considers

herself one of the world’s greatest losers. The show chronicles the

spiritual turmoil of Marjorie, a middle-aged Upper West Side doyenne,

and how her life changes when a stranger from the past arrives on her

doorstep.

Following next Saturday’s grand opening, “The Tale of the

Allergist’s Wife” will be presented Tuesdays through Fridays at 8

p.m., Saturdays at 2 and 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 and 7 p.m. until

June 26. Tickets may be ordered by calling the playhouse at (949)

494-2787.