When Julie Halston met Charles Busch, neither guessed they’d become one of theater’s most dynamic duos. In fact, after a mutual friend introduced them in the early ’80s, Halston recalls, “Charles
found me unfunny and obnoxious, and I didn’t need another gay man in my life. But we liked each other’s clothes.” Then Busch lost his leading lady for “Vampire Lesbians of Sodom,” and Halston, who was working on Wall Street at the time, gamely stepped in. “The rest is history,” says the former Julie Abatelli of Commack, LI, who, offstage, is a stepmother of five and stepgrandmother of 12. She and Busch team again for Primary Stages’ “The Tribute Artist,” about desperate NewYorkers, at off-Broadway’s 59E59 theater. Here are four books she loves.
Shudder
by Paul Rudnick
I was in Paul’s hilarious play, “The Greatest Story Ever Told.” He’s so quick! Take his author’s note for this book: “I have changed a few names in the nonfiction pieces . . . all the fictional pieces are true.” He talks about New Jersey and his mother and aunts and he’s so witty, but he has a lot of heart, too.
Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish
by David Rakoff
This is a novel in verse, going through a family’s history. It’s particularly poignant for those of us who knew or worked with David, who was working on this when he was very, very sick. On page 4, he uses “strumpet/virago/clouds of Chicago.” I don’t know many people who’d put those words together!
Guts
by Kristen Johnston
People know her as a terrific actress and a very funny women, but she tells us she was a pill-popping lush who almost died when her insides, her guts, actually burst. She’s so brutally honest about it and the scary wild things she did that when I finished the book at 3:30 in the morning, I read it again.
My Way of Life
by Joan Crawford
My favorite book in the whole world! Maybe because it has no irony, it’s a temple of narcissism. Here’s someone who basically should have been in a mental hospital but instead became a movie star. Then she wrote a book where she gives advice to the public about children, marriage, career and her favorite coleslaw recipe!