A comedy noir steeped in the glamour of 1960s Hollywood, Die Mommie Die! centers on fallen pop diva Angela Arden (regally portrayed by playwright Charles Busch) who is trapped in a hateful marriage to film producer Sol Sussman. Desperate to find happiness with her younger lover, out-of-work TV actor Tony Parker, Angela gruesomely murders her husband with the aid of a poisoned suppository. In a plot that reflects Greek tragedy as well as Hollywood kitsch, Angela's manipulative daughter, Edith, convinces her "emotionally disturbed" brother, Lance, that together they must avenge their father's death by killing their mother.
Die Mommie Die! comes to off-Broadway after its Los Angeles premiere in 1999 and a 2003 film version, both of which starred Busch, who received a Sundance Film Festival award for his performance as the Bette Davis-like Ms. Arden.