cover image The Tale of the Allergist's Wife

The Tale of the Allergist's Wife

Charles Busch, , read by a full cast. . L.A. Theatre Works, $25.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-1-5808-1373-0

Busch's 2000 play transfers perfectly from the stage to audio, largely because the small casts is so larger than life (bordering on caricatures) that the characters don't need to be seen to be understood. As the title character, Amy Aquino's slightly nasal, tortured voice embodies this Jewish housewife's angst, and Richard Kind does an excellent job of conveying her husband's artless but endearing self-importance with his carefully chosen words and deliberately sonorous tone. Seinfeld 's Estelle Harris, as Aquino's mother, steals many scenes with her screeching voice and rants about bowel movements. The appreciative audience clapping and laughing enhances the comedy. On the final track, a surprisingly mild-mannered Busch discusses the real-life model for the allergist and how the wife developed from a character he created when he was starting out as an actor. (Jan.)