A SHARP, FUNNY SATIRE IN GREEK'S CLOTHING.

Byline: Evan Henerson Staff Writer

FOR THOSE OF YOU who felt too guilt-ridden to laugh out loud at last year's earnest melodrama, ``Far From Heaven,'' ``Die Mommie Die!'' affords the permission to bust a gut or cringe, whichever feels more appropriate.

Pretty much any reaction is fitting given the hokey sets, cornball dialogue, the poisoned suppository - yes, you read that right - we're expected to uh, take in. Not only is Charles Busch in the house, but he's channeling Joan Crawford and Bette Davis while wreaking havoc with the house of Agamemnon.

``Die Mommie Die!'' is based on Busch's stage play, which originated in L.A. in 1999. Busch plays a faded songstress named Angela Arden who in 1967 is determined to bask in the glow of fame's hot lights until she keels over. She's entangled in a web of murder and sexual intrigue that makes ``The Oresteia'' feel like a Sunday school picnic.

Hubby Sol Sussman (played by Philip Baker Hall) is a vindictive producer with awful debts who has discovered Angela's affair with failed actor Tony Parker (Jason Priestley). Nubile daughter Edith (Natasha Lyonne) detests Angela as much as she adores her daddy (which is too much). Son Lance (Stark Sands) has just been booted out of college for debauching students and faculty alike, and housekeeper Bootsie Carp (Frances Conroy) may possess a few too many family secrets. A murder follows, then a second and finally a revelation.

First-time director Mark Rucker - a veteran stage helmer - swiftly negotiates both the film's camped-up intrigue and the outdated Tinseltown cornball-ery. ``Die Mommie Die!'' is, at its roots, a kind of a valentine to our leading ladies of yore. And to the bad cinema they populated. Some of the performers are playing things completely straight; others - most notably Priestley - punch their lines with a woodenness that can only be intentional.

Angela may be wicked, but there's a measure of self-preservation to her decadence. A veteran drag performer, Busch knows ladies' clothes and he certainly knows classic Hollywood. Costumer Thomas G. Marquez has adorned his leading lady in all things flowing and draping (one number looks like it cost the pelts of half of Disney's ``101 Dalmatians''), and director of photography Kelly Evans has deliberately shot Angela through a sea of flattering filters - befitting filmmaking of the era.

``Die Mommie Die!'' was shot on the cheap over 18 days in L.A. at about the same time Busch's New York send-up ``The Tale of the Allergist's Wife'' was playing at the Ahmanson Theatre. That play, an enormous hit, showcased a different kind of monster: an ultra-neurotic 50-something Manhattanite. Amazingly, it's a role Busch wrote but has never played.

Angela Arden, on the other hand, is a role the Hollywood-worshiping writer couldn't rightly pass up. Nobody wears a frock like Charles Busch and, as it happens, nobody writes like him either. Which makes for a strangely irresistible combination.

Evan Henerson, [phone]

evan.henerson(at)dailynews.com

DIE MOMMIE DIE! - Three stars

(R: sex, language, drugs)

Starring: Charles Busch, Jason Priestley, Philip Baker Hall, Natasha Lyonne, Frances Conroy.

Director: Mark Rucker.

Running time :1 hr. 30 min.

Playing: Loews Cineplex, Beverly Center.

In a nutshell: Greek tragedy - and Hollywood diva-dom - is given the Charles Busch treatment. Let the boas fly!

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Photo:

Jason Priestley and Natasha Lyonne star in ``Die Mommie Die!'' - a campy send-up involving a Hollywood family.