The story of an unconventional marriage, an unconventional career, and a very unconventional woman, ELSA LANCHESTER, SHE'S ALIVE! includes English musical hall songs and "bawdy" tunes written for Miss Lanchester by the Turnabout Theatre's Forman Brown in 40's/50's Hollywood. ​ Charlotte Booker the writer/performer, has been researching this show for over a decade--and performing it for the last two years.

75 minutes; one actor, one pianist, a few props, some snappy songs--A "cabaret fantasia", said one review.

​For booking information:
elsalanchestershow@gmail.com

It's 1962, and character actress Elsa Lanchester is still best-known as a bride—the iconic 1935 Bride of Frankenstein, and the devoted, long-suffering bride of Oscar-winner Charles Laughton.
 
As Hollywood scandal sheets threaten to reveal a well-kept secret and her movie star husband of 33 years is in decline, Elsa sings and clowns her way out of the shadow of the Monster.
 
Songs from Elsa's real cabaret act--English music hall numbers and special songs written specifically for her by the Turnabout Theatre’s Forman Brown--are featured in this 75 minute show.
 
You thought you knew the Bride?! She wasn't Katie Nana in "Mary Poppins", she wasn't Aunt Queenie in "Bell, Book, and Candle", she wasn't even the batty old lady in "Willard". She was utterly unique.
​
 No mad scientist created Elsa. She created Herself!

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The Writer/Actress
Charlotte Booker first fell in love with Elsa Lanchester as the iconic Bride of Frankenstein on Saturday afternoon TV—but didn’t realize that the same quirky actress, decades later, played Katie Nana in Mary Poppins, the nosey Mrs. Macdougall in That Darn Cat, the batty mom in Willard, and the intrepid Miss Marbles in Murder By Death.  But when she read Miss Lanchester’s vivid autobiography and heard that unique singing style, she knew she had to play her somewhere, somehow.

Charlotte understudied Madeline Kahn (how's that for a Bride of Frankenstein connection?!) in the first Broadway revival of Born Yesterday, and appeared on NYC stages in Take Me Back, Leave Me Green, Fugue, Five Genocides, Deathbed, Psycho Beach Party, and B.i.t.c.h!, which she also wrote.

​Ms. Booker starred as Honey, the perfect 50’s sitcom wife, in the 90’s cult series Hi Honey, I’m Home on ABC-TV as part of its Friday night TGIF lineup, and in its "instant reruns" on Nick at Nite.  She also played  icy headmistress Maggie Chambers in four seasons of Power, and guest-/co-starred on Bluebloods, The Jim Gaffigan Show, Boardwalk Empire, Law and Order CI, Larry Sanders, Murphy Brown, Drew Carey, Newsradio, Chicago Hope, and many more.

A veteran of regional theatre, Charlotte originated roles in the world premieres of Quilters, Three Songs, Dusty and the Big Bad World, and an adaptation of Frankenstein (yes, as the bride). She has played leading roles at the Long Wharf, Williamstown, Yale Rep, Hartford Stage, The Old Globe, The Alley, Baltimore Center Stage, and Denver Center, as well as the Papermill, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Cincinnati Playhouses.

Her stage play, THE BOOTHEEL, was a 2021 semi-finalist at the O’Neill Playwrights Conference and the Garry Marshall New Works Project. A monologue from ELSA LANCHESTER: SHE’S ALIVE! won the 2022 Alvin Epstein Solo Performance Award’s Audience Favorite; the show was subsequently developed at the Martha’s Vineyard Playhouse the same year, and has enchanted audiences in Chicago, New York, and Rochester.
Here's Charlotte's website:
www.charlottebooker.com