Remembering Christopher Standart (1966–2025)
- Anthony Chase
- 2 hours ago
- 7 min read
by Anthony Chase
Buffalo theater has lost a luminous spirit and one of its most courageous comic talents. Christopher Standart died on October 23, 2025, at the age of 59. His passing leaves an emptiness impossible to overstate. For more than three decades, he graced Western New York stages with a unique artistry -- intelligent, daring, and unflinchingly funny.
Christopher was a master of timing, tone, and comic truth. He was a long-standing member of Buffalo United Artists (BUA), where his performances in shows like Alley of the Dolls, Mommie Queerest, Limitation of Life, Bette and Joan: The Final Curtain, The Birds Attack, and Tru became milestones of Buffalo theater. His work epitomized BUA’s mission -- to confront art with humor, honesty, and purpose, unapologetically queer and gloriously human.
I will never forget him in Limitation of Life. Christopher, who resembled the real-life Truman Capote, entered in drag as a Vegas showgirl -- utterly confident of her sexual magnetism -- in a moment that slayed the audience. The laughter rolled over him like waves, and he stood there, absolutely radiant. Or that other moment, in Mommie Queerest, the deliriously camp send-up of Mommie Dearest, when he played the tattletale schoolmate of little Christina Crawford, shrieking with schoolgirl vindictiveness, “I’m telling!” Few actors could strike that precise balance of truth, parody, and precision. Christopher always found it.
Over the years, I watched him conquer an astonishing range of roles -- from Truman Capote in Tru, to Bette Davis sparring opposite Jimmy Janowski’s Joan Crawford, to ensemble turns in Alley of the Dolls and The Birds Attack. He was equally at home in the satirical world of BUA and in the more serious repertory of Alleyway Theatre, ART/WNY, Torn Space, and Subversive Theatre Collective.
His work in The Crucible, Cleansed, The Devils, It Can’t Happen Here, Quills, revealed the same discipline he brought to farce -- that same sharp intelligence, that same refusal to phone anything in – at least when it came to comedy. He triumphed in Greater Tuna with Thomas LaChiusa at American Repertory Theater; in The Nance with Subversive Theater Collective; Tropical Heat at Alleyway Theatre.
He once described himself, with his usual disarming humor, as “the Susan Lucci of Buffalo theater,” having garnered multiple Artie nominations without a win. But no one who saw his work doubted his brilliance or his impact. Beneath the comedy was always integrity, a performer who respected craft and built characters from the inside out, no matter how outrageous the costume or premise.
In his 2019 column, Stagefright, after congratulating Andre DeShields for his Tony Award win, Javier Bustillos wrote, “No such luck for Christopher Standart at the Artie Awards, who was sidestepped for the tenth time. Standart has been nominated six times in the acting category (including three for playing a woman), three for directing, and one for costume design. Hang in there, Chris. Susan Lucci lost 18 times before she took home an Emmy!”
Christopher never mocked; he inhabited. Whether he was voguing as a Bette Davis caricature or delivering a Capote monologue, he performed with absolute conviction. His characters were funny because they mattered to him. That was his secret.
His contribution to this city’s cultural life spans decades and countless productions, but for those of us privileged to know him personally, it is his wit and authenticity that endure. His sense of humor was mercilessly sharp. His affection for his friends was profound. He made rehearsal rooms joyous, dressing rooms conspiratorial, and opening nights unforgettable.
Chris possessed a certain spirit of camp grandeur to which the guests at his Truman Capote "Black and White" birthday party at Alleyway can attest.
Those of us who knew Christopher well also knew that his brilliant mischief sometimes extended beyond the stage. There was, shall we say, a bit of ethical blurriness -- episodes of forgery, purloined checks, and misadventure that became the stuff of backstage legend. Yet through it all, he remained loyal to his friends and fearless in his art.
Asked for comment, BUA legend Jimmy Janowski, who often appeared with Standart dryly responded, “I suspect foul play.”
He then regrouped quickly to recall, “At a certain point, BUA took a turn to youth culture. They were doing young-people-coming-of age-stories and there was nothing for me. That’s when I wrote The Birds Attack,” [a parody of Alfred Hitchock’s The Birds]. Well, everyone assumed it wouldn’t be any good, but Christopher Standart and Timmy Finnegan signed on without hesitation. And then we were a big hit! I was always grateful for his deep and unhesitating loyalty.”
BUA founder and long-time artistic director Javier Bustillos said, “Christopher Standart was, quite simply, one of a kind. He could be impossible, and he could be utterly brilliant -- often at the same time. But above all, he was fearless. He gave his all to BUA, for decades. His comedy came from a place of deep truth, his irreverence from an honest heart. He made us laugh until we cried. He was a rascal and a genius. Buffalo theater won’t see his like again.”
He is survived by his family, his friends, and the vast Buffalo theater family that embraced him. He was also a close friend of actor Timothy Finnegan, who predeceased him, and theirs was a friendship that reflected the generosity and humor both men brought to the stage. At the time of Timmy's death, I caustically began to refer to Christopher as "the Widow Finnegan." He loved it!
In every sense, Christopher possessed unabashed comic courage -- a willingness to go fully, even recklessly, into a bit, not for cheap laughs, but to unearth the emotional risk beneath the comedy. (Well, okay, sometimes for cheap laughs!) He joins Timothy Finnegan now, perhaps already reviving one of their in-jokes from a life spent chasing laughter and meaning together.
Christopher Standart’s artistry was rare. He understood that comedy and courage are the same thing -- that both demand fearlessness, vulnerability, and love. He gave us all that and more. His memory will forever bring a smile to those who saw him light up a stage.
In his memory, friends of Christopher will be gathering at "Twenty Six," the bar at 26 Allen Street, Buffalo, at 6 p.m., tomorrow, October 27, 2025.
To sample some of Standart's comic genius, click on the link to the video by Chris Kelly:
I interviewed Christopher in 2015 for The Public Questionnaire
At the time, I wrote
Christopher Standart has never been a leading man. He has played many leading roles, of course, but even these have been character parts. His range is expansive and his sense of humor is devilishly irreverent. He was tyrannically sublime as Sheridan Whiteside, the wheelchair-bound broadcaster trapped in rural Ohio in The Man Who Came to Dinner. More than once, he has assayed “the Thurston roles” in Greater Tuna, channeling the men and women of the small town of Tuna, Texas. With his large round face and small pursed mouth, he was the perfect choice to play Truman Capote in the one-man show Tru at BUA.
For his current theater venture, BUA realized that Christopher Standart may not resemble the iconic star in any other detail, but he’s got Bette Davis eyes. He will be playing the great Bette Davis in Bette and Joan: the Final Curtain, opposite Jimmy Janowski as Joan Crawford. The production opens this weekend at the Alleyway Theatre complex.
Standart is often to be seen in a dress. The old women he has played seem like Mrs. Butterworth meets Godzilla. He’s a terror in a house frock. And yet one of the most convulsive moments of laughter I have ever had in a theater was seeing Standart saunter onto the BUA stage as a Las Vegas showgirl with all the confident superiority of a supermodel in L’Imitation of Life. (At age 89, my own mother considers Standart possibly to be her favorite Buffalo actor, and still tears up with laughter when she recalls him playing the jealous schoolgirl companion of Christina Crawford in BUA’s Mommie Queerest.)
There is nothing “Brand X” about Christopher Standart.
For all the hilarity he has provided to audiences during his career, Standart is also capable in serious roles, and can even be terrifyingly menacing. Last season he played Judge Danforth in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible at ART, and he once played sadistic Tinker in Sarah Kane’s Cleansed at Torn Space. Among his favorite productions he counts Amadeus and The Cobbler at the Irish Classical Theatre and The Devils at Torn Space. On the other hand, he has done musicals, and counts playing Mr. Applegate in Damn Yankees and the Captain in Poseidon among his successful theater outings. He was also seen in Love’s Labour’s Lost at Shakespeare in Delaware Park.
Subversively, even daringly funny, and profoundly talented. That is how we see Christopher Standart. How does the actor see himself? Here, as he prepares to trod the boards as Bette Davis and to hold his own opposite Jimmy Janowski as Joan, Mr. Standart submits to The Public Questionnaire.
What word would your friends use to describe you?
Generous.
What quality in your current character is most unlike your own personality?
Compulsive.
What quality in your current character is most like your own personality?
Survival instinct.
When and where were you the happiest?
Happiness is a choice.
What is your idea of hell on earth?
Chaos.
What is your greatest fear?
Being blind.
Which talent do you most wish you had?
Tap dance/play the violin.
What superpower do you most wish you had?
Telekinesis.
What would you change about your appearance?
My buttocks.
What trait do you most despise in others?
Self-delusion.
What trait to you most despise in yourself?
Being opinionated.
What do you most value in your friends?
My best friends make me laugh.
What do you consider to be your greatest accomplishment?
Being alive.
What is your guilty pleasure?
Shopping.
What character from fiction do you identify with most?
Lily Bart [heroine of Edith Wharton’s House of Mirth].
What person from history do you identify with most?
[Irreverently mischievous socialite] Harry Lehr.
What do you consider to be the most overrated virtue?
Heavenly or deadly?
On what occasion do you lie?
Circumstantially.
What was the subject of your last Google search?
How to treat scalp eczema.
If you come back in another life, what person or thing would you like to be?
A scientist.
What is your most prized possession?
My Snitznoodle.
What role, in which you will never be cast, is actually perfect for you?
Desiree Armfeldt in A Little Night Music.
What is your motto?
Try to stay beyond reproach.
