Winner! of the 2004 Helen Hayes Award for Best New Play It's 1934, and Shakespeare's most famous fairies, Oberon and Puck, have magically materialized on the Warner Bros. Hollywood set of Max Reinhardt's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Instantly smitten by the glitz and glamour of show biz, the two are ushered onto the silver screen to play (who else?) themselves. With a little help from a feisty flower, blonde bombshells, movie moguls, and arrogant "asses" are tossed into loopy love triangles, with raucous results. The mischievous magic of moviedom sparkles in this hilarious comic romp.
"'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse." But wait! A mouse is stirring - because Santa missed his house last year. Before you can say "Merry Christmas!", we're off on the wild adventures of a mouse, an elf, and a spunky little girl who just won't take no for an answer. Don't miss this joyful tribute to the holiday season!
Characters: 3 male, 3 female Unit Set A tribute from Ken Ludwig (Lend Me A Tenor, Moon Over Buffalo) to the great English farces of the 1930s and 1940s, The Fox On the Fairway takes audiences on a hilarious romp which pulls the rug out from underneath the stuffy denizens of a private country club. Filled with mistaken identities, slamming doors, and over-the-top romantic shenanigans, it's a furiously paced comedy that recalls the Marx Brothers' classics. A charmingly madcap adventure about love, life, and man's eternal love affair with...golf. "A grand slam...a joy to behold!"ae' Washington City Paper "The Fox on the Fairway is phenomenally funny!" -NJ Star Ledger "Farce raised to an art." - The Home-News Tribune "A belly laugh marathon! An amazingly ingenious satirical farce."ae' Showbizradio.net "Joyously ridiculous!"ae' TalkinBroadway.com "Ken Ludwig has written a masterpiece (with) all of the elements that will most certainly make it a hit show from coast to coast."-Out in Jersey
Midsummer/Jersey is the hilarious high-octane re-telling of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream set on the boardwalk of a seaside town in modern-day New Jersey. The story revolves around the impending marriage of the Governor of New Jersey, the love affairs of four beach-bound high school crushes, a lively crew of fairies and the staff of the local beauty salon (run by Patti Quince and Stylist Nikki Bottom). The night takes a magical turn when Oberon and the impish Puck arrive on the scene armed with a powerful love potion and a desire for mischief making. With several weddings and the acting careers of six beauticians hanging in the balance, the lovers take to the boardwalk, backed by pop music and an iPhone-obsessed wood sprite.
Get your deerstalker cap on-the play's afoot! Comedic genius Ken Ludwig (Lend Me a Tenor Moon Over Buffalo) transforms Arthur Conan Doyle's classic The Hound of the Baskervilles into a murderously funny adventure. Sherlock Holmes is on the case. The male heirs of the Baskerville line are being dispatched one by one. To find their ingenious killer Holmes and Watson must brave the desolate moors before a family curse dooms its newest heir. Watch as our intrepid investigators try to
One hotel suite four tenors two wives three girlfriends and a soccer stadium filled with screaming fans. What could possibly go wrong? It's 1930s Paris and the stage is set for the concert of the century-as long as producer Henry Saunders can keep Italian superstar Tito Merelli and his hot-blooded wife Maira from causing runaway chaos. Prepare for an uproarious ride full of mistaken identities bedroom hijinks and madcap delight.
Packed with thrills romance laughter and immortal characters like Little John Friar Tuck and Maid Marian Sherwood: The Adventures of Robin Hoodtells the enduring story of a hero of the people who takes on the ruthless powers that be. So get ready to duck a quarterstaff or two you won't want to miss a moment of the swashbuckling fun!
Daphne and Ralph are young classics professors who have just made a discovery that's sure to turn them into academic superstars. But something goes disastrously wrong and Daphne cries out in a panic "Save me gods of ancient Greece!"...and the gods actually appear! The Ivy League will never be the same as a pair of screwball deities encounters the carnal complexity of college coeds campus capers and conspicuous consumption.
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are back on the case! An investigation into the Bohemian king's stolen letters cascades into an international mystery filled with spies, blackmail and intrigue. With world peace at stake, Holmes and Watson join forces with American actress Irene Adler to take down cunning criminal mastermind Professor Moriarty and his network of devious henchmen. Five actors play over 40 roles in this adventure that has danger and laughter! around every corner.
Winner! 2009 AATE Distinguished Play Award, Best Adaptation Based on the masterful adventure novel by Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island is a stunning yarn of piracy on the tropical seas. It begins at an inn on the Devon coast of England in 1775 and quickly becomes an unforgettable tale of treachery and mayhem featuring a host of legendary swashbucklers including the dangerous Billy Bones (played unforgettably in the movies by Lionel Barrymore), the sinister two-timing Israel Hands, the brassy woman pirate Anne Bonney, and the hideous form of evil incarnate, Blind Pew. At the center of it all are Jim Hawkins, a 14-year-old boy who longs for adventure, and the infamous Long John Silver, who is a complex study of good and evil, perhaps the most famous hero-villain of all time. Silver is an unscrupulous buccaneer-rogue whose greedy quest for gold, coupled with his affection for Jim, cannot help but win the heart of every soul who has ever longed for romance, treasure and adventure.
It is December 1936 and Broadway star William Gillette, admired the world over for his leading role in the play Sherlock Holmes, has invited his fellow cast-members to his Connecticut castle for a weekend of revelry. But when one of the guests is stabbed to death, the festivities in this isolated house of tricks and mirrors quickly turn dangerous. Then it's up to Gillette himself, as he assumes the persona of his beloved Holmes, to track down the killer before the next victim appears. The danger and hilarity are non-stop in this glittering whodunit set during the Christmas holidays. Winner of the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Allen Poe Award for Best Play!
An engaging classroom playscript. Acclaimed Broadway playwright Ken Ludwig's humorous adaptation of this classic tale. First performed by the Bristol Old Vic in 2006. Based on Alexandre Dumas' timeless swashbuckler, The Three Musketeers tells the story of young d'Artagnan, who sets off for adventure in Paris and soon allies himself with the greatest heroes of the day - Musketeers Athos, Porthos and Aramis - to defend the honour of the Queen of France. New, innovative activities specifically tailored to support the KS3 Framework for Teaching English and help students to fulfil the Framework objectives. Activities include work on Speaking and Listening, close text analysis, and the structure of playscripts, and act as a springboard for personal writing.
Winner of the Falstaff Award for Best Shakespeare Book, How To Teach Your Children Shakespeare is a foolproof, enormously fun method of teaching your children the classic works of William Shakespeare by Tony-Award winning playwright, Ken Ludwig. To know some Shakespeare provides a head start in life. His plays are among the great bedrocks of Western civilization and contain the finest writing of the past 450 years. Many of the best novels, plays, poems, and films in the English language produced since Shakespeare's death in 1616--from Pride and Prejudice to The Godfather--are heavily influenced by Shakespeare's stories, characters, language, and themes. In How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare, acclaimed playwright Ken Ludwig provides the tools you need to inspire an understanding, and a love, of Shakespeare's works in your children, and to have fun together along the way. Ken Ludwig devised his friendly, easy-to-master methods while teaching his own children. Beginning with memorizing short passages from the plays, his technique then instills children with cultural references they will utilize for years to come. Ludwig's approach includes understanding of the time period and implications of Shakespeare's diction as well as the invaluable lessons behind his words and stories. Colorfully incorporating the history of Shakespearean theater and society, How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare guides readers on an informed and adventurous journey through the world in which the Bard wrote. This book's simple process allows anyone to impart to children the wisdom of plays like A Midsummer Night's Dream, Twelfth Night, Macbeth, and Romeo and Juliet. And there's fun to be had throughout. Shakespeare novices and experts and readers of all ages will each find something delightfully irresistible in How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare.
A concert in Ohio in 1934 is jeopardized when the lead Italian tenor falls into a drunken'stupor. So the impresario's diminutive assistant blacks up and goes on as Otello. The tenor awakens, dons his costume, and thence follows a hilarious comedy involving two Otellos, a volatile Italian wife, an outrageous bellhop and a cynical impresario.
Ken Ludwig. Music by Sir Arthur Sullivan. Lyrics by William S. Gilbert. Characters: 8 male, 4 female Various interior scenes, or one unit set. This clever show takes place at the Savoy Theatre in 1890. Gilbert and Sullivan, who have been feuding for years, are forced to work together one more time: Queen Victoria commands a performance of their most popular songs. Part docu drama, part period comedy, and part "Gilbertt and Sullivan's Greatest Hits," this is a delightful revue from the author of Lend Me a Tenor, Leading Ladies, and Moon Over Buffalo. "A charming show."-Boston Globe "A warm, and affectionate behind the scenes look at this tempestuous, hilarious relationship."-Middlesex News
Comedy / 4m, 4f / Unit set Charlotte and George Hay, an acting couple not exactly the Lunts are on tour in Buffalo in 1953 with a repertory consisting of Cyrano de Bergerac "revised, one nostril version" and Noel Coward's Private Lives. This backstage farce by the author of Lend Me a Tenor brought Carol Burnett back to Broadway co-starring with Philip Bosco as her megalomanic, drunken husband and leading man. Fate has given these thespians one more shot at starring roles in The Scarlet Pimpernel epic and director Frank Capra himself is en route to Buffalo to catch their matinee performance. Will Charlotte appear or run off with their agent? Will George be sober enough to emote? Will Capra see Cyrano, Private Lives or a disturbing mixture of the two? Hilarious misunderstandings pile on madcap misadventures, in this valentine to Theatre Hams everywhere. "Hilarious ...building up its laughs methodically shtick by shtick...Ludwig stuffs his play with comic invention, running gags ...and a neat sense of absurdity...Go and enjoy." - N.Y. Post "Somewhere up above ...George S. Kaufman, Abe Burrows, Moss Hart and all those clever fellows who wrote the comedies of yesteryear are rolling with laughter, echoing the audience last night at ...Moon Over Buffalo...The play is nothing less than a love letter to live theater." - Boston Herald
Full Length, Comedy Charaters: 3 male, 3 female The play tells the story of John, an irascible Scotsman and an uptight English woman, Maude, both in their late 50s, who take on the journey of a lifetime. They are brought together when his ward marries her niece. Then, when the young couple decides to adopt a new born baby, the older couple has to travel 6,000 miles to California to pick up the child and bring her safely home to Scotland. The problem is, John and Maude desp
Comedy / 4m 4f / Int. Nominee Best Revival of a Play - 2010 Tony(R) Awards This night in September of 1934 is the biggest in the history of the Cleveland Grand Opera Company world famous tenor Tito Morelli is to perform Otello his greatest role at the gala season opener. Saunders the General Manager hopes this will put Cleveland on the operatic map. Morelli is late; when he finally sweeps in it is too late to rehearse with the company. Through a hilarious series of mishaps Il Stupendo
Thriller Characters: 4 male, 4 female Interior Set Actor manager and playwright William Gillette, best known for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes in his hugely successful adaptation of Conan Doyle a popular play available from Samuel French, has invited his sister and the cast of his latest revival of the play for a weekend at his magnificent pseudo medieval castle on a bluff overlooking the Connecticut River. For entertainment Gillette has arranged a seance. Now the scene is set for his greatest role. Someone is trying to murder William Gillette and he suspects it is one of his guests. Intrepid, eccentric Gillette plans to solve the case himself a la Sherlock Holmes. "Zestfully trots out all the classic murder mystery devices: shots in the dark and darkly held secrets, deathbed letters, guns and knives and bottles bashed over the head, ghosts and hiders behind curtains and misbegotten suspicions. There are moments when you'll jump. Guaranteed."- The Telegraph "A Sherlock Holmes whodunnit kind of mystery packed with suspects and tinged with suspense and laughter."-London Times
U.S. Army Captain Jack Ludwig, a military doctor stationed in Oregon, begins writing to Louise Rabiner, an aspiring actress and dancer in New York City, hoping to meet her someday if the war will allow. But as the war continues, it threatens to end their relationship before it even starts. Tony Award-winning playwright Ken Ludwig (Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery, Lend Me a Tenor) tells the joyous, heartwarming story of his parents' courtship during World War II and the results are anything but expected."Ludwig's play, though about a particular moment in his personal history as well as our collective history, also resonates today. Dear Jack, Dear Louise is a moving, funny, and heartbreaking reminder of what we should strive to become, individually and as a country." - BroadwayWorld"Moving and cinematic... The play, based on the correspondence of Ludwig's parents-to-be, crackles with humor and real feeling." - DC Theatre Scene"An intimate play with tremendous breadth... Ken Ludwig's Dear Jack, Dear Louise plumbs the depths of human courage, commitment, and connection when the world and your heart are at stake." - DC Metro Theater Arts"Strikes the touchstones of the online dating age with uncanny precision." - The Washington Post
