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Ken Ludwig
Ken Ludwig is an American playwright, author, screenwriter, and director whose work has been performed in more than 30 countries in over 20 languages. He has had eight productions in London's West End and six productions on Broadway, and his 34 plays and musicals have been staged throughout the United Kingdom and the United States. He has been nominated for and won several awards including the Tony, the Olivier and the Drama Desk Awards.
Ken Ludwig was born in York, Pennsylvania. His father, Jacob S. Ludwig, was a doctor, and his mother, Louise Rabiner Ludwig, was a former Broadway chorus girl.
Ludwig was educated at York Suburban Senior High School, York PA. He received a BA in Music Theory and Composition from Haverford College, where he also studied Shakespeare with Ralph Sargent. At Harvard University, he studied music with Leonard Bernstein. He received his JD from Harvard Law School and an LLM from Cambridge University (Trinity College).
Ken Ludwig's first hit play, Lend Me a Tenor, was produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber for the West End in London in 1986 and on Broadway in 1989. The comedy was nominated for seven Tony Awards, including Best Play, and won two. A revival of Lend Me a Tenor opened on Broadway in 2010, starring Tony Shalhoub, Anthony LaPaglia and Jan Maxwell. It was nominated for three Tony Awards.
His second Broadway and West End production, Crazy for You, is an original musical drawing from the catalogue of George and Ira Gershwin. It opened at the Shubert Theatre (Broadway) in 1992 and ran for over five years in New York. A simultaneous production ran for three years at the Prince Edward Theatre in London from 1993. Crazy for You won the Tony Award, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, LA Drama Critics Circle, and Helen Hayes and Laurence Olivier Awards as Best Musical. The show has been revived twice on the West End, in 2011 and 2023. It was staged in 2017 for a one-night-only concert performance at Lincoln Center.
Ludwig has had three additional plays produced on Broadway. Moon Over Buffalo, which the Boston Herald called "a love letter to theatre", opened at the Martin Beck Theatre (now the Al Hirschfeld Theatre) in 1995 with Carol Burnett and Lynn Redgrave. The same play, under the title Over the Moon, subsequently ran on London's West End at the Old Vic in 2001 in a production starring Frank Langella and Joan Collins.
In 2001, Ludwig conceived and wrote the book for his second musical, an adaptation of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. It opened at the Minskoff Theatre in 2001 starring Kristen Bell as Becky Thatcher. In 2004, he wrote an adaptation of the classic Ben Hecht-Charles MacArthur play Twentieth Century, which opened on Broadway at the Roundabout Theatre Company's American Airlines Theatre starring Alec Baldwin and Anne Heche. His 2019 comedy-romance, Dear Jack, Dear Louise, which chronicles the story of his parents' courtship through letters during World War II, is currently optioned for Broadway.
Ludwig's other original comedies include Shakespeare in Hollywood, which premiered at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., in 2003; Leading Ladies, which premiered at the Alley Theatre in association with the Cleveland Play House in 2004, and which Ludwig directed; Be My Baby, which premiered at the Alley Theatre in 2005 starring Hal Holbrook and Dixie Carter; A Fox on the Fairway, which premiered at Signature Theatre in 2010, directed by John Rando; A Comedy of Tenors, featuring the continuing adventures of several characters from Lend Me a Tenor, which premiered as a co-production of the McCarter Theatre Center and the Cleveland Play House in 2015; The Gods of Comedy, which premiered at the McCarter Theatre Center in association with The Old Globe Theatre in 2019; and Lend Me A Soprano, a re-imagining of Lend Me a Tenor featuring women in all the leading roles, which premiered at the Alley Theatre in 2022.
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Ken Ludwig
Ken Ludwig is an American playwright, author, screenwriter, and director whose work has been performed in more than 30 countries in over 20 languages. He has had eight productions in London's West End and six productions on Broadway, and his 34 plays and musicals have been staged throughout the United Kingdom and the United States. He has been nominated for and won several awards including the Tony, the Olivier and the Drama Desk Awards.
Ken Ludwig was born in York, Pennsylvania. His father, Jacob S. Ludwig, was a doctor, and his mother, Louise Rabiner Ludwig, was a former Broadway chorus girl.
Ludwig was educated at York Suburban Senior High School, York PA. He received a BA in Music Theory and Composition from Haverford College, where he also studied Shakespeare with Ralph Sargent. At Harvard University, he studied music with Leonard Bernstein. He received his JD from Harvard Law School and an LLM from Cambridge University (Trinity College).
Ken Ludwig's first hit play, Lend Me a Tenor, was produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber for the West End in London in 1986 and on Broadway in 1989. The comedy was nominated for seven Tony Awards, including Best Play, and won two. A revival of Lend Me a Tenor opened on Broadway in 2010, starring Tony Shalhoub, Anthony LaPaglia and Jan Maxwell. It was nominated for three Tony Awards.
His second Broadway and West End production, Crazy for You, is an original musical drawing from the catalogue of George and Ira Gershwin. It opened at the Shubert Theatre (Broadway) in 1992 and ran for over five years in New York. A simultaneous production ran for three years at the Prince Edward Theatre in London from 1993. Crazy for You won the Tony Award, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, LA Drama Critics Circle, and Helen Hayes and Laurence Olivier Awards as Best Musical. The show has been revived twice on the West End, in 2011 and 2023. It was staged in 2017 for a one-night-only concert performance at Lincoln Center.
Ludwig has had three additional plays produced on Broadway. Moon Over Buffalo, which the Boston Herald called "a love letter to theatre", opened at the Martin Beck Theatre (now the Al Hirschfeld Theatre) in 1995 with Carol Burnett and Lynn Redgrave. The same play, under the title Over the Moon, subsequently ran on London's West End at the Old Vic in 2001 in a production starring Frank Langella and Joan Collins.
In 2001, Ludwig conceived and wrote the book for his second musical, an adaptation of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. It opened at the Minskoff Theatre in 2001 starring Kristen Bell as Becky Thatcher. In 2004, he wrote an adaptation of the classic Ben Hecht-Charles MacArthur play Twentieth Century, which opened on Broadway at the Roundabout Theatre Company's American Airlines Theatre starring Alec Baldwin and Anne Heche. His 2019 comedy-romance, Dear Jack, Dear Louise, which chronicles the story of his parents' courtship through letters during World War II, is currently optioned for Broadway.
Ludwig's other original comedies include Shakespeare in Hollywood, which premiered at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., in 2003; Leading Ladies, which premiered at the Alley Theatre in association with the Cleveland Play House in 2004, and which Ludwig directed; Be My Baby, which premiered at the Alley Theatre in 2005 starring Hal Holbrook and Dixie Carter; A Fox on the Fairway, which premiered at Signature Theatre in 2010, directed by John Rando; A Comedy of Tenors, featuring the continuing adventures of several characters from Lend Me a Tenor, which premiered as a co-production of the McCarter Theatre Center and the Cleveland Play House in 2015; The Gods of Comedy, which premiered at the McCarter Theatre Center in association with The Old Globe Theatre in 2019; and Lend Me A Soprano, a re-imagining of Lend Me a Tenor featuring women in all the leading roles, which premiered at the Alley Theatre in 2022.