About

Sherwood, Cleveland Playhouse, 2019

BIO

Download Ken's Bio for publicity and programs.

Ken Ludwig may well be the most performed playwright of his generation. He has had six productions on Broadway and eight in London’s West End. His 34 plays and musicals are staged throughout the United States and around the world every night of the year. They have been produced in over 20 languages in more than 30 countries, and many have become standards of the American repertoire.

His first play, Lend Me a Tenor, was produced on Broadway and in London by Andrew Lloyd Webber. It won two Tony Awards and was called “one of the classic comedies of the 20th century” by The Washington Post. Crazy For You was on Broadway for five years, on the West End for three, and won the Tony and Olivier Awards for Best Musical. It has been revived twice in the West End and is currently touring Japan. Since its European premiere at Chichester Festival Theatre in 2022, Ludwig’s adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express has had hundreds of international productions.

In addition, he has won the Edwin Forrest Award for Contributions to the American Theatre, two Laurence Olivier Awards, two Helen Hayes Awards, the Charles MacArthur Award, and the Edgar Award for Best Mystery of the Year. He was also nominated for an Emmy Award for writing the Kennedy Center Honors. His other plays include Moon Over Buffalo; Leading Ladies; Baskerville; Sherwood; Twentieth Century; Dear Jack, Dear Louise; A Fox on the Fairway; A Comedy of Tenors; The Game’s Afoot; Shakespeare in Hollywood; and Moriarty. They have starred, among others, Alec Baldwin, Carol Burnett, Tony Shaloub, Joan Collins, and Kristin Bell.

His book How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare, published by Penguin Random House, has been a bestseller and is out this year in a new, expanded edition. It won the Falstaff Award for Best Shakespeare Book of the Year. His essays on theatre are published in the Yale Review, and he gives the Annual Ken Ludwig Playwriting Scholarship at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival.

His first opera, Tenor Overboard, opened at the Glimmerglass Festival in July 2022. His most recent world premieres were Lend Me A Soprano and Moriarty, and his newest plays and musicals include Pride and Prejudice Part 2: Napoleon at Pemberley, Lady Molly of Scotland Yard, Beginner’s Luck, and Easter Parade.

He has been commissioned to write plays by Agatha Christie Limited, the Royal Shakespeare Company, The Old Globe Theatre, and the Bristol Old Vic.

For more information, see his website at www.kenludwig.com

As of February, 2024

Licensing

Concord Theatricals
235 Park Avenue South
Fifth Floor
New York, NY 10003

Toll Free: (866) 979-0447

concordtheatricals.com

Baskerville
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A Comedy of Tenors
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Dear Jack, Dear Louise
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Crazy for You
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A Fox on the Fairway
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The Game's Afoot
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Midsummer/Jersey
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Twas The Night Before Christmas
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Leading Ladies
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Lend Me A Tenor
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Moon Over Buffalo
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Postmortem
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Shakespeare in Hollywood
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Sullivan & Gilbert
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Twentieth Century
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Be My Baby
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The Beaux' Stratagem
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The Three Musketeers
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Treasure Island
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