Romance. Tragedy. Primal Murder. The urge of revenge. This looks like a job for—
Well it isn’t Sherlock Holmes, that’s for sure! In a Christie? He would never!
Hercule Poirot, but of course! And ooh la la, ooh la la, ooh la la, does he have a case for you! Er— a show. Yes, that’s it! A show! Murder On The Orient Express, based on Agatha Christie’s novel of the same name and adapted to the stage by Ken Ludwig,
The impossible could not have happened, therefore the impossible must be possible in spite of appearances! That feels a little like any given week of theatre in the Baltimore area theatre scene! At any one time it feels impossibly like 100 shows are opening, closing, mid-run, in tech, or about to start rehearsals! So it’s no wonder that we found the second person ever to be featured in our “Local Limelight” series— Kelly Rardon, a well-known area performer for quite some time— at the start of her tech-week for the show she’s currently performing in,
Everyone wants publicity, daaahlings. Even the bad kind is the good kind, because any kind beats no kind, right? Lucky for Thomas “Toby” Hessenauer and the company of Ken Ludwig’s The Game’s Afoot it’s the good kind. Mostly. I’m no Daria Chase, daaahlings, but for God’s sake, I am a theatre critic. Launching the ‘upstairs’ half of the upstairs-downstairs-summertime-palooza that we all know to be Cockpit in Court, this zany little Baskerville-wannabe is two parts mystery,
Ken Ludwig’sMoon Over Buffalo is the second installment from Spotlighters
Theatre’s 58th season. If you are looking for some gut chuckling, tears
down your cheeks humor, then you won’t want to miss this show. Director Brandon
Richards has mentored his cast through door slamming, side splitting hysterics that
will keep you laughing all the way home.
Shealyn Jae Photography Moon Over Buffalo at Spotlighters Theatre. Photo: Shealyn Jae Photography
The first thing you notice upon
entering the theatre is the very cozy and well-designed set of Sam Martin.
Back in 1887, Scottish writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle introduced the world to the now-infamous sleuthing mastermind, Sherlock Holmes. More than a century later, playwright Ken Ludwig adapted Doyle’s third crime novel, the well-known Hound of the Baskervilles, as a madcap, sometimes dizzyingly fast-paced farcical comedy, called simply – Baskerville. Directed by Ann Lowe-Barrett and produced by William Powell, this adaptation is currently being performed at the Greenbelt Arts Center to raving audiences.
Music is the magic that makes ev’rything sunshiny! And dancing is the thing that makes all your troubles seem tiny! And when you’re sitting watchin’ Crazy For You at Signature Theatre this holiday season, it’ll be all sunshine and smiles with no troubles or cares and you won’t be bothered o’er anything else, I swear! They’ve got the music and it’s magic, and they’ve got the best dancing once could ask for!
You are not defined by where you start but by where you end up. And if you end up like Leo Clark and Jack Gable you’re going to need an entire Webster’s dictionary to define just exactly where you’ve ended up. Or how you’ve ended up. Or as whom! The Salem Players present to audiences all over the 21228 (and beyond!) zip-code their fall production of Ken Ludwig’s zany farce, Leading Ladies.
Madhouse doesn’t begin to describe the utter shenanigans happening in William Gillette’s New England mansion on Christmas Eve. Scandal! Mystery! Murder! For god’s sake, there are actors present! What else could be expected from Ken Ludwig’s bitingly humorous and boisterously bloody play The Game’s Afoot? Directed by Fuzz Roark, this scintillating madcap comedy with just a dandy drop of blood for the murder mystery enthusiast in us all is the perfect way to ring in the holiday season.
Che pazzo! Che buffo! Che divertente! Dio mio, che spettacolo! A-wha? You no speak-a de Italiano? That’s-a okay. Neither do they. Not in Ken Ludwig’s Lend Me a Tenor now appearing at Third Wall Productions, anyhow. This madcap farce filled to the brim of mocking stereotypes will have you choking on-a your spaghetti before the evening is through! Directed by Mea Holloway, this zany runaround comedy is fortified with door-slamming, bed-breaking action that will keep you chuckling from start to finish.
Golf if not a game. It’s a way of life. And for the spring season at the Reston Community Players, golf is all the rage as they present the hysterical Ken Ludwig comedy Fox on the Fairway. Directed by Adam Konowe, this uproarious farcical piece of comic greenery will chip away at your funny bone for the full 18 holes of the course. With outrageous characters,
The game’s afoot! Well, the show is afoot at any rate! It all began, as these things do, with a brand new world premier production at Arena Stage. Ken Ludwig, the acclaimed comedic playwright, has taken his pen to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s characters and adapted a brilliant comedy suitable for theatrical enjoyment of all types. Bursting at the seams with curiosity, wonder, and the element of surprise, this hysterical new work entices the audience not only with its morbid beauty and thrilling mysterious intrigue,
Deck the halls with boughs of holly! Fa-la-la-la-la! La-la-la— wait a minute— that’s a different Christmas story all together. Of course, so is the inventive reimagined retelling of the Dickensian Christmas classic this holiday season at Adventure Theatre Musical Theatre Center. Making its world premier in Glen Echo Park, this exciting new adaptation by Ken and Jack Ludwig engages children of all ages into the fantastical Christmas tale written by Charles Dickens so many years ago.