Ken Ludwig

My guest on this episode of Writers at Work is playwright Ken Ludwig. His Ken Ludwig’s Dear Jack, Dear Louise is running now at New York's 59E59 Theaters. Playbill says Ken Ludwig may be the most-performed playwright of his generation. He's had six productions on Broadway and eight in London's West End. His 34 plays and musicals are staged throughout the US and around the world every night of the week.

It's quality as well as quantity with Ken. He's won Tony awards for his Lend Me a Tenor and Crazy for You, countless other awards unique to theater communities, and one for his bestselling book, How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare.

I want to talk with Ken about his approach to writing, but I'm still in the glow of Dear Jack, Dear Louise, which confirms his genius for distinctive storytelling. Jack and Louise are Ken's parents, and the play is their story, how they met by exchanging letters during World War II. Those letters reveal not only the characters, personalities and ambitions, but also a time in our country's history. What began as a long-distance meet-cute story becomes something else as the play unfolds. I'm eager to hear how Ken conceived it and wrote it.