More widely cultured individuals know that he is an internationally-acclaimed and Tony® Award-winning playwright whose work has been performed in more than 30 countries in over 20 languages. He has had six shows on Broadway and six in the West End - including
Lend Me a Tenor,
Moon Over Buffalo, and
Crazy For You.
Ken Ludwig was kind enough to join us on the show to discuss his latest project:
Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery directed by Amanda Dehnert, which opens the
Arena Stage in the Kreeger Theater in Washington, DC before moving along to
McCarter Theater Center in Princeton, NJ. The previews run January 16 - 21, 2015 and
tonight - January 22 - is its official opening night at Arena, running through February 22. The play runs at McCarter Theater from March 10 - 29, 2015.
He describes the production as an adventure with comedic exuberance, and one that is as much about the theater as it is about Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. And with just five actors playing 40 parts in a variety of accents and disguises. But Ludwig is quick to note that it is respectful of the characters and of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Questions naturally arose as the discussion continued: How does one represent such various settings as railway stations, Dartmoor, Baskerville Hall, the streets of London, etc. that are vastly different from the traditional "living room / sitting room" setting we're used to seeing in the theater? How is the hound brought to life? We also probed at what initially drove Ludwig to Sherlock Holmes and discovered that he managed to work the character into his professional life fairly quickly.
When we asked Ken answered to the questions of why The Hound of the Baskervilles and why now with: "There's a Hound in all of us."
Listen in for the full conversation and see the links below to buy tickets in Washington or Princeton. And if you live on the west coast, Ken mentions a summer appearance in San Diego...

Download this episode by right-clicking the icon and selecting "Save As..." or simply click on the file to listen, or on the player above. (File size: 28.3 MB, 1:01:43)
Burt and Scott also discuss just a smidge of the BSI Weekend - including the first-ever appearance of a selfie stick at the event - and ask for your input on our programming. The Editor's Gas-Lamp this time is a variant: the poem "The Detective's Farewell" from the June 1974 issue of
The Baker Street Journal (Vol. 34, No. 2).
Links:
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