Signature Theatre to host Launch of Ken Ludwig’s Lend Me A Tenor and Other Plays

Featuring scenes from Ken Ludwig’s Moon Over Buffalo, Shakespeare in Hollywood & Leading Ladies read by Holly Twyford, Ian Merrill Peakes, Erin Weaver, Valerie Leonard and Hugh NeesArlington, VA, February 15, 2011 – Virginia’s Tony Award®-winning Signature Theatre will host a book launch party to celebrate the release of Lend Me A Tenor and Other Plays by DC playwright and Broadway favorite Ken Ludwig on Saturday, March 5 from 4pm - 6pm. This free event, open to the public, will be held in Signature’s 2nd Floor Mead Lobby. The new anthology of Ludwig’s celebrated comedic works is published by Smith and Kraus.This special event will feature readings from Mr. Ludwig’s plays, Moon Over Buffalo, Shakespeare in Hollywood and Leading Ladies by local favorites Holly Twyford (Signature’s The Little Dog Laughed and Twentieth Century, and Studio Theatre’s The Shape of Things), Ian Merrill Peakes (Folger Theatre’s Macbeth, The Game of Love and Chance and Henry VIII), Erin Weaver (Folger Theatre’s Comedy of Errors and Arcadia), Valerie Leonard (Signature’s A Fox on the Fairway) and Hugh Nees (Arena Stage’s Shakespeare in Hollywood).Playwright Ludwig commented, "I am tremendously grateful for Signature’s generosity and for their support of my work over the years. It is an honor and a privilege to launch this book among such good friends.”This event is free and open to the public, but reservations are required. Please RSVP to Rosey Strub (rosey.strub@gmail.com).The release of Lend Me A Tenor and Other Plays marks the debut trade edition of four of Ken Ludwig’s most famously funny and heartfelt works. Lend Me A Tenor has been translated into over 20 languages and the London Times hails it “a masterpiece.” The Boston Herald has called Moon Over Buffalo, “nothing less than a love letter to live theater." Of Leading Ladies, The Houston Press writes, “Ludwig's newest comedy is so funny, it will make sophisticated and reasonable men and women of the 21st century cackle till their faces hurt,” and The Wall Street Journal declared Shakespeare in Hollywood (which premiered at Washington DC’s Arena Stage), “will charm your socks off.”The New York Times has called Ludwig “one of those rare contemporary playwrights who thinks in terms of old-fashioned knockabout farce, and that’s something to be cherished.”