About the Play:
Shakespeare in Hollywood is a full-length comedy by Ken
Ludwig. Max Reinhardt is trying
to shoot his first Hollywood film, a movie version of Shakespeare's
'A Midsummer Night's Dream,' but his leading lady can't act, his cast
keeps falling in love with each other, and what's more, the real Puck
and Oberon have just shown up! Proving that the course of true love
never did run smooth, this madcap comedy suggests the sets of
Hollywood and the woods of Athens have more in common than we
thought. Especially recommended for
school and contest use.
Shakespeare in Hollywood is the entertaining fusion of
Hollywood glitz, classic theatrical productions and Shakespeare's
poetry around an event in cinema history. In 1934, famous German
director Max Reinhardt came to the US to stage his production of 'A
Midsummer Night's Dream' at the Hollywood Bowl, and then
pursued the idea of turning the play into a movie. In this play, as
Reinhardt attempts to inflict his overactive imagination on Hollywood
bean-counting producers, the real Oberon and Puck appear, finding
themselves far from their native Athenian Woods. Instantly smitten by
the glitz, glamour, and dollars of show biz, Shakespeare's most
famous fairies are ushered onto on the Warner Bros. Hollywood set to
play (who else?) themselves. With a little help from a feisty flower,
blonde bombshells, movie moguls, and arrogant "asses" are
tossed into loopy love triangles, with raucous results. The
mischievous magic of moviedom sparkles in this hilarious
Shakespeare-inspired comic romp that was originally commissioned by
the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC).
Shakespeare in Hollywood premiered in 2003 at Arena Stage
in Washington, D.C and won the Helen Hayes award for Best New Play of
the Year. Since then the
play had regional premieres at professional theatres across the US
and has been mounted by high schools, colleges, and community
theatres.
Cast: 4 female, 8 male
What people say:
"Shakespeare in Hollywood
will charm your socks off. It left me smiling in my Amtrak aisle seat
all the way home to New York." — The Wall Street
Journal
"Shakespeare in Hollywood
is so deliciously inventive, you'd swear Ludwig and the Bard were in
cahoots. At once poignant and funny, literary and farcical,
sophisticated and silly, political and fanciful, high-brow and
low-brow… a delight." — The Baltimore Sun
"Lights, camera, action –
there's plenty of it in Ken Ludwig's fantastical
farce … Ludwig has constructed an amazingly dense and layered romp
[and] clearly had a ball fusing Shakespearean diction with the
wisecracking verbal jousting that characterized pre-World War II
comedies." — The Boston Globe
"A fast, funny, entertaining
night." — NBC 4
"Mischief, mayhem and laughter
abound as the Good Theater tackles this farcical notion in Ken
Ludwig's devilishly funny play Shakespeare in
Hollywood.... There's never a dull moment in this
fun-filled piece." — The Portland Herald/Maine
Sunday Telegram
About the Playwright:
Ken Ludwig is an internationally acclaimed American
playwright whose work is performed throughout the world in more than
thirty countries in over twenty languages. He has written twenty-five
plays and musicals, with six Broadway productions and seven in
London's West End. He has also won two Laurence Olivier Awards and
the Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America.