![\"Playwright](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1789681041_941_.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\nBroadway star William Gillette\u2019s weekend cast party goes awry when one of his guests is stabbed to death. Now Gillette must channel his inner Sherlock Holmes to track down the killer before the murderer strikes again.<\/p>\n
Playwright Ken Ludwig describes \u201cThe Game\u2019s Afoot\u201d as equal parts mystery and hilarity.<\/p>\n
\u201cMysteries and comedies, especially if they’re cozy mysteries, have a lot in common,\u201d said Ludwig. \u201cComedies are like taking a jigsaw puzzle and throwing it up in the air, and all those pieces falling down and somehow linking together at the end so that picture comes together and gives us a sense of reassurance that we’ll be alright and the world will be alright.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019s so good at the comedic mystery that Agatha Christie\u2019s estate commissioned him to adapt \u201cMurder on the Orient Express\u201d and \u201cDeath on the Nile\u201d for the stage.<\/p>\n
\u201cComedy for me doesn’t mean just getting laughs. It’s a type of theater that touches our hearts and makes us think, but in a different way than tragedies do.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Game\u2019s Afoot\u201d runs September 18-26 at The Belle Theatre in Cape Coral.<\/p>\n
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Courtesy of Ken Ludwig<\/p>\n
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KenLudwig.com<\/p>\n
Ken Ludwig is an internationally acclaimed playwright whose work has been performed in more than 30 countries in over 20 languages. <\/p>\n
MORE INFORMATION:<\/p>\n
The play is set in a Connecticut castle in 1936. The castle is described as an isolated house of tricks and mirrors. The danger and laughter are nonstop.<\/p>\n
The play was published by Samuel French, Inc. on November 14, 2012, and later won the Edgar Award for Best Play in 2012.<\/p>\n
The title is a reference to Shakespeare\u2019s \u201cHenry V,\u201d where King Henry gives a speech to his troops before he leads them into the Siege of Harfleur. During this speech, he uses the phrase \u201cthe game\u2019s afoot\u201d to signal that the battle is about to begin.<\/p>\n
Ludwig is a huge fan of the Bard.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’ve written a book called \u201cHow to Teach Your Children Shakespeare,\u201d Ludwig said. \u201cI’ve studied [Shakespeare] all my life and loved it. Not studied it because it was a job. I just love it \u2026. \u2018Much Ado About Nothing\u2019 and ‘As You Like It\u2019 and \u2018Twelfth Night.\u2019 And \u2018A Midsummer Night’s Dream\u2019 may be the greatest comedy ever written. They\u2019re are so stirring and so moving. They change our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
About Ken Ludwig<\/p>\n
Ken Ludwig is an internationally acclaimed playwright whose work has been performed in more than 30 countries in over 20 languages. He has won two Laurence Olivier Awards, two Helen Hayes Awards, the Edgar Award, the SETC Distinguished Career Award, and the Edwin Forrest Award for Services to the Theatre. His plays have been commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Bristol Old Vic.<\/p>\n
Ludwig\u2019s first play on Broadway, \u201cLend Me A Tenor,\u201d won three Tony Awards and was nominated for nine. He\u2019s completed three dozen plays and has a number of others in various stages of development.<\/p>\n
Ludwig said he writes six to eight hours a day, seven days a week, a throwback to the days before \u201cLend Me a Tenor,\u201d when he\u2019d get up at 4 a.m., write until 8:30 and then suit up and go to his day job.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don’t think you can become a serious artist unless you work that hard,\u201d Ludwig maintained.<\/p>\n
Inspiration has never been a stumbling block.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always have more stories than I could possibly write,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s the easy part. But then after an idea comes to me, comes two months of sitting by myself with a pen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Literally. Ludwig writes everything longhand.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’ve got to decide what’s the community of the story. Where is it set? What part of the country? Who is involved? Does it reflect, because I’m such a Shakespeare guy, to what extent is the central character maybe a Much-Ado-About-Nothing kind of character, where they’re a couple who are in love but drive each other a little crazy, but ultimately find that their love for each other matters more than anything else. So, I’m always thinking, and it typically takes me about two months to come up with the story and the characters and the idea of what the plot is going to be. And then I sit down and write it.\u201d<\/p>\n
It generally takes Ludwig about four months to progress from idea to completed script. He\u2019ll do that twice each year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen the other four months of the year, I\u2019m traveling around the world to see the shows.\u201d<\/p>\n
His other best-known Broadway and West End shows include \u201cCrazy For You\u201d (five years on Broadway, Tony and Olivier award winner for Best Musical), \u201cMoon Over Buffalo,\u201d \u201cLady Molly of Scotland Yard\u201d (which made its world premiere in 2025 at Asolo Repertory Theatre in Sarasota), \u201cLeading Ladies,\u201d \u201cTwentieth Century,\u201d \u201cThe Adventures of Tom Sawyer,\u201d \u201cThe Game’s Afoot,\u201d \u201cThe Fox on the Fairway,\u201d \u201cMidsummer\/Jersey,\u201d \u201cThe Three Musketeers,\u201d \u201cTreasure Island\u201d and \u201cThe Beaux’ Stratagem.\u201d<\/p>\n
His plays have starred Alec Baldwin, Carol Burnett, Lynn Redgrave, Mickey Rooney, Hal Holbrook, Dixie Carter, Tony Shalhoub, Anne Heche, Joan Collins, and Kristin Bell.<\/p>\n
His book \u201cHow to Teach Your Children Shakespeare\u201d was published in June 2013 by Random House, and his work has been published by the Yale Review.<\/p>\n
Ludwig is a McCarter Theatre\/Sallie B. Goodman Fellow, and he has degrees from Harvard, where he studied music with Leonard Bernstein, Haverford College and Cambridge University.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just look at myself and go, I just got lucky,\u201d said Ludwig as the Sarasota interview drew to a close. \u201cI get to do exactly what I want. When I talk to kids, especially, and I get a chance to talk to high school groups or college groups, I say do what you love. You’ve got to do what you love. My father put it this way. If you wake up in the morning and you don’t look forward to going to work, you did something wrong, and you’ve got to go fix it. I get to do just what I love every day, and I hit the jackpot by luck.”<\/p>\n
Of course, luck is preparation meeting opportunity.<\/p>\n
Ken Ludwig is the epitome of preparation.<\/p>\n
For more information, visit www.kenludwig.com.<\/p>\n
Support for WGCU\u2019s arts & culture reporting comes from the Estate of Myra Janco Daniels, the Charles M. and Joan R. Taylor Foundation, and Naomi Bloom in loving memory of her husband, Ron Wallace.<\/p>\n
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