Ken Ludwig

Last month, audiences at Washington's Arena Stage got to see the world premiere of Shakespeare in Hollywood, Ken Ludwig's sparkling take on the filming of Max Reinhardt's 1935 movie A Midsummer Night's Dream. Now Washington's Shakespeare Theatre is offering the inspiration for Ludwig's play and Reinhardt's movie. Mark Lamos, former longtime artistic director of Connecticut's Hartford Stage, is staging a production of Midsummer that emphasizes the theme of change. In keeping with this, designer Leiko Fuseya has created a set that deliberately muddies the boundaries between Athens and the forest, the real and the unreal.

Be a junior scientist Check out the Be a Junior Scientist event from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday at the National Aquarium. Children can study shark behaviors in the galleries with aquarium staff and handle live animals, going behind the scenes to learn how these fearsome underwater predators are cared for. A tour of the Rain Forest exhibit will complete the morning. The program is suitable for children ages 8-10 and does not include admission. The aquarium is at 501 E. Pratt St., Baltimore.

A hit since it opened on Broadway in 1989, Ken Ludwig's Lend Me A Tenor continues to entertain in Anne Arundel Community College's Moonlight Troupers' production that opened last weekend at the school's Pascal Center for Performing Arts. Tenor tells the story of a world-famous Italian singer, Tito Merelli, who is engaged by Cleveland Opera to open its season with a performance of Verdi's Otello. Unconcerned about keeping 1,000 opera fans waiting, Tito decides to rest after his angry wife, Maria, threatens to leave him over his womanizing.

Halfway into the first act of "Crazy for You" -- the "new" Gershwin musical playing a pre-Broadway run at Washington's National Theatre -- there's a scene set in a dilapidated theater. "All we have to do to save this place is just put on a show," the hero says in true cornball fashion.Cornball or not, that dusty theater and its glorious transformation could be a metaphor for the effect "Crazy for You" is likely to have on the current musical-deficient Broadway season: This giddy throwback to boy-meets-girl, wide-eyed optimism looks like just what's needed to resuscitate the grand old American musical comedy.

Ken Ludwig's comedy "Lend Me a Tenor" will open tomorrow and run on weekends through March 12 at Paragon Theatre, tucked away at 1397 Generals Highway in Crownsville at Trifles Restaurant. This 65-seat dinner theater offers full-service dining with a choice of three appetizers and entrees as well as dessert and coffee. Bar service is also available in this attractive setting with exceptional cuisine. Most important, the room works well for the enjoyment of intimate theater. "Lend Me a Tenor" opened on Broadway in March 1989 and ran for more than a year, winning two Tonys and many other awards.

The U.S. Naval Academy's Commissioning Week signals the start of summer in Annapolis, with this year's commencement set for May 28 - the same date another harbinger of summer, Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre, begins its season. Across from City Dock at 143 Compromise St., the 200-seat courtyard theater is on the site of the city's Colonial-era blacksmith shop, where two weeks ago art luminaries gathered to celebrate Summer Garden's 39th season. On Thursdays through Sundays at 8:30 p.m. from May 28 to Sept.

Ken Ludwig's comedy "Lend Me a Tenor" will open tomorrow and run on weekends through March 12 at Paragon Theatre, tucked away at 1397 Generals Highway in Crownsville at Trifles Restaurant. This 65-seat dinner theater offers full-service dining with a choice of three appetizers and entrees as well as dessert and coffee. Bar service is also available in this attractive setting with cuisine that reflects an exotic mix of cultures. Most important, the room works well for the enjoyment of intimate theater.

"I think I love the theater more than anything in the whole world," a character says in the opening scene of Ken Ludwig's Leading Ladies. Judging from his predilection for backstage comedies and plays-within-plays, that statement also applies to Ludwig, who has made the theater the backdrop for previous works including Shakespeare in Hollywood, Moon Over Buffalo, the musical Crazy for You and Lend Me a Tenor. (OK, the backdrop for that one is opera.) Ludwig is equally fond of such comedic devices as cross-dressing, coincidence and double entendres, all of which show up in Leading Ladies, at Washington's Ford's Theatre.

The producers of "Crazy for You" originally intended to revive the 1930 Gershwin musical, "Girl Crazy." But as is evident from the exuberant production of "Crazy for You" that opened at the Lyric Opera House last night, they ended up with much more.For starters, this extremely loose "Girl Crazy" adaptation has a delightful new book by Ken Ludwig, who improved on the 1930 story by Guy Bolton and John McGowan by retaining the period flavor while adding a spunky let's-put-on-a-show plot line.

Photos by Bud Johnsonspecial to the sun Colonial Players subscribes to the showbiz adage "leave 'em laughing" as the company on East Street closes this season with Moon Over Buffalo. Tony-award winner Ken Ludwig set his comedy in 1953 in Buffalo's Erlanger Theatre, where nearly-washed-up actors George and Charlotte Hay are performing an alternating schedule of Cyrano de Bergerac and Private Lives. The couple learns that legendary film director Frank Capra is coming to Buffalo to catch their performance and perhaps offer George a job. George may miss his last chance at stardom because he has a drinking problem.