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The Theatrical Life and Times of Charles Ludlam
Applause Books
February 2005
On Sale: February 1, 2005
Featuring: Charles Ludlam
500 pages
ISBN: 155783637X
EAN: 9781557836373
Paperback
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Non-Fiction Biography
From his first unscripted appearance on an Off-Broadway
stage in the revolutionary 1960s to the frontpage news of
his death from AIDS in 1987 at age 44, Charles Ludlam
embodied - and helped to engender - the upheavals of his
time. The astonishing life and legacy of this force to be
reckoned with are at last revealed in RIDICULOUS!, a
literary biography of an American comic genius. After founding the Ridiculous Theatrical Company in 1967,
Ludlam sustained an ever-shifting troupe of bohemian players
through two decades of perennially daunting circumstances by
writing 29 plays - plays that he starred in and directed as
well. While Ludlam's work has become increasingly popular at
regional theatres, on college campuses, and on stages
throughout the world, his gender-bending theories and
wide-ranging cultural impact have reached far beyond Bette
Midler, the original cast members of Saturday Night Live and
the countless other artists he influenced during his
abbreviated lifetime. Like his early plays, Ludlam's life was rife with the sex,
drugs and creative experimentation that characterized the
freewheeling '60s and '70s. Based on a decade of research and interviews with more than
150 people who knew or worked with Ludlam - including all of
the major players in his troupe and seven of his lovers -
RIDICULOUS! recreates the dramatic life of an inimitable and
subversive theatrical master with you-are-there intensity. Winner of the LAMBDA Literary Award for Biography and the
Theatre Library Association Award for Outstanding Theatre
Book of the Year "David Kaufman makes a persuasive case for Ludlam's being a
genius ... As a record of Ludlam's life and the theatrical
world in which he was both guru and grandmaster, this book
is informed and passionate." - Mel Gussow, The New York Times "A fascinating portrait of an authentic stage genius and the
New York avant-garde scene in which he toiled with such
demented and dedicated diligence." - Playbill "The phenom who inspired everyone from Bette Midler and
Madeline Kahn to Tony Kushner and Paul Rudnick was no box of
chocolates - which, as reading experiences go, makes his
story all the sweeter." - Vanity Fair "This is one helluva piece of work." - Marilyn Stasio,
Variety.com
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