Playwright and author Ken Ludwig has scored big with hit productions of his works both around the world and right here in Sarasota. Asolo Rep entertained audiences with his Gershwin musical Crazy for You and his adaptations of The Three Musketeers and Murder on the Orient Express, and, more recently, Florida Studio Theatre presented the deeply personal Dear Jack, Dear Louise, which was based on the World War II correspondence between his parents before they married. Now Ludwig is back in town for the world premiere at Asolo Rep of Lady Molly of Scotland Yard. 

The show—which runs Jan. 24-Feb. 8, with previews Jan. 17-23—is a free-wheeling adaptation inspired by short stories by Baroness Orczy, best known as the creator of that dashing hero with a secret identity, the Scarlet Pimpernel. Ludwig warns audiences not to expect strict adherence to the Baroness’ writing.

“I saw in an introduction to The Scarlet Pimpernel that she had written the book Lady Molly of Scotland Yard, and I thought, ‘What a good title,’” says Ludwig, who lives in Washington, D.C. “I tracked the book down—it was out of print—and read it, and, frankly, this play is not based on that book at all. The short stories were all right, but I wouldn’t recommend that everyone run out to get them.”

Ludwig moved the Baroness’ characters to 1940s London, when Nazi bombs are falling and Molly and her partner, Peg, have a chance to both solve a murder at the Savoy Hotel and aid the British war effort via a top-secret code-breaking operation at Bletchley Park, where the two go undercover as cryptographers.

“I love to read about World War II, and I’d been dying to find a way to write and set a story in that time,” Ludwig says. “The notion that Winston Churchill’s life is in danger, and these two wonderful women who are detectives, working for Scotland Yard, save the day, was a way in.”

Ludwig has nothing but high praise for the Asolo Rep creative team who have worked with him on past shows, and he’s gotten to know Sarasota better through them. “They know what they’re doing at the Asolo, and this whole community is so artistic,” he says. “I got to know [former Asolo producing artistic director] Michael Donald Edwards and when I wrote Lady Molly, I thought this would be a good place to open it.” At the time, Edwards was about to retire, but his successor, Peter Rothstein, was just as amenable to presenting the premiere here. In fact, he’s directing it.

Ludwig describes Lady Molly as both a comedy and a thriller. “I say that with great pride,” he adds with a laugh, “as I don’t tend to write mysteries. I got hooked on them by writing the Agatha Christie adaptations. I love dramas with action in them that are tremendously entertaining.”

At 74, Ludwig has a work ethic anyone might admire, writing at least six to seven hours a day—every day. If he’s not writing, chances are it’s because he’s involved in the rehearsal process of a piece he’s already completed, as he’s doing with Lady Molly.

“When I have a new show opening, I’m very involved, because I want it to turn out well,” he says. “I’m usually there for the first four days of rehearsal, then I disappear so that the actors and director don’t have me breathing down their necks. Then I rejoin after about two weeks and I’m there for all the final rehearsals and previews. I rewrite during previews like mad, because I can hear the audience reaction, and sometimes you go, ‘My God, this doesn’t work.’”

Given how prolific Ludwig is, it’s no surprise that he is writing new plays even as he’s busy helping stage others. He’s recently written a comedy set in a retirement community, a concept that sounds ripe for a Sarasota premiere, and has completed a musical using the catalog of composer and songwriter Irving Berlin. He’s also focused on a new Gershwin musical and a farce set in the world of Shakespeare. For now, though, it’s time to travel to World War II-era London, where the game, as Sherlock Holmes would say, is afoot.

Lady Molly of Scotland Yard runs Jan. 24-Feb. 8 at the FSU Center for the Performing Arts, 5555 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota. For more info and tickets, call the box office at (941) 351-8000 or visit asolorep.org. Read our review here.