“Gleefully wacky and irreverent.”

–The New York Times

“Line by line, Mr. Rudnick may be the funniest writer for the stage in the United States today.”

–The New York Times

“Deeply funny musings and adventures elevate Paul Rudnick to the highest level of American comedy writing.”

–Steve Martin

“One of the funniest quip-meisters on the planet.”

–The New York Times

“Paul Rudnick is a champion of truth (and love and great wicked humor) whom we ignore at our peril.”

–David Sedaris

“Quips fall with the regularity of the autumn leaves.”

–Associated Press

March 23, 2014

One Degree Of Kevin Bacon

This clip has been all over the web: it’s Kevin Bacon reprising his dance from Footloose on
Jimmy Fallon.

Right before Kevin shot Footloose he appeared off-broadway
in my first play, called Poor Little Lambs. The play was
about the Yale Whiffenpoofs and Kevin was cast as the studliest
guy in the singing group. He was a joy to work with
and a terrific actor. I especially remember his soulful
rendition of a poem his character wrote called “I, A Guy.”

Kevin was also, of course, effortlessly cool. We were
having a cast party where everyone was eating triscuits
and drinking wine out of plastic cups and I turned to
find that Cher was standing next to me. She had a crush
on Kevin but he was otherwise involved, and he was a
very loyal and honorable person.

At one point in the play all of the male characters
appeared in drag, which was a Whiffenpoof tradition,
and Kevin was a demure vision in peach chiffon ruffles,
as designed by William Ivey Long.

The play was given a great production directed by
Jack Hofsiss and the cast featured such wonderful actors
as Albert Macklin, Miles Chapin, Bronson Pinchot, and
Gedde Watanabe. The play itself was a very early effort
and a wake-up call: the writing was lacking, and working
with such talented people made me realize that I had a
very long way to go, if I ever really wanted to become
a writer.

Blognick