Paul Rudnick

Paul Rudnick (born December 29, 1957) is an American novelist, playwright, screenwriter, and essayist. His plays have been produced on and off Broadway. He wrote the screenplays for ''Sister Act'', ''Addams Family Values'', ''Jeffrey'', and '' In & Out''. Rudnick also wrote film criticism under the pseudonym Libby Gelman-Waxner.

Early life

Rudnick was born and raised in a Jewish family in Piscataway, New Jersey. His mother, Selma, was a publicist, and his father, Norman, was a physicist. He attended Piscataway High School and earned a bachelor's degree from Yale University in 1977. Afterward, he moved to New York.

Plays and novels

Rudnick's first play was ''Poor Little Lambs'', a comedy about a female Yale student's attempt to join The Whiffenpoofs, an all-male singing group. Produced in 1982, the play's cast featured Kevin Bacon, Bronson Pinchot, and Blanche Baker. Rudnick's first novel, ''Social Disease'', a satire of New York nightlife, was released in 1986.

In the late 1980s, Rudnick moved into the top floor of a Greenwich Village brownstone, which had once been the 1920s home of the actor John Barrymore. This move inspired Rudnick's play, ''I Hate Hamlet'', about a young TV star who is visited by the ghost of Barrymore before acting in a production of ''Hamlet''. The play was produced on Broadway and gained attention when Nicol Williamson, the actor playing Barrymore, reportedly began attacking his co-star during a dueling scene.

From December 31, 1992, to February 14, 1993 Rudnick's show ''Jeffrey,'' a comedy about AIDS, ran at the WPA Theatre in New York City. It was then transferred to the larger Off-Broadway Minetta Lane Theatre, running from March 6, 1993, to January 16, 1994. Rudnick received acclaim for ''Jeffrey'', winning an Obie Award, an Outer Critics Circle Award, and the John Gassner Playwrighting Award for the same work.

Rudnick's later plays included ''The Naked Truth'' (1994, subsequently revised and rereleased as The Naked Eye in 1996), which depicted a photographer similar to Robert Mapplethorpe, and in 1998, ''The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told'', inspired by the homophobic remark, "God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve." In Rudnick's adaptation of the Bible, God makes Adam and Steve, along with the first lesbians, Jane and Mabel. While the play faced criticism from religious groups, it was still picked up for a commercial run.

Rudnick also wrote ''Valhalla'', which entwined the lives of a World War II soldier from Texas with Ludwig, the Mad King of Bavaria; ''Regrets Only'', a drawing room comedy starring Christine Baranski and George Grizzard; and ''The New Century'', a collection of related one-acts produced at the Lincoln Center, for which the actress Linda Lavin won a Drama Desk Award.

Rudnick has contributed two pieces, ''The Gay Agenda'' and ''My Husband'', to the Off-Broadway anthology ''Standing on Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays''. ''My Husband'' was released by Playing on Air as a radio play for podcasting and public radio, featuring Michael Urie and Harriet Harris, directed by Claudia Weill.

In September 2017, Rudnick's play ''Big Night'' opened at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Los Angeles, where it played until October. Wendie Malick starred in this Oscar-themed tragicomedy, which was described as "an often amusing but mostly muddled ensemble piece."

Screenwriting

Rudnick has worked as an uncredited script doctor on films including ''The Addams Family'' and ''The First Wives Club''. He was credited under the pseudonym "Joseph Howard" for his work on ''Sister Act'', which was originally intended for Bette Midler. The screenplay went through many revisions and was re-fashioned for Whoopi Goldberg. At the time, Rudnick refused to have his real name associated with the script. He received sole writing credit for ''Addams Family Values'', '' In & Out'', and the screen version of his play ''Jeffrey''.

Rudnick's later screenwriting works included ''Isn't She Great'' and the 2004 remake of ''The Stepford Wives''. His script, ''Coastal Elites'', a socially distanced film about the COVID-19 pandemic, began airing on HBO in September 2020.

Other writings

In 2011, HarperCollins published ''I Shudder'', a collection of autobiographical essays Rudnick wrote. Since 1998, Rudnick has contributed over fifty short humor pieces to ''The New Yorker,'' his work appearing in the collections ''Fierce Pajamas'' and ''Disquiet, Please''.

In 1988, Rudnick began producing satirical film criticism for ''Premiere'' magazine. He wrote from the perspective of a married woman, Libby Gelman-Waxner, who lived in Manhattan. A collection of these columns was published in 1994 under the title ''If You Ask Me''. Rudnick (as Libby) resumed writing a monthly column for ''Entertainment Weekly'' in 2011 and occasionally contributes reviews to ''The New Yorker''.

Rudnick's first young adult novel, ''Gorgeous'', was published by Scholastic in 2013. ''Publishers Weekly'' stated in a review that the book included "writing that's hilarious, profane and profound (often within a single sentence)." Scholastic also published Rudnick's second young adult novel, ''It's All Your Fault'', which Booklist called "A laugh-out-loud, irreverent tale built on as much snarkiness as sweetness. A riotously good read."

Berkley published his novel, ''Playing the Palace'', in May 2021.

In 2023, Simon & Schuster published Rudnick's novel, ''Farrell Covington and the Limits of Style''. ''Publishers Weekly'' described the book as "dazzling and funny" in a review. His novel ''What Is Wrong With You?'' was published by Simon & Schuster in March 2025.

Personal life

Rudnick has been in a long-term relationship with his partner, John Raftis, since 1993. Their partnership is often reflected in Rudnick's work, which celebrates LGBTQ+ themes and relationships.

Bibliography

Plays and musicals

* ''Poor Little Lambs'' (1982)
* ''I Hate Hamlet'' (1991)
* ''Jeffrey'' (1993)
* ''The Naked Truth'' (1994)
* ''The Naked Eye'' (1996)
* ''The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told'' (1998)
* ''Rude Entertainment'' (2001)
* ''Valhalla'' (2004)
* ''Regrets Only'' (2006)
* ''The New Century'' (2008)
* ''Standing on Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays'' (2011)
* ''Big Night'' (2017)

Novels

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* ''It's All Your Fault.'' Scholastic Press. 2016.
* ''Playing the Palace.'' Berkley. 2021.
* ''Farrell Covington and the Limits of Style.'' Atria Books. 2023.

Memoirs

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Essays and reporting

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* Online version is titled "Taylor Swift and your taxes".
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* Online version is titled "The Gaydar of Modern Science".
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References

External links

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Internet Broadway Database

New Plays And Playwrights
- ''Working in the Theatre Seminar'' video at American Theatre Wing January 2004

"Room To Work"
nymag.com. Accessed February 24, 2024.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rudnick, Paul
1957 births
20th-century American dramatists and playwrights
20th-century American novelists
21st-century American dramatists and playwrights
21st-century American novelists
Living people
American male screenwriters

The New Yorker people
People from Piscataway, New Jersey
Piscataway High School alumni
Jewish American dramatists and playwrights
American male novelists
American male dramatists and playwrights
Obie Award recipients
20th-century American male writers
21st-century American male writers
Screenwriters from New Jersey
Writers from Middlesex County, New Jersey
Yale College alumni
Gay Jews
American LGBTQ screenwriters
20th-century pseudonymous writers
21st-century pseudonymous writers
21st-century American Jews