Moguls, mistresses and the 'midsummer' movie: Washington, D.C.(Front and center)

The ambitious playwright Ken Ludwig (Lend Me a Tenor and Moon Over Buffalo) has a busy schedule these days. Two of his plays--Twentieth Century, his adaptation of the Ben Hecht/Charles MacArthur comedy set on the titular train, and a bright new comedy called Shakespeare in Hollywood--are running through Oct. 19, the former at Signature Theatre in Arlington, Va., and the latter at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. And his Leading Ladies, in which two actors use cross-dressing as a gambit to win an inheritance, debuts next season at Cleveland Play House. Ludwig also has a musical in ...