Paul Rudnick Biography (1957-)

Rudnick knew he was gay by the time he went to Yale University, where he received a B. A. in theater.
PAUL RUDNICK (Playwright) plays have been produced both on and off Broadway and around the world.

This
is the eighty-third post in a series highlighting the best gay and
lesbian authors from the 20th century (with a few before and after that
period) who have recorded in fiction, and nonfiction, the history of gay
people telling what life is, and was, during an important time of
history.

Paul
Rudnick is a screenwriter of often successful comedies, and who, under
the pen name Libby Gelman-Waxner, wrote a long-running and popular
series of columns for Premiere magazine.

His  plays include
Valhalla, The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told, I Hate Hamlet and Jeffrey,
for which he won an Obie, an Outer Critics Circle Award and the John
Gassner Playwrighting Award. His novels are Social Disease and I'll Take
It, both published by Knopf. His articles and essays have appeared in
The New Yorker, Esquire, Vogue, Vanity Fair and The New York Times. His
screenplays include Addams Family Values, the screen adaptation of
Jeffrey and In & Out.

In 1996, Rudnick premiered The Naked
Eye, a comedy of manners that takes place at an exhibit of the
homoerotic, sexually explicit work of a contemporary photographer: a
funny Robert Mapplethorpe.

In 1998, Rudnick produced The Most
Fabulous Story Ever Told, a retelling of the Book of Genesis with
same-sex couples, Adam and Steve and Jane and Mabel. Rebutting the
fundamentalist Christian mantra that "God didn't make Adam and Steve,"
the play has had several productions by regional theaters.


Born
c. 1957, in Piscataway, NJ; son of Norman (a physicist) and Selma (a
publicist) Rudnick. Career: Screenwriter, songwriter, playwright,
novelist, and producer. Awards, Honors: Outer Critics Circle Award,
1983, forPoor Little Lambs; Obie Award, Village Voice, best playwriting,
Outer Critics Circle Award, and John Gassner Playwriting Award, 1994,
all for Jeffrey.



CREDITS
Film Appearances
The Celluloid Closet, 1995
Film Producer
(With others) Jeffrey, 1995
Television Appearances
Producer
Hi Honey--I'm Dead, 1991


WRITINGS
Plays
Poor Little Lambs, Theatre of St. Peter's Church, New York City, 1982
Cosmetic Surgery (one-act), Immediate Theatre Company, Chicago, IL, 1983
"Raving," in One-Act Play Marathon '84, Ensemble Studio Theatre, New York City, 1984
I Hate Hamlet, Walter Kerr Theatre, New York City, 1991published by Dramatists Play Service (New York City), 1992
Jeffrey, Works Progress Administration Theatre, New York City, 1992-93
The Naked Eye, American Repertory Theatre, Cambridge, MA, 1995-96
Author of The Naked Truth, 1994.
Screenplays
(Under pseudonym Joseph Howard; with Eleanor Bergstein, Jim Cash, Jack Epps, Jr., and others) Sister Act, Buena Vista, 1992
Addams Family Values, Paramount, 1993
Jeffrey (based on his play), Orion Classics, 1995
(Uncredited) The First Wives Club, 1996
In & Out, Paramount, 1997
Film Songs
In & Out, Paramount, 1997
Novels
Social Disease, Knopf, 1986
I'll Take It, Knopf, 1989
Other
Scriptwriter
for performers Lily Tomlin, Madonna, and Bette Midler; author of "If
You Ask Me," a column under the pseudonym Libby Gelman-Waxer, in
Premiere, 1989--; contributor to periodicals, including Interviewand
Vogue.