Lauren Gunderson plays?

I was recently researching most produced plays and playwrights and kept seeing Lauren Gunderson listed as one of the most produced playwrights.

This surprised me as I am not familiar with her or her plays. Are any of them a show that would work on Broadway? It looks like her most successful play off-broadway was "You & I", but she has published over 25 plays.

I've only seem/read a handful of her plays, but the ones I'm familiar with might be considered too "small" for Broadway. I could see Silent Sky working, perhaps as a vehicle for an up-and-coming star. I also wouldn't be surprised if the musical adaptation of I and You that's being workshopped is eyeing Broadway.

Agree. Gunderson is extremely prolific with her small cast plays that are easily mountable for community, high school, college and small regional theaters. They are generally not great - average, at best. The quality is off-Broadway substandard. But she is usually at the top of "most produced" lists. $ making, for her, due to amount of productions. Sitting through them is frustrating.

Updated On: 10/12/26 at 01:33 PM

RippedMan said: "Honestly this is the route I'm trying to, ha. Small, easy to digest, easy to produce. Smart."

Well, she's also a brilliant self-promoter. Loves to paint people who criticize her plays as elitists and often suggests her critics are misogynists. Hell, she was even able to downplay the fact that she and her (now-estranged) husband were mentioned in the Epstein files!

inlovewithjerryherman said: "Her success is also due in no small part to her (admittedly clever) milking of the Jane Austen stories. Austen-heads are everywhere and a major ticket buying audience - and audiences can only see Pride & Prejudice or Sense & Sensibility so many times before they tire of it…so the pitch is her giving them exactly what they want - original stories with the characters they love, with a post-modern feminist spin, that every regional theatre already has the costumes built for and sitting on their warehouses.

She wrote a whole trilogy of plays that surround the events of Pride & Prejudice that have all become massive hits regionally. I wouldn’t be surprised if she does a second trilogy surrounding Sense & Sensibility.

"


thanks for the info everyone! I honestly had never heard of this woman before!


Another writer that was on the lists is Kate Hamill who also seems to mainly do adaptations.


I know Broadway is just a microcosm of the theatre world and most of what I know is from Broadway and not regional or what schools are doing. I also want to be aware of women playwrights out there especially those who are unproduced / under the radar.

I remember enjoying The Book of Will, about the creation of the First Folio. I And You is also decent. Everything else I've read from her is kind of meh.

AC126748 said:

She's a mediocre playwright who's built a great niche career, writing plays that are endlessly and easily produceable. Small casts (usually one or two people), familiar plot lines, and usually a twist at the end -- often the same twist, which you'll know if you've seen more than one of her shows. A couple of her plays have been produced Off-Broadway without much fanfare, but she thrives in the regional theater ecosystem. A lot of her plays are very "Girlboss" too so they're attractive to companies that want to give their audiences some easily digestible feminism. That's how she's ended up regularly as the most produced living playwright.

AND


Well, she's also a brilliant self-promoter. Loves to paint people who criticize her plays as elitists and often suggests her critics are misogynists. Hell, she was even able to downplay the fact that she and her (now-estranged) husband were mentioned in the Epstein files!"



Sounds like you have some sort of personal beef with her?

CJRochester said: "I disagree with all the criticism. She is one of my favorite modern playwrights. A local professional theatre in my area has done three of her plays in recent years, Silent Sky, and two of the Jane Austen "Pemberly" offshoots. They were all well received.

I don't think they would be great for Broadway but they are fine for regional and community theatre. Silent Sky is a small cast, with a great role for one actress. The Pemberly stories have larger casts."

To be clear, I don't disagree with you. I think the Pemberly plays are great, especially MISS BENNET. I just bring them up as I think they are a major contributor to her massive success, and to go after Austen-heads I think is a bit cash-grabby, but hey - so is PARANORMAL ACTIVITY (which I also love).

As far as her other work, I'm not as familiar. I have read THE BOOK OF WILL which I found to be just fine.