The Fox on the Fairway is a comedy

Comedy

Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...

 by Ken Ludwig

Ken Ludwig

Ken Ludwig is an American playwright and theatre director.Born in York, Pennsylvania, Ludwig was educated at the York Suburban Senior High School, York PA Haverford College , Harvard Law School, and Trinity College at Cambridge University...

 that was first produced in 2010.

Plot summary

Bingham, president of the Quail Valley Country Club, is in a difficult position, less by finding out that his newly hired hand, Justin, is in love with Louise, the waitress at the club house, but by the discovery that the golfer he thought would play for his club has switched sides recruited by his counterpart and opponent, the cocky and arrogant Dickie, and the huge bet he had foolishly wagered is now likely to be lost. Fortunately, he discovers that Justin is actually quite a good golfer and finagles his nomination. Justin does not disappoint and has a huge lead, when close to its end the tournament is interrupted by bad weather. When Justin learns that Louise has lost the engagement ring he gave her - she accidentally flushed it down the toilet - he becomes unglued. The game resumes the next day, but Justin looses the lead, and, upset, takes an unfortunate swing breaking his arm. Bingham is desperate, and the appearance of his wife complicates the matter, as she catches him much too close to Pamela, his sex-starved vice-president. Can Bingham find a replacement for Justin to win the game, win the wager, and get his life in order?

Productions and reviews

The play has been touted as a "Ludwig's tribute to the great English farces of the 1930s and 1940s". At its 2010 debut at the Signature Theatre, Arlington, Virginia, Peter Marks found the plot mechanical and the play too full of "shamelessly recycled sex, sports and alcohol jokes."
Paul Harris called it a "a manic race to the intellectual depths propelled by a nonsensical tale of greed, love and stupidity." The second production, in 2011 at the George Street Playhouse

George Street Playhouse

George Street Playhouse is a theatre in New Brunswick, New Jersey, one of the state's preeminent professional theatres committed to the production of new and established plays....

, New Brunswick, New Jersey

New Brunswick, New Jersey

New Brunswick is a city in Middlesex County, New Jersey, USA. It is the county seat and the home of Rutgers University. The city is located on the Northeast Corridor rail line, southwest of Manhattan, on the southern bank of the Raritan River. At the 2010 United States Census, the population of...

, received a more positive reaction by the critics. Michael Summers found "plenty of bright spots", although he also bemoaned a mechanical plot.
Peter Filichia described it as "phenomenally funny" and thought it better than Ludwig's Lend Me a Tenor

Lend Me a Tenor

Lend Me a Tenor is a comedy by Ken Ludwig. The play was produced on both the West End and Broadway . Although it received seven Tony Award nominations, it won only one, for Best Actor. A Broadway revival opened in 2010. Lend Me a Tenor has been translated into sixteen languages and produced in...

.