Paul Rudnick's latest comedy, Valhalla, will receive a two-week workshop at New York Theatre Workshop in late October and early November. Christopher Ashley, Rudnick's frequent artistic collaborator, will direct.

No casting has been announced.

NYTW was the home of the Rudnick comedy, The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told, which transferred to a brief commercial run Off-Broadway.

Valhalla's improbable double plot concerns King Ludwig I, the so called "Mad King" of Bavaria, and a contemporary white trash family in America. Ludwig's spendthrift ways and open obsession with 19th century temptress Lola Montez nearly brought his country to its knees. Ludwig was also a fervent patron of composer Richard Wagner and constructed many castles, including the famous "fairy tale castle" long used as Disney's logo. He drowned under suspicious circumstances, just days after being declared legally insane.

Ashley and Rudnick have worked together on Jeffrey, The Naked Truth, The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told and Rude Entertainment. Ashley's new staging of Seussical the Musical, on tour, has been earning solid reviews on the road. He also has the "new" Gershwin musical, Heaven on Earth, on his agenda for 2003. It's a reworking of 2001's They All Laughed!, seen at Goodspeed Opera House.

—By Robert Simonson