Rudnick's first play was "Poor Little Lambs", a comedy about a female Yale student's attempt to join The Whiffenpoofs, an all-male singing group. The play's cast included the young Kevin Bacon, Bronson Pinchot, and Blanche Baker. Rudnick then wrote two novels: "Social Disease", a satiric tale of New York nightlife in the vein of Evelyn Waugh's "Vile Bodies", and "I'll Take It", which was a tribute to Rudnick's mother and aunts and their passionate love of shopping. The "Chicago Tribune" called the book "absolutely hysterical", and "The Boston Globe" termed it "Flat out hilarious. Sort of what I imagine P. G. Wodehouse would have written after spending some time in Bloomingdale's."