When it came to solving life's prickly dilemmas, Ann Landers had an answer for everything. But the famed Chicago newspaper advice columnist had nowhere to turn for help with problems of her own.

That's the premise of "The Lady With All the Answers," David Rambo's play opening Saturday in its world premiere at the Old Globe. The one-woman drama starring Tony-winning actress Randy Graff depicts Landers at the peak of her popularity in 1975, when personal issues were making it difficult for her to meet her daily deadlines.

Ann Landers was the pen name used for 48 years by Esther "Eppie" Lederer, who took over the Chicago Sun-Times advice column in 1955 and continued writing it until her death from cancer three years ago at the age of 83. Her syndicated column reached more than 90 million readers each day in more than 1,200 newspapers worldwide.

While Landers helped solve millions of readers' problems over the years, she dealt alone with her own personal struggles, including a divorce from Budget Rent-a-Car founder Jules Lederer in the mid-1970s and a tumultuous relationship with her twin sister, Pauline Phillips. Pauline followed her twin into the advice column business, creating the Abigail Van Buren/"Dear Abby" column that competed head-to-head with "Ann Landers" for decades. Today, the Ann Landers column is no more, but "Dear Abby" continues under the direction of Pauline's daughter, Jeanne Phillips.

Although most Americans are familiar with the Ann Landers column, few know the woman behind the words. That's what inspired Rambo (author of the play "God's Man in Texas" and a staff writer for the top-rated television series "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation") to write "The Lady With All the Answers." During script rewrites a few weeks ago, Rambo talked about the play:

Q: What gave you the idea to write about Ann Landers?

A: It occurred to me as I was reading her obituary in 2002. She started the column the year I was born and by the time I was a teenager, she was in full swing. I looked forward to reading her every day. That was during a socially turbulent time in the 1960s and '70s and she was always at the forefront of issues. The more I read about her, the more interested I was in her connection with the readers.

Q: How did you secure the rights for the Ann Landers story?

A: I decided early on that if we couldn't use her actual columns and her own words, it wouldn't be worth doing. I contacted her daughter, Margo Howard, and after we spoke, she felt she could trust me with it. She has been wonderful, generous and cooperative, and she will be at the opening.

Q: How much of the play is fact and how much is fiction?

A: The device we use to set up the play is fictional because I didn't want to have the actor saying 'and then I wrote, and then I thought.' I wanted to build the play on the image of the author as an artist. The audience is the other side of the conversation, the same way her readers were the other half of Ann's dialogue. We use a lot of letters and comments she made and wrote at different times about her life. When Margo read the script, she said I'd captured her mother's voice and I feel very good about that.

Q: What do you mean by her "voice"?

A: Eppie Lederer grew up in Sioux City, Iowa, which is not a hotbed of liberal, progressive thought, but her childhood gave her strong core values from which she never deviated. She changed her position on issues over the years, but her core values never changed.

Q: Was there anything you came across in your research of Ann Landers that surprised you?

A: I was surprised to learn how early in the game she stood up for what she believed in and thought was right. She created the advice genre and she made it relevant. She had heads of state calling her for personal advice. Even (President) Johnson called her for advice on how he could end the war in Vietnam. She actually went to Vietnam in 1968 because she hated the war and she wanted to see for herself what was really happening. She spent 12 days visiting the wounded soldiers in the hospitals and talking to them. She got dressed up and put on perfume every day so she could look and smell nice for these men, and she wouldn't leave until she'd talked to every last patient.

Q: Your play "God's Man in Texas" was successful in its 2000 run at the Old Globe's Cassius Carter Centre Stage (theater-in-the-round). Is that why you chose the same theater for the world premiere of "The Lady With All the Answers"?

A: I love that theater. The first play I ever saw was at the Old Globe. It was "Full Gallop" and it was a one-woman play about Diana Vreeland. So when I thought about creating a one-woman biographical play, I immediately thought of the Globe, and I decided to contact Jack O'Brien (the Globe's longtime artistic director).

Q: What else are you working on now?

A: I'm not sleeping much. I'm really busy writing for "CSI." My house in L.A. is 10 minutes from the Universal Studios lot, which is a great place to throw ideas around. We call it the 'murder factory.' I also have a new play opening in late February in San Francisco called "The Ice Breaker." It's a two-character play I wrote three years ago before "The Lady With All the Answers," and it's finally making it to the stage as well. It's great having a swell job in TV and seeing my plays produced in the theater.