The Prizewinners & Nominated Finalists
will be announced on April 16.
will be announced on April 16.
"Last year at this time, as Playbill was polling theatre pundits about possible recipients of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, many assumed that Jon Robin Baitz’s widely praised family drama Other Desert Cities was the obvious front-runner. But Lincoln Center Theatre shook its head at the suggestion. The production did not officially open at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theatre until January 2011 (previews began in December 2010), and was thus not eligible for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Pulitzer rules clearly stated, "Productions opening in the United States between Jan. 1, 2010 and Dec. 31, 2010 are eligible." A year has passed — the 2012 Pulitzers and finalists in a number of literary and journalistic divisions get announced April 16 — and now it looks like it may now be Robbie's turn. (Baitz is known to his intimates by that diminutive.)
And, as luck would have it, the play is still running. Other Desert Cities transferred to Broadway on Nov. 3, 2011, where it still plays. So if the Pulitzer jurors (who make the recommendations) and the Pulitzer judges (who choose the winner) want to refresh their memory as to the quality of the script, they have ready access to the living, breathing premiere production. Remember what a last-minute visit by the judges to the un-recommended Next to Normal did to the 2010 race?
Should Baitz win, the honor will be long in coming for the one-time golden boy of the American theatre. The dramatist's talent has been critically praised since The Film Society bowed in 1987. But, a quarter century and a dozen plays later, his career has been more roller-coaster that steady incline. The closest he came to the Pulitzer was in 1996, when A Fair Country, one of Baitz's best-regarded plays, was a finalist for the prize. Other Desert Cities is, in fact, the first Broadway play for Baitz, who is now 50.Nearly every one of the dozen critics, press agents and pundits who were polled for this article assumed Other Desert Cities was running well ahead of the pack. And those who didn't assume that thought the play had been eligible in 2011. As one observer commented,
'The more interesting guessing game [this year] is who will the finalists be.'"
-Robert Simonson, PLAYBILL.
THE PULITZER & MUSICALS
I love that the category is categorized as DRAMA (as opposed to differentiating between plays & musicals). Plays largely dominate the winner’s circle, but 8 musicals have had their own deserving moments in the sun (on average 1-per-decade between the 1930s and 2000s). The musical nominations seem somewhat random. RAGTIME warranted one. I am reluctant to admit (and have never actually seen it), but THE LION KING seemed as revolutionary as RENT [but less heart-breaking].
OUR MUSICAL REPRESENTATIVES:
2010: Next to Normal*
1996: RENT
1976: A Chorus Line
1960: Fiorello!
1950: South Pacific
1932: Of Thee I Sing*
* = did not win the Tony. However, the Tony Awards didn’t exist when Of Thee I sing premiered, so…
P.S. How did Sunday in the Park win a Pulitzer & not a Tony? It's a DISGRACE.
P.P.S. How did How to Succeed win a Pulitzer? Maybe the subject matter was revolutionary at the time, but the quality of work doesn't seem all that exceptional. Hmmm...sounds similar to the Pulitzer decision in 1996.
MY PERSONAL PULITZER UPSETS
Angels in America: Millennium Approaches [1993] by Tony Kushner. It is brilliant & really did change the world, but was also in contention against Anna Deavere Smith’s Fires in the Mirror. I understand this was a year of stiff competition & know Angels is America was well deserving of the award, but Fires in the Mirror is my very favorite script ever.
I will always feel that Ms. Smith was robbed.
Anna in the Tropics [2003] by Nilo Cruz. To be honest, I am not all-that familiar with this script & it probably ruled; however, I am in love with the two scripts that it beat out [The Goat or Who Is Sylvia by Edward Albee & Take Me Out by Richard Greenberg]. The Goat is so innovative & eternally contemporary; Edward Albee is a prince among playwrights & this is one of my favorite scripts (Remy Bumppo did a perfect production last year that reinforced my love). Take Me Out is a smart script & with the cleverest pun of a title. The play was originally produced at the Donmar Warehouse in London (an tiny, impeccable theatre that has excellent taste in script selection; I saw it performed at Philadelphia Theatre Company in 2010 (an awesome regional theatre that has excellent taste in interns). I have a weird appreciation for the marriage/infusion of sports & theatre…it is such a strange but complimentary opposition of ideas that I have never seen fail.
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