What shows do you think will be finalists for the 2016 Pulitzer? I know obviously Hamilton has a great shot at winning but what else from this year has been worthy? Perhaps Gloria?
It's too early to tell, as they award the Pulitzers for the 2015 year in April 2016 and it's not yet August, therefore we have 5 months of plays to consider.
I don't know why people constantly feel the need to make one show better than the other. Fun Home and Hamilton are both important; we have an abundance of riches at the moment and I feel sorry for those of you who can't appreciate that. That said, Hamilton is a masterful work about the American experiment and it is no surprise it is a lock for the Pulitzer.
I don't think there's a need to compare two radically different pieces of theater as well. I just happen to favor one over the other. I however am not saying that Hamilton isn't a masterful piece of theater, because I'm sure once I see it, I'll completely understand the Pulitzer hype.
I really hope the smug, overrated Gloria isn't a finalist, but I fear it will be. It's been imbued with an unearned sense of importance by Ben Brantley when it's really just a shabby little shocker. (God, I sound like After Eight this morning).
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
I'm not so sure Gloria will be a finalist. The committee didn't even choose An Octoroon as a finalist, when IMO it should have won the prize. They aren't BJJ fans.
It's very difficult to predict what the committee will choose. That being said, I would be shocked if Hamilton were not a finalist / the winner next year. As of now, I don't think there's anything else- play or musical- that can compare or lines up with the award's mission as well.
"...everyone finally shut up, and the audience could enjoy the beginning of the Anatevka Pogram in peace."
"I'm not so sure Gloria will be a finalist. The committee didn't even choose An Octoroon as a finalist, when IMO it should have won the prize. They aren't BJJ fans."
An Octoroon is a complicated work, whereas Gloria is more straightforward in its intentions, which is why I think it might fare better with the Pulitzer committee. It also deals with issues that might be appealing to the committee.
Like others have said, I put Hamilton in the "glaring front-runner" category.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
"The Pulitzer Prize community usually goes with something way less obvious, while the frontrunners usually get nominated."
Define "usually". More often than not, an obvious choice wins. This is particularly true with plays and musicals that transcend popularity and relevance within the theater community and experience a moment of cultural relevance -- and Hamilton is certainly in that category. Think of August: Osage County, Doubt, Rent, Proof, Angels in America, etc., in this category.
Honestly, since 2000, I would argue there have only been two total surprise, out of left field winners: Anna in the Tropics and Water by the Spoonful, both of which won before they'd received a New York production.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body