The winners for the 2017 Pulitzer Prizes were announced, and Lynn Nottage has claimed the Drama prize for her new play “Sweat.” With Tony nominations just a few weeks away, will this kudos give the play’s odds a bump?
“Sweat” began its New York life at the Public Theater Off-Broadway. After a sold out and critically acclaimed limited run, it transferred to Studio 54 on Broadway. It has continued to wow critics in its new home. The culturally relevant play focuses on a group of factory workers in a rural Philadelphia town during 2000 and 2008. Nottage explores the rising economic fears and racial tensions as factories close their doors.
This marks the second Pulitzer Prize win for Nottage, who also won this award for “Ruined” in 2009. That dramatic work examined the lives of women in the Democratic Republic of the Congo during a civil war. Nottage is now just the 8th playwright with multiple Pulitzer Prizes for Drama. To find the most recent example you will have go all the way back to 1990, when August Wilson claimed his Pulitzer for “The Piano Lesson.” He had previously won for “Fences.”
Producers for “Sweat” are surely celebrating and making up some new marquee signage to tout the surprise win. The show is about to enter a heated Tony race for Best Play, where it faces off against “Oslo,” “Indecent,” “Significant Other,” “The Play That Goes Wrong,” The Encounter,” “Heisenberg,” “Oh, Hello” and “The Present.” Any bump in prestige and/or press will be welcome.
The other two finalists for the Drama prize were: “The Wolves” by Sarah DeLappe and “A 24-Decade History of Popular Music” by Taylor Mac. Both productions played to much acclaim Off-Broadway earlier this season. Though they didn’t win, their citations are still just as impressive: “The Wolves” is DeLappe’s first play, and by my count Taylor Mac is the first genderqueer playwright to be recognized by the Pulitzers. Not too shabby.
