I haven't seen any discussion of this. It was announced earlier in the week that the Wilma Theater in Philadelphia will receive this year's Regional Tony Award. Surprisingly, it is the first Pennsylvania theater to receive the honor in the award's 45-year history.
The American Theatre Wing presents the award based on the recommendation of the American Theatre Critics Association.
The Wilma is probably best known these days as the company that premiered FAT HAM in 2021, leading to its Pulitzer Prize win. They have also had a long association with Tom Stoppard, having offered the American premieres of several of his plays, including THE INVENTION OF LOVE and THE HARD PROBLEM.
"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
Hometown Theater. So nice to see it get this award. It started out as "The Wilma Project" back in the 70's. They have worked with a lot of artists including Sondheim.
Growing up watching the Tony’s the regional was like popular places, never Philadelphia. Philly, my hometown, it feels like never gets the respect other cities do.