Odd Pulitzer Winners
Odd Pulitzer Winners
Alex Kulak2
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/11/16
#1Odd Pulitzer Winners
Posted: 3/9/17 at 12:39pm
Since there was just a post about Pulitzer predictions, I thought I'd bring up some of the odder shows that have received the award. The biggest ones that come to mind are Guys and Dolls and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Why were these musicals awarded the Pulitzer? They're good, but I don't see anything in them that would have transcended the genre. What are some other examples of Odd Pulitzer winners?
After Eight
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/5/09
#2Odd Pulitzer Winners
Posted: 3/9/17 at 12:43pm
Sunday in the Park With George.
The insufferable tuneless bore is still going strong as the ultimate critics' darling.
#3Odd Pulitzer Winners
Posted: 3/9/17 at 12:44pm
Guys and Dolls is not a Pulitzer Prize winner. The committee selected it as its winner in 1951, but no prize was given that year.
"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
Updated On: 3/9/17 at 12:44 PM
Alex Kulak2
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/11/16
#4Odd Pulitzer Winners
Posted: 3/9/17 at 12:46pm
Even if you aren't a fan of Sunday, you can understand why it won. It constructed an entire musical around a painting. It tried something new. I don't see that in Guys and Dolls or How to Succeed.
Alex Kulak2
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/11/16
#5Odd Pulitzer Winners
Posted: 3/9/17 at 12:47pm
"Guys and Dolls is not technically a Pulitzer Prize winner. The committee selected it as its winner in 1951, but no prize was given that year."
I heard about that. They didn't give it out because they thought the writers were communists.
After Eight
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/5/09
#6Odd Pulitzer Winners
Posted: 3/9/17 at 12:49pm
"Even if you aren't a fan of Sunday, you can understand why it won."
Alex, I understand only too well why it won.
#7Odd Pulitzer Winners
Posted: 3/9/17 at 1:01pm
Alex Kulak2 said: "Even if you aren't a fan of Sunday, you can understand why it won. It constructed an entire musical around a painting. It tried something new. I don't see that in Guys and Dolls or How to Succeed.
"
How to Succeed is obvious I feel. It was a scorching satire about sexism, nepotism, and the American corporate environment that was shaped by an Ivy league boys club that had little to do with hard work and talent. It did this mind you in 1961...
Alex Kulak2
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/11/16
#9Odd Pulitzer Winners
Posted: 3/9/17 at 2:04pm
After Eight said: "Sunday in the Park With George.
The insufferable tuneless bore is still going strong as the ultimate critics' darling.
"
Like you. Insufferable tuneless bore.
My father (AIDS)
My sister (AIDS)
My uncle and my cousin and her best friend (AIDS, AIDS, AIDS)
The gays and the straights
And the white and the spades
whatdoesntkillme
Featured Actor Joined: 8/15/16
#10Odd Pulitzer Winners
Posted: 3/9/17 at 2:27pm
You also need to take into consideration the basis of the award: currently, "for a distinguished play by an American author, preferably original in its source and dealing with American life," though this wording has changed over time.
The purpose of the Pulitzer for drama is that it paints a portrait of American life. Additionally, remember that it's awarded by Columbia University, so it's often very New York-centric attitudes about American life.
perfectliar
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/1/04
#11Odd Pulitzer Winners
Posted: 3/9/17 at 2:48pm
Alex Kulak2 said: "But Guys and Dolls?"
As has been stated, Guys & Dolls did not win.
Roscoe
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
#12Odd Pulitzer Winners
Posted: 3/9/17 at 4:23pm
TOPDOG/UNDERDOG -- I mean, WTF?
And the whole "American Life" thing is pretty loose these days -- I AM MY OWN WIFE had nothing to do with American life.
"If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers." Thomas Pynchon, GRAVITY'S RAINBOW
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." Philip K. Dick
My blog: http://www.roscoewrites.blogspot.com/
Updated On: 3/9/17 at 04:23 PM
After Eight
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/5/09
#13Odd Pulitzer Winners
Posted: 3/9/17 at 4:48pm
"The purpose of the Pulitzer for drama is that it paints a portrait of American life."
Such as Georges Seurat's painting a scene on an island in the Seine.
#14Odd Pulitzer Winners
Posted: 3/9/17 at 5:04pm
The funny thing about TOPDOG/UNDERDOG is that it's an outlier in Parks's oeuvre and might even be seen as her "selling out" when compared to her more experimental works.
As for GUYS AND DOLLS the fact that it wasn't actually awarded doesn't negate the fact that it was still chosen for the award.
Keeping BroadwayWorld Illustrated
Updated On: 3/9/17 at 05:04 PM
Consistency
Understudy Joined: 7/2/13
#15Odd Pulitzer Winners
Posted: 3/9/17 at 5:53pm
Could we please not quote A8? Some of us have that insufferable bore on ignore for a reason.
(Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.)
perfectliar
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/1/04
#16Odd Pulitzer Winners
Posted: 3/9/17 at 8:24pm
Mr. Nowack said: "The funny thing about TOPDOG/UNDERDOG is that it's an outlier in Parks's oeuvre and might even be seen as her "selling out" when compared to her more experimental works.
As for GUYS AND DOLLS the fact that it wasn't actually awarded doesn't negate the fact that it was still chosen for the award."
It does though. You will never see it included on lists of winners or billed as a Pulitzer Prize winning musical. So clearly someone also thought it was an unworthy winner, because it, you know... didn't win.
#17Odd Pulitzer Winners
Posted: 3/9/17 at 8:49pm
perfectliar, if that's what it takes to validate your superiority complex, then by all means YOU'RE RIGHT god of the technicalities.
Keeping BroadwayWorld Illustrated
KnewItWhenIWasInFron
Leading Actor Joined: 6/23/14
#18Odd Pulitzer Winners
Posted: 3/9/17 at 11:13pm
It is not a technicality. The question, "Did 'Guys and Dolls' win a Pulitzer?" is a Yes or No question, and the answer is, "No."
#19Odd Pulitzer Winners
Posted: 3/9/17 at 11:47pm
The title of this post is "Odd Pulitzer Winners."
GUYS & DOLLS did not win a Pulitzer... THE END.
perfectliar
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/1/04
#20Odd Pulitzer Winners
Posted: 3/9/17 at 11:55pm
MadonnaMusical said: "The title of this post is "Odd Pulitzer Winners."
GUYS & DOLLS did not win a Pulitzer... THE END. "
Thank you. It's not about being right, it's about responding to the post. What is the point of discussing the merits, or lack thereof, of a show that didn't win the Pulitzer in a thread about shows that won the Pulitzer?
#21Odd Pulitzer Winners
Posted: 3/10/17 at 12:55am
I don't think How to Succeed is that confusing in context. When it premiered, musical comedy was seen as entertainment for the figure of the tired businessman, so it was daring to make a musical comedy that sharply satirizes the ruthlessness of the corporate world. I think it's easy to overlook because it's a silly comedy on the top, but underneath it I think it's a pretty accurate statement about American work culture- not just the sexism, but the heartlessness at the center of it all.
I am a firm believer in serendipity- all the random pieces coming together in one wonderful moment, when suddenly you see what their purpose was all along.
#22Odd Pulitzer Prize for Drama Committee Selections
Posted: 3/10/17 at 2:00am
Alex Kulak was not musing on whether or not it won, but rather why it was selected since he thought it did't hold up against other winners. No it didn't win of course but it was still selected by the committee so I'd say it's just as valid to discuss it here alongside other committee selections, despite the thread title.
This is why no actual conversation happens on this board anymore. Gimme a break.
Keeping BroadwayWorld Illustrated
astromiami
Understudy Joined: 7/12/12
#23Odd Pulitzer Prize for Drama Committee Selections
Posted: 3/10/17 at 8:18am
Roscoe said: "TOPDOG/UNDERDOG -- I mean, WTF?
And the whole "American Life" thing is pretty loose these days -- I AM MY OWN WIFE had nothing to do with American life."
To be fair, I AM MY OWN WIFE is about an American writer's incomprehension when confronted with the complexities of European life under political systems different than our own.
Because the actor wears a dress, it is easy to forget the actual plot which is about an American playwright interviewing a witness to history.
green waver
Stand-by Joined: 11/3/16
#24Odd Pulitzer Prize for Drama Committee Selections
Posted: 3/10/17 at 9:12am
What I find odd is the arbitrariness of the award, especially when you look at the creator's career. Why did Bock and Harnick win for Fiorello, and not Fiddler or She Loves Me? Sondheim for Sunday, and not Sweeny or A little Night Music? As with all other awards like this, I guess you could say that they're well intentioned... but capricious.
#25Odd Pulitzer Prize for Drama Committee Selections
Posted: 3/10/17 at 10:10am
All awards are arbitrary, at least to some degree.
It's important to remember that unlike the Tony Awards, which consider 4-5 nominees across two-dozen categories, one Pulitzer Prize is issued, and the choice is made from more than a hundred candidates. Also, because the committee is always in flux, it is definitely subject to the whims of whoever happens to have a seat on the committee at a given point. And at the end of the day, the Pulitzer judges have the final word, which is how a work like Next to Normal can win the prize without even being among the finalists.
Arbitrary? Of course. But that's the nature of awards in general.
"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
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