Odd Pulitzer Winners — Page 2

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.

The Pulitzer Prize, like all awards, are really dependent on the time in which the award was given (not exactly how the work survived after time has passed and in comparison to the authors' other work) and who is giving them and what the other choices were. The Pulitzer Prize Board seems to have a consistent members for a number of years as opposed to say the Cannes Film Festival that has a different jury and President every year, but it isn't a large membership pool like say the Academy Awards which has about 7000 members or the film industry awards like SAG which has about 25,000 members. The Pulitzer Prize Board being a smaller voting body tends to have choices that are really affected by the whims of the attitude of the people. But then having a smaller voting body may better ensure that there was more consideration in choosing.

As for How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, I find the concept and themes to be incredibly relevant today and I do not find it difficult at all to see why it won the Pulitzer Prize. 

green waver said: "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.

 

"

I don't follow awards all that closely, but of the two composers you list, their winning shows deal with American themes. Yes, SUNDAY starts with Georges and Dot in France, but Dot immigrates to the U.S. and, in Act II, George and Marie are definitely Americans (even when they visit Paris)..

FIORELLO and SUNDAY are both also original, though based on true events. Sweeney, ALNM, She Loves Me and Fiddler are all adaptations.

Rinaldo said: "Sunday in the Park would not have been eligible without its Act II depicting the dilemma of a present-day American artist. The answer to the question "Why did Bock and Harnick win for Fiorello, and not Fiddler or She Loves Me? Sondheim for Sunday, and not Sweeney or A Little Night Music?" is a factual one: the one that won dealt with American life, and the others didn't."

As has been previously stated, that the play/musical deal with American life is a preference, not a requirement. Ruined does not deal with American life whatsoever and it has a Pulitzer.

Yes, AC, and The Diary of Anne Frank won in the Fifties. My gut tells me that when the Pulitzer Committee feel a play is original and overwhelmingly important, they bypass the American Life stipulation.

"but Dot immigrates to the U.S. and, in Act II, George and Marie are definitely Americans (even when they visit Paris).."

 

Good thing Dot's creators had her emigrate to America. It helped their miserable opus snag a plum prize.

But the fact is, the woman could have relocated to the Himalayan Mountains, the Amazon Rainforest, or an atoll in the South Pacific, and the wretched thing still would have garnered this deplorable award.