NEXT TO NORMAL wins Pulitzer Prize for Drama- Page 3
NEXT TO NORMAL wins Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Brick
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/21/06
#51NEXT TO NORMAL wins Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Posted: 4/12/10 at 5:00pm
"Either Anna in the Tropics or I Am My Own Wife or Doubt."
I seem to remember it being I Am My Own Wife, but maybe it was DOUBT. In the case of the former, CAROLINE should have won, and in the case of the latter, it should have been a runner-up.
"And for the record, you don't have to be a hater (which admittedly, I am) to acknowledge that, especially in a year with so many strong dramas, Next to Normal did not deserve to win the Pulitzer. "
"What strong dramas? The Vibrator Play? Next Fall?"
Exactly. I'm not a fan of NEXT TO NORMAL, but it was bold and ambitious. It tackled a very difficult subject and made it dramatic and involving. What other musical is even remotely like it? I think the Pulitxer makes sense. But still, Wow.
#52NEXT TO NORMAL wins Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Posted: 4/12/10 at 5:02pmdon't like the show, but thrilled Next Fall didn't win
#53NEXT TO NORMAL wins Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Posted: 4/12/10 at 5:04pm
I'm thrilled for N2N, which I just saw last Friday.
Also seeing finalist "The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Diety" Wednesday here in Minneapolis. Wooo!
MCfan2
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/29/06
#54NEXT TO NORMAL wins Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Posted: 4/12/10 at 5:05pm
I really liked the show (not entirely thrilled with the ending, but I liked the rest), so I'm happy. Congratulations to them! 
Borstalboy
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/9/04
#55NEXT TO NORMAL wins Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Posted: 4/12/10 at 5:08pmWell, good for them!
"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
~ Muhammad Ali
#56NEXT TO NORMAL wins Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Posted: 4/12/10 at 5:15pmI just...I don't know. I think the standards to win the Pulitzer as a musical have been set so high, and...Next to Normal, really? Really? I'm not going to pretend to have seen all of the nominees (other than In the Next Room, which I liked well enough but was surprised to see nominated, but Next to Normal just seems so forgettable when compared to the likes of Rent, Sunday in the Park with George, A Chorus Line, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, South Pacific... But, again, I can't compare all of this year's nominees on their own merits.
#57NEXT TO NORMAL wins Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Posted: 4/12/10 at 5:16pm
adamgreer, there are things not on Broadway that were fantastic and deserved a look. CMT and Brother/Sister Plays come to mind immediately. Why Torture is Wrong...
I am not a N2N hater. I enjoy the show. That being said, it is obvious that it's not worthy of a Pulitzer. I would have been happy for it had it won Best Musical at the Tonys. But the Pulitzer is for book and lyrics, which are easily Next to Normal's weak points. Too many good plays were overlooked this year.
Auggie27
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/13/03
#58NEXT TO NORMAL wins Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Posted: 4/12/10 at 5:20pmI think everyone here shocked at this award should take a serious look at some past winners. I'm sorry, but I don't think THE SHADOW BOX or GIN GAME are all that deserving. NORMAL is decidedly among the best. I mean we also have TEAHOUSE OF THE AUGUST MOON on the list. NEXT TO NORMAL is an ambitious show that absolutely captures a particular aspect of American life. I think it's as deserving as a show about performance artists on the lower east side. The Pulitzer has always been given to an ecclectic mix.
"I'm a comedian, but in my spare time, things bother me." Garry Shandling
#59NEXT TO NORMAL wins Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Posted: 4/12/10 at 5:31pmThose are all examples from a while ago. The winners in the past decade have all been deserving. Of the ones I have seen and/or read, Dinner with Friends, Proof, I Am My Own Wife, Rabbit Hole, August: Osage County, and Ruined were all MORE than deserving.
#60NEXT TO NORMAL wins Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Posted: 4/12/10 at 5:31pmDouble Updated On: 4/12/10 at 05:31 PM
Auggie27
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/13/03
#61NEXT TO NORMAL wins Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Posted: 4/12/10 at 5:35pmI disagree about RABBIT HOLE, frankly as do many people, so it's not entirely about older awards vs. new.
"I'm a comedian, but in my spare time, things bother me." Garry Shandling
#62NEXT TO NORMAL wins Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Posted: 4/12/10 at 5:38pmOk, even if you disagree about Rabbit Hole (which for the record is in my top 3 of those plays I listed), that's only 1 out of about 10. Both the Gin Game and Shadow Box were from the 1970s. Even many of the ones from the 90s were deserving (Lost in Yonkers, Angels, Rent, Wit).
#63NEXT TO NORMAL wins Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Posted: 4/12/10 at 5:40pm
I consider this a well-deserved honor, and regard N2N as a terrific theatrical experience.
(I was trembling at the thought that something like NEXT FALL might get it - but thankfully intelligence went into this year's decision.)
2016 These Paper Bullets (1/02) Our Mother's Brief Affair (1/06), Dragon Boat Racing (1/08), Howard - reading (1/28), Shear Madness (2/10), Fun Home (2/17), Women Without Men (2/18), Trip Of Love (2/21), The First Gentleman -reading (2/22), Southern Comfort (2/23), The Robber Bridegroom (2/24), She Loves Me (3/11), Shuffle Along (4/12), Shear Madness (4/14), Dear Evan Hansen (4/16), American Psycho (4/23), Tuck Everlasting (5/10), Indian Summer (5/15), Peer Gynt (5/18), Broadway's Rising Stars (7/11), Trip of Love (7/27), CATS (7/31), The Layover (8/17), An Act Of God (8/31), The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (8/24), Heisenberg (10/12), Fiddler On The Roof (11/02), Othello (11/23), Dear Evan Hansen (11/26), Les Liaisons Dangereuses (12/21) 2017 In Transit (2/01), Groundhog Day (4/04), Ring Twice For Miranda (4/07), Church And State (4/10), The Lucky One (4/19), Ernest Shackleton Loves Me (5/16), Building The Wall (5/19), Indecent (6/01), Six Degrees of Separation (6/09), Marvin's Room (6/28), A Doll's House Pt 2 (7/25) Curvy Widow (8/01)
#64NEXT TO NORMAL wins Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Posted: 4/12/10 at 5:41pmI realize I am opening a HUGE can of worms, but RENT is hardly any more deserving of a Pulitzer Prize than NEXT TO NORMAL.
Cheyenne Jackson tickled me. AFTER ordering SoMMS a drink but NOT tickling him, and hanging out with Girly in his dressing room (where he DIDN'T tickle her) but BEFORE we got married. To others. And then he tweeted Boobs. He also tweeted he's good friends with some chick on "The Voice" who just happens to be good friends with Tink's ex. And I'm still married. Oh, and this just in: "Pettiness, spite, malice ....Such ugly emotions... So sad." - After Eight, talking about MEEEEEEEE!!! I'm so honored! :-)
#65NEXT TO NORMAL wins Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Posted: 4/12/10 at 5:45pmSo no winner next year?
Like a firework unexploded
Wanting life but never knowing how
Wanting life but never knowing how
#66NEXT TO NORMAL wins Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Posted: 4/12/10 at 5:46pmRENT has a book. Period. I don't even care about the difference in quality. Rent has a book, N2N doesn't.
#67NEXT TO NORMAL wins Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Posted: 4/12/10 at 5:46pmHow wonderful! This REALLY deserved it!
Auggie27
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/13/03
#68NEXT TO NORMAL wins Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Posted: 4/12/10 at 5:47pmTotally agree, D2. For all its strengths, the second act remains an unfinished blur. And I love RENT, as long as it's singing.
"I'm a comedian, but in my spare time, things bother me." Garry Shandling
#69NEXT TO NORMAL wins Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Posted: 4/12/10 at 5:50pm
In the Next Room was a finalist??
N2N just doesn't do it for me. I can still hear Alice screeching - "You don't know, you don't know...."
#70NEXT TO NORMAL wins Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Posted: 4/12/10 at 5:51pm
"RENT has a book. Period. I don't even care about the difference in quality. Rent has a book, N2N doesn't."
That is a statement that could only be made by someone who has no understanding at all of what the term "book" means in musical theater.
2016 These Paper Bullets (1/02) Our Mother's Brief Affair (1/06), Dragon Boat Racing (1/08), Howard - reading (1/28), Shear Madness (2/10), Fun Home (2/17), Women Without Men (2/18), Trip Of Love (2/21), The First Gentleman -reading (2/22), Southern Comfort (2/23), The Robber Bridegroom (2/24), She Loves Me (3/11), Shuffle Along (4/12), Shear Madness (4/14), Dear Evan Hansen (4/16), American Psycho (4/23), Tuck Everlasting (5/10), Indian Summer (5/15), Peer Gynt (5/18), Broadway's Rising Stars (7/11), Trip of Love (7/27), CATS (7/31), The Layover (8/17), An Act Of God (8/31), The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (8/24), Heisenberg (10/12), Fiddler On The Roof (11/02), Othello (11/23), Dear Evan Hansen (11/26), Les Liaisons Dangereuses (12/21) 2017 In Transit (2/01), Groundhog Day (4/04), Ring Twice For Miranda (4/07), Church And State (4/10), The Lucky One (4/19), Ernest Shackleton Loves Me (5/16), Building The Wall (5/19), Indecent (6/01), Six Degrees of Separation (6/09), Marvin's Room (6/28), A Doll's House Pt 2 (7/25) Curvy Widow (8/01)
#71NEXT TO NORMAL wins Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Posted: 4/12/10 at 5:51pm
A powerful rock musical that grapples with mental illness in a suburban family and expands the scope of subject matter for musicals.
I gather the award was won on the fact that it is a)a fully original musical not based on a previous source and b) tackling some complex issues. I thing it's important that a true original like this is being commended. That said, I admired the show more than actually enjoying it. I found it distancing instead of involving, but it did leave a lot to think about afterwords, and that's never a bad thing.
Cast albums are NOT "soundtracks."
Live theatre does not use a "soundtrack." If it did, it wouldn't be live theatre!
I host a weekly one-hour radio program featuring cast album selections as well as songs by cabaret, jazz and theatre artists. The program, FRONT ROW CENTRE is heard Sundays 9 to 10 am and also Saturdays from 8 to 9 am (eastern times) on www.proudfm.com
#72NEXT TO NORMAL wins Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Posted: 4/12/10 at 5:54pm
I realize I am opening a HUGE can of worms, but RENT is hardly any more deserving of a Pulitzer Prize than NEXT TO NORMAL.
I agree 100%. Next to Normal is far more deserving of this award than Rent was.
RENT has a book. Period. I don't even care about the difference in quality. Rent has a book, N2N doesn't.
N2N has just as much of a book as Rent does. I would argue the book in N2N tells the story better than the book of Rent does.
#73NEXT TO NORMAL wins Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Posted: 4/12/10 at 5:54pmAgreed, TimesSquareRegular. The way the term "book" is bandied around here by "those in the know" is downright hilarious.
Cheyenne Jackson tickled me. AFTER ordering SoMMS a drink but NOT tickling him, and hanging out with Girly in his dressing room (where he DIDN'T tickle her) but BEFORE we got married. To others. And then he tweeted Boobs. He also tweeted he's good friends with some chick on "The Voice" who just happens to be good friends with Tink's ex. And I'm still married. Oh, and this just in: "Pettiness, spite, malice ....Such ugly emotions... So sad." - After Eight, talking about MEEEEEEEE!!! I'm so honored! :-)
#74NEXT TO NORMAL wins Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Posted: 4/12/10 at 5:57pm
That is a statement that could only be made by someone who has no understanding at all of what the term "book" means in musical theater.
I consider the book of RENT to be all of the sung-through recitative-style dialogue. It functions the same way an opera's recitative does (which is the point since it's based on La Boheme). Next to Normal is just song after song, with a few spoken lines of book (which admittedly RENT doesn't have). But I consider the sung-through parts between the actual SONGS of Rent (the arias) to be the book (the recitative). So it's not that I don't understand what "book" means...it's that I see the book of RENT as something different than most people. You know... the way Larson intended it.
