(© Joseph Marzullo/WENN)
The musical Next to Normal by Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey, has been awarded the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
The show, which was developed at NYMF and then presented at Second Stage in New York and Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. before bowing at Broadway’s Booth Theatre in 2009, addresses issues of mental illness and a suburban family’s efforts to cope with loss. Kitt and Yorkey, who co-wrote the musical, received the Tony Award for Best Score. The show will launch its national tour at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles in November 2010.
The award was bestowed by the Pulitzer Board, which chose none of three finalists that were picked by the Pulitzer committee. The finalists in the category were The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity by Kristoffer Diaz, a play invoking the exaggerated role-playing of professional wrestling to explore themes from globalization to ethnic stereotyping, which will be presented by New York City’s Second Stage Theater; Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo by Rajiv Joseph, a play about the chaotic Iraq war, which is being presented by the Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles; and In the Next Room or the vibrator play by Sarah Ruhl, an inventive work that mixes comedy and drama as it examines the medical practice of a 19th-century American doctor and confronts questions of female sexuality and emancipation, which debuted at Berkeley Rep and had a Broadway run earlier this season, courtesy of Lincoln Center Theater.
