Just one day prior to the 79th Tony Awards nominations, one of this year’s Best Play contenders, Bess Whol’s Liberation, has received the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
The Columbia University jury described Wohl’s play as: “A striking blend of comedy and sincerity that explores the legacy of the consciousness-raising feminist groups of the 1970s, using the story of the playwright’s mother to demonstrate how the movement grew out of conversation, and that anyone experiencing the play has joined the discussion.”
This year’s jury — which includes New York Times theatre critic Helen Shaw, past Pulitzer Prize for Drama winners Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and Quiara Alegría Hudes, Los Angeles Times critic Charles McNulty, and Boston University Dean Harvey Young — also named Nazareth Hassan’s Bowl EP and Talene Monahon’s Meet the Cartozians as finalists.
Gold Derby currently predicts Liberation to earn at least five Tony nominations tomorrow morning, including citations for Best Play, Best Actress for Susannah Flood, Best Featured Actress for Betsy Aidem, Best Featured Actor for Charlie Thurston, and Best Director for Whitney White. Its tally will likely be greater, given its potential bids in the scenic, costume, lighting, and sound design categories.
Does this prestigious award — the highest honor for a play in American letters — give Liberation an advantage in the contest to win Best Play? History is surprisingly ambivalent.
Over the past 78 years, there have been 42 winners of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama also nominated for Best Play at the Tonys, beginning with Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman in 1949 and continuing all the way to last year, with Jacobs-Jenkins’ Purpose and Sanaz Toossi’s English. Out of those 42 works, 18 won both the Pulitzer and the Tony, which translates to 42.86% of the time.
In Gold Derby’s odds for Best Play, Liberation is in a very close contest with Giant for first place, trailing that drama about author Roald Dahl and an embattled period of his career by only .33%. But our Tony Awards experts have an entirely different read, as 13 of the 17 predict Liberation will win the top honor; only three currently favor Giant.
Works that won the Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama
1. Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller – 1949
2. The Teahouse of the August Moon, John Patrick – 1954
3. The Diary of Anne Frank, Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett – 1956
4. Long Day’s Journey into Night, Eugene O’Neill – 1957
5. J. B., Archibald MacLeish – 1959
6. The Subject Was Roses, Frank D. Gilroy – 1965
7. The Great White Hope, Howard Sacklet – 1969
8. That Championship Season, Jason Miller – 1973
9. Fences, August Wilson – 1987
10. The Heidi Chronicles, Wendy Wasserstein – 1989
11. Lost in Yonkers, Neil Simon – 1991
12. Angels in America: Millennium Approaches, Tony Kushner – 1993
13. Proof, David Auburn – 2001
14. I Am My Own Wife, Doug Wright – 2004
15. Doubt, John Patrick Shanley – 2005
16. August: Osage County, Tracy Letts – 2008
17. Clybourne Park, Bruce Norris – 2012
18. Purpose, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins – 2025
