A 'Ruined' Pulitzer win
The prideful chip resting on the shoulders of Chicago boosters just got a little bit larger—particularly for the theatergoing ones.
On April 20 Lynn Nottage's play, Ruined ( Photo by Liz Lauren ) , won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Not only did Nottage's drama premiere last year at the Goodman Theatre, but that flagship Chicago theater institution also helped in its development.
True, credit is also due to the Manhattan Theatre Club ( MTC ) in New York, which co-produced the play. MTC's own Pulitzer track record is impressive—the company has produced four out of the past eight winners ( Ruined, Rabbit Hole, Doubt and Proof ) . Ruined is currently playing off-Broadway through May 17, and no doubt questions about Broadway will be next.
This makes two years in a row that a play that started in Chicago has won the prestigious award. Ruined follows the Pulitzer won by Steppenwolf Theatre Company ensemble member Tracy Letts for his large ensemble drama August: Osage County ( which is still playing on Broadway and soon to be launched on a national tour ) .
Best known for her dramas Intimate Apparel ( previously seen at Steppenwolf ) and Fabulation, or the Re-Education of Undine ( seen at Next Theatre ) , Nottage became the second African-American women to win the drama Pulitzer, following Suzan Lori-Parks' win for Topdog/Underdog in 2002.
Ruined is not only set amid the civil war-torn Democratic Republic of the Congo, but it's partially inspired by Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children. Ruined focuses on the no-nonsense businesswoman Mama Nadi ( Saidah Arrika Ekulona ) , a bordello owner who tries to keep her business neutral during the conflict.
But more importantly, Ruined grew out of Nottage's own interviews with women victims of the recent war, many who were brutally raped and genitally disfigured by soldiers from opposing sides of the conflict. ( "Ruined" is how these women are referred to. )
While I personally felt Nottage pulled her punches at the end by giving Ruined a cute "happy ending," her drama does raise awareness of the plight and perseverance of these women without being preachy or like a TV movie of the week.
So congratulations are in order for Nottage, the Goodman and MTC for their Pulitzer win. And if you care about these things, Chicagoans can congratulate themselves by pointing out that Ruined debuted here first.
Going Dutch
This week marks the local premiere of Carousel ( A Dance ) , presented as part of the Joffrey Ballet's spring repertory program at the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University, 50 E. Congress. The piece by out British choreographer Christopher Wheeldon features a plot outline and music from the famed 1945 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical.
With songs like "If I Loved You," "You'll Never Walk Alone" and the title Waltz prologue, Carousel is a quintessential piece of Americana—as are all the works of composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II.
So imagine the shock to theater fans who learned that the rights to the entire Rodgers and Hammerstein catalogue have been sold to the Netherlands-based Imagem Music Group, the music-publishing investment fund of ABP ( the world's third-largest pension fund ) , and CP Masters BV, a European independent music publisher. The purchase price was not disclosed.
The Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization also represents more than 12,000 songs, 900 concert works and 100 musicals in America, including shows by Andrew Lloyd Webber, Stephen Schwartz, Irving Berlin and Rodgers' grandson, Adam Guettel ( The Light in the Piazza, Floyd Collins ) . So that means that if you want to stage a production of The Sound of Music or Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, the money will soon be going to Amsterdam instead of New York.
The word on the street was that the heirs of these two theatrical giants wanted to get out of the management of the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization, so a buyer was sought. Theodore S. Chapin, the current president and executive director of the organization, is to be retained. Heirs Alice Hammerstein Mathias and Mary Rodgers Guettel ( also co-author of the musical Once Upon a Mattress ) are also to continue as consultants.
It remains to be seen if this sale means that we'll have more Rodgers and Hammerstein snippets popping up in commercials. I guess it won't entirely be a bad thing. My first memories of hearing a Rodgers and Hammerstein tune was when Clairol licensed the song "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair" for TV commercials on hair coloring products. It became "I'm Gonna Wash that Gray Right Outta My Hair."
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