Hats off to the five-member jury that awarded the When “Wife” opened last December on Broadway, it Playing “multiple roles, chief among them a singular Berliner whose transvestitism is only one The Pulitzer jurors were Ben Brantley, chief drama critic of The New York Times, who In June we’ll find out how smart the Hats off to the five-member jury that awarded the Pulitzer Prize in drama to Doug Wright’s “I Am My Own Wife.” Smart choice. It doesn’t always happen. But easy choice, too. When “Wife” opened last December on Broadway, it bowled me over: “Once in a blue moon a play comes along that restores my belief […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-615","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbvgEs-9V","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nPrize<\/FONT><\/EM><\/B><\/A> in drama to Doug Wright’s
\nWife.”<\/FONT><\/EM><\/B><\/A> Smart choice. It doesn’t always happen. But easy choice,
\ntoo.<\/P>
\n
\nalong that restores my belief in the vitality of the theater,” I wrote. “Wife” bowled everyone
\nover. The raves were unanimous. For the actor, too. Jefferson Mays is, after all, the
\nsine qua non of this one-man piece. “Mays gives a virtuoso performance the likes of which comes
\nalong once in many blue moons,” my review went on. “It is a spectacular
\nachievement, but to describe it that way is to give a misleading impression.<\/P>
\n
\naspect of her unique identity … Mays illuminates his impersonations with subtlety, not fireworks.
\nHe re-creates Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, who was a real-life figure, with a controlled,
\nriveting intensity. His fusion of intelligence, feelings, irony and humor radiates heat and light, but
\npurposely kept at room temperature. This allows Charlotte’s bizarre survival story from the
\nNazi and Communist eras to unfold as part of daily experience rather than as blinding
\nrevelation.”<\/P>
\n
\nchaired the panel; Robert Brustein, theater critic of The New Republic and former artistic director
\nof American Repertory Theater in Boston; Karen D’Sousa, drama critic of the San Jose Mercury
\nNews; Michael Phillips, drama critic of the Chicago Tribune; and Linda Winer, drama critic of
\nNewsday.<\/P>
\n
\nAwards<\/FONT><\/EM><\/B><\/A> committee is. You’d think that “Wife” is a shoe-in for
\nbest play and Mays would win, hands down, for best actor. With the Tonys, however, even
\nwhen the smart choice is the easy choice, you never know.<\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"