Pulitzer Prize for Drama

“Next to Normal” was Broadway’s sleeper hit this season. Alice Ripley, who won a Tony for her role as a bipolar suburban mom, performs a song from the show. And Kurt asks composer Tom Kitt what he had to do to get the disorder right.

The new play Southern Rapture takes place in 1996, when a local production of Tony Kushner’s “Angels in America” became a political hot potato and put artistic freedom and arts funding on the line. Mary C. Curtis looks back at the ruckus.

Following the success of the revival of ‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,’ which featured an all African-American cast, come the Broadway runs of ‘The Country Girl’ and ‘Thurgood’ ? all serious-minded shows that are drawing diverse theater-goers. Guest Patrik Henry Bass highlights the increase and popularity of black productions on the Great White Way.