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Bess Wohl’s “Liberation” has won the Tony Award for best new play — a validation not just of her work but of the discernment of Tony voters.A playful work of historical reclamation, it re-creates a women’s consciousness-raising group at an Ohio recreation center in the 1970s.The play, which received the Pulitzer Prize this year, was hands down the best work I read or saw since last year’s Pulitzer and Tony winner, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ “Purpose.” (Both dramas are part of the Geffen Playhouse’s next season.)But “Liberation” wasn’t a shoo-in, by any chance.
The play closed in February, putting it at a disadvantage with Tony voters whose theatergoing typically kicks into high gear in the spring.To make matters more uncertain, Mark Rosenblatt’s Olivier-winning “Giant” and “The Balusters, David Lindsey-Abaire’s satiric comedy on neighborhood politics in an age of ideological guerrilla warfare, had their champions.
Entertainment & Arts ‘The Lost Boys,’ ‘Schmigadoon!’, ‘Ragtime,’ ‘Death of a Salesman,’ John Lithgow and are among the winners at the 2026 Tony Awards.“The Balusters,” would be a strong awards contender in any season.As would “Little Bear Ridge Road,” Samuel D.
Hunter’s savagely unsentimental study of an estranged aunt and nephew picking through the wreckage of their family history.Hunter’s play had the added benefit of a magnificently calibrated production by Joe Mantello that provided a perfect showcase for Laurie Metcalf’s astringent brilliance.
“Giant,” which comes packaged in Nicholas Hytner’s impeccable production led by an unflinching John Lithgow, is similarly elevated by its staging, making it difficult to separate the playwright’s excellence from the director’s.By contrast, “Liberation,” which was directed with captivating brio by Whitney White, left no doubts about the exce...