'Purpose' wins 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Drama; 'Oh, Mary!' named a finalist

Both critically acclaimed shows are currently running on Broadway and are also contenders for the 2025 Tony Award for Best Play.

The winner and finalists have been named for the 2025 Pulitzer Prizes, including the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The honor is awarded annually to an outstanding American play or musical that premiered within the past year.

Purpose won the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins's latest acclaimed drama, now on Broadway through July 6, follows the politically influential Jasper family at a reunion dinner gone wrong. Jacobs-Jenkins was previously nominated for the Pulitzer in 2016 (for Gloria) and 2018 (for Everybody), and Purpose marks his first win.

Additionally, Oh, Mary! and The Ally were named finalists for this year's Pulitzer. Oh, Mary!, a hit comedy play written by and currently starring breakout comedian Cole Escola, is set in the weeks before Abraham Lincoln's assassination and reimagines Mary Todd Lincoln (Escola) as a repressed, sharp-tongued woman with a burning desire to be cabaret star.

Both Purpose and Oh, Mary! are also nominated for the 2025 Tony Award for Best Play, which will be given out at the June 8 Tonys ceremony. Purpose is up for six Tonys total, and Oh, Mary! for five.

The Ally, which premiered off Broadway at The Public Theater in spring 2024, centers on a college professor asked to sign a social justice manifesto that gets him entangled in a web of conflicting perspectives and issues that challenge the many facets of his identity.

The play is by Itamar Moses, currently represented on Broadway with the Best Musical Tony Award nominee Dead Outlaw. He is also individually nominated for Best Book of a Musical.

Pulitzer Prize for Drama winners often enjoy an increase in productions around the country and world, including on Broadway. Popular Pulitzer winners include Lin-Manuel Miranda's blockbuster musical Hamilton and Sanaz Toossi's play English, which won the 2023 Pulitzer following its Off-Broadway premiere and is currently nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play after debuting on Broadway earlier this year.

Learn more about the Pulitzer Prizes and notable past winners.

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Photo credit: Purpose and Oh, Mary! on Broadway. (Photos by Marc J. Franklin and Emilio Madrid)