Bess Wohl’s Liberation won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama Monday, in a big win for the play ahead of Tuesday’s Tony nominations.
The play, which ran at the James Earl Jones Theatre on Broadway from October 2025 through February 2026, follows a narrator trying to make sense of the female liberation group her mother took part in the 1970s. In doing so, the narrator takes on the persona of her mother and interacts with the women in the group to better understand their goals and what became of the movement.
The show transferred to Broadway after premiering Off-Broadway at the Laura Pels Theatre in February 2025. Whitney White directed both runs, with a cast led by Susannah Flood, as Lizzie, the narrator.
The finalists for the Pulitzer Prize were Bowl EP, by Nazareth Hassan and Meet the Cartozians, by Talene Monahon, which both ran Off-Broadway.
This is the first Pulitzer win for Wohl, who previously penned the well-reviewed Small Mouth Sounds Off-Broadway, and Grand Horizons on Broadway. The award is encouraging for the show’s Tony Awards prospects, ahead of nominations Tuesday, as the show contends for a best play nomination, among other honors and against competitors including Dog Day Afternoon, Giant, Little Bear Ridge Road and more. Last year’s Pulitzer Prize winner was Purpose by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, which took home the Tony Award for Best Play.
