Surprise Ending for a Great Play : Pulitzer for “The Kentucky Cycle” reflects the geographical breadth of American theater

Time was, decades ago, when most new American plays opened in New York and then, if reviews and ticket sales were good enough, went on the road. “Let’s get this show on the road!”--that all-purpose American call to action--is an echo from the era when the road in question always led outward from the capital of American theater.

In more recent years, however, the direction of traffic has been reversed. More than half of all new plays now open outside New York and, if reviews and ticket sales are good enough, go on to the city where the financial rewards for a hit as well as the financial penalties for a flop are highest. New York is still the biggest prize, but much of the creative craziness of theatrical beginnings has wandered way, way off Broadway.

Despite this shift, the belief has lingered in the circles where dramatic prizes are awarded that unless and until a play has opened in New York, it really hasn’t opened at all. If you haven’t made it there, you haven’t made it anywhere. Thus, August Wilson’s brilliant “Fences,” which played to rave reviews in New Haven, Chicago, Seattle and San Francisco in 1985 and was nominated for the 1986 Pulitzer, didn’t win. A year later, it did. Why? It had finally opened in New York.

This year, at long last, the Pulitzer board has caught up with the polycentric reality of the American theater. “The Kentucky Cycle” by Robert Schenkkan of Van Nuys, which opened in Seattle and has just completed an eight-week run at Los Angeles’ Mark Taper Forum, has become the first play in the 76-year history of the Pulitzers to win without a New York opening. The New York stage is irreplaceable in American theatrical life and is having, as it happens, a superb year. That said, and petty provincial boosterism duly exorcised, we applaud the choice of “The Kentucky Cycle” as a coming-of-age moment in the life of the Pulitzer Prize. No offense intended, but if you’ve made it here, you’ve made it.