Tracy Letts' dysfunctional-family -- drama? comedy? -- August: Osage County is the winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and there is much delight in a couple corners of Cincinnati.

BIG congrats to Cincy-based Broadway producer and swell guy Rick Steiner, who is one of the hit play’s Broadway producers. (Could a Tony Award be far behind?) Musical man Steiner has partnered on dramas exactly twice and has seen Pulitzers for both, the first being Off-Broadway’s “Topdog/Underdog.”

Steiner says, go figure.

Meanwhile, New Stage Collective artistic director Alan Patrick Kenny is delighted with his timing. He’s currently presenting the regional preem of Letts’ potboiler “Bug,” and he’s hoping the Pulitzer, along with a spectacular performance by Sherman Fracher, will fill the seats. (A lot of people still don’t know how to find the theater, which opened last April – it’s at 12^th and Main in Over-the-Rhine.) 

According to the Pulitzer Web site, the award is "for a distinguished play by an American author, preferably original in its source and dealing with American life" and "productions opening in the United States between January 1, 2007 and December 31, 2007 are eligible."

“Osage County” has had all the Pulitzer buzz since it opened, fitting the Pulitzer preferences to a T – it examines American family, albeit one where every member has an assigned social pathology or disease; it’s long (three one-hour acts, although it zips along); and it manages to be both serious-minded and a serious crowd-pleaser (although that’s not a Pulitzer committee criteria.)

The Tony voters are going to love all the above plus the spectacular acting of spectacularly written roles (custom-designed by Letts for his acting associates at home company Steppenwolf in Chicago.)

Next up for Steiner, by the way, is musical “A Catered Affair,” opening next week.