Quiara Alegría Hudesgrew up in West Philadelphia, playing piano by ear and writing songs, stories, and plays. Today, she is a rising star and is widely recognized as a promising new voice in American theater. Hudes wrote the book for the 2008 Tony Award-winning musical In the Heights, and her play, Elliot, A Soldier’s Fugue, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2007.
The Happiest Song Plays Last begins at the dawn of the Arab Spring in an ancient Jordanian town where an Iraq War veteran struggles to overcome the traumas of combat by taking on an entirely new and unexpected career: an action film hero. At the same time, halfway around the world in a cozy North Philadelphia kitchen, his cousin takes on a heroic new role of her own: as the heart and soul of her crumbling community, providing hot meals and a place to sleep for the needy. Set to the joyful sounds of traditional Puerto Rican folk music, this poignant new play chronicles a year in the life of these two kindred souls as they search for love, meaning and a sense of hope in a quickly changing world. Hudes is the winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Drama