The Happiest Song Plays Last

"If you want evidence that American playwriting is in very good hands, you need look no further." —Bloomberg News

"Hudes possesses a confident and arresting voice." —The New York Times

"One of the most important playwrights of her generation." —Atlanta Journal Constitution

"As ever, Hudes?s writing is poetic but wry, full of swagger and poetry. There?s live music, but oh, how the lines sing too." -Time Out New York

"The best of the [trilogy]... A beautifully written piece." -Theatre Mania

At the dawn of the Arab Spring in an ancient Jordanian town, an Iraq War veteran struggles to overcome the traumas of combat by taking on an entirely new and unexpected career: action film hero. A search for redemption, humility, and one's place in the world, this is the final installment in Quiara Alegría Hudes's The Elliot Trilogy, which began with Pulitzer Prize finalist Elliot, A Soldier's Fugue and Pulitzer Prize-winner Water by the Spoonful. Set to the joyful sounds of traditional Puerto Rican folk music, this poignant new play enjoyed its world premiere at Chicago's Goodman Theatre in 2013, and its New York premiere at Second Stage Theatre in 2014.

Quiara Alegría Hudes wrote the book for the Broadway musical In the Heights, which received the 2008 Tony Award for Best Musical, a Tony nomination for Best Book of a Musical, and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. Hudes is on the board of Philadelphia Young Playwrights, which produced her first play in the tenth grade. She lives in New York with her husband and two children.