Linda Winer (quoted in Anders), a drama critic at Newsday who chaired the committee that awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama to Cruz, notes that Anna in the Tropics is "such a luscious play, with rich imagery and a sense of myth and labor history. It takes us to a world we don't know." Misha Berson (quoted in Anders), another Pulitzer juror and a theater critic for the Seattle Times, describes Anna in the Tropics as "lovely and kind of fragile, with archetypal, universal characters." Kathryn Osenlund, writing for CurtainUp when Anna in the Tropics appeared at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey, describes the play thusly: "Romantic, yet not hackneyed, richly infused with tradition, Cruz's play quietly glows as it speaks of longings, family, jealousy, and love."

Elyse Sommer, writing a follow-up review for the same publication when Anna in the Tropics opened at...