Earlier this week, New Dramatists presented the 31st annual Kleban Prize in Musical Theatre, which celebrates promising new lyricists and librettists. Edward Kleban, lyricist of A Chorus Line, created the prize in his will. From his own experience, he knew that, unlike composers and musicians, lyricists and librettists usually have to work outside of theater to support themselves. He wanted a prize of sufficient size to allow promising writers the time to write. In recent years, the Kleban Foundation Board has set the prize at $100,000 in each category, paid in two annual installments to recipients.
Tony winners and Kleban board members Richard Maltby Jr. and Maury Yeston hosted the virtual ceremony honoring this year’s recipients: lyricist Benjamin Scheuer and co-librettists Melissa Li and Kit Yan. Performances included excerpts from Li and Yan’s musical Interstate performed by Sushma Saha, Kai Alexander Judd, and Rose Van Dyne, as well as songs written and performed by Scheuer, plus Birmingham Royal Ballet’s short film that dramatized his song “Empty Stage.”
Applications for the 2022 Kleban Prize in Musical Theatre are now being accepted online until 6 p.m. ET on May 19, 2021. To ensure a robust and equitable adjudication, applications (including work samples) are reviewed blind by an independent panel of musical theater artists and industry leaders.