The Kleban Foundation will present the prizes on Monday, February 3 at 5PM in a private ceremony.
The Kleban Foundation has announced the recipients of the 35th annual Kleban Prize for Musical Theatre. The 2025 Kleban Prize for the most promising musical theatre lyricist has been awarded to Benjamin Velez. The 2025 Kleban Prize for the most promising musical theatre librettist has been awarded to Madeline Myers. The Kleban Foundation will present the prizes on Monday, February 3 at 5PM in a private ceremony (by invitation only) hosted by ASCAP and BMI at ASCAP (250 W. 57th St, NYC). Featuring musical performances from work by this year's prize recipients, the event will be hosted by Tony Award winners and Kleban board members Richard Maltby, Jr. and Maury Yeston.
Since its inception, Kleban Prize winners have been selected by judging panels comprised of the theatre's most respected artists and administrators. The trio of celebrated judges making the final determination this year were choreographer Raja Feather Kelly (We're Gonna Die, A Strange Loop), Tony Award-winning designer Clint Ramos (Eclipsed, Slave Play), and Tony Award-winning producer Rachel Sussman (Suffs, Just For Us).
The Kleban Foundation was established in 1988 under the will of Edward L. Kleban, best known as the Tony and Pulitzer Prize winning lyricist of the musical A Chorus Line. Kleban's will made provisions for annual prizes, which in recent years have totaled $100,000 each, payable over two years, to be given to the most promising lyricist and librettist in American musical theatre. For 35 years, the Kleban Prize has recognized and honored some of the American musical theatre's brightest developing talents.
"The Kleban Prize for Musical Theatre is one of the theatre's most distinctive honors,” says Tony Award winner Richard Maltby Jr., President of the Kleban Foundation. “Today, Ed Kleban's legacy may be more important than ever in supporting the creators of tomorrow's American musicals. Ed Kleban recognized that theatrical wordsmiths have the hardest time supporting themselves while honing their craft, and so the Kleban awards are specifically for librettists and lyricists. It is notable that the Kleban Prize is not given to a specific work, as other awards are, but instead, it is given for work yet to be written. With a uniquely generous endowment, the Kleban Prize identifies, celebrates and supports promising writing talent in the theatre, just when emerging writers -- and established writers -- need help the most. Kleban Prize winners are going to define the art form for years to come. The Kleban Foundation is proud to carry on Ed Kleban's enlightened legacy.”
Over more than three decades, the annual Kleban Prize for Musical Theatre has awarded over $6,000,000 to 85 artists who collectively have garnered nine Tony Awards (with nearly 30 Tony nominations), 59 Emmy Awards, three Grammy Awards, 11 Drama Desk Awards, 11 Outer Critic Circle Awards, five Obie Awards, two Olivier Awards, and two Pulitzer Prizes. The list of previous Kleban Prize winners includes Shaina Taub (Suffs) Lisa Kron (Fun Home), Robert L. Freedman and Steven Lutvak (A Gentleman's Guide To Love and Murder), David Lindsay-Abaire (Kimberly Akimbo, Shrek), Jason Robert Brown (Parade, The Last Five Years), John Bucchino (A Catered Affair, It's Only Life), Gretchen Cryer (I'm Getting My Act Together and Taking It on the Road, The Last Sweet Days of Isaac), Michael Korie (Grey Gardens, Happiness), Jeff Marx and Robert Lopez (Avenue Q), Michael John LaChiusa (Giant, See What I Wanna See, The Wild Party), Glenn Slater (The Little Mermaid) and John Weidman (Pacific Overtures, Road Show, Assassins). For a complete listing of Kleban Prize winners, see the list at the end of this document.
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