Photos: Danny Burstein, Michael R. Jackson And More Turn Out for the 2024 Kleban Prize Ceremony!

Go inside The Kleban Foundation's 34th annual Kleban Prize for Musical Theatre ceremony. Go inside the event in the photos below!

The 2024 Kleban Prize for the most promising musical theatre lyricist has been awarded to Rona Siddiqui. The 2024 Kleban Prize for the most promising musical theatre librettist has been awarded to Lisa Loomer.

The evening featured 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 Tony Award-winning playwright, composer, and lyricist Michael R. Jackson (A Strange Loop), Elissa Adams (Associate Artistic Director ,Theater Latte Da; Producer, NEXT Festivals), and award-winning actor and playwright Chistine Toy Johnson (The Music Man, Pacific Overtures, Falsettoland).

2024 Kleban Prize winner, most promising musical theatre lyricist Rona Siddiqui is a composer/lyricist based in NYC. A Grammy nominated artist, Rona Siddiqui is a recipient of the Jonathan Larson Grant and Billie Burke Ziegfeld award and was named one of Broadway Women's Fund's Women to Watch. Her musicals include Salaam Medina: Tales of a Halfghan, an autobiographical comedy about growing up bi-ethnic in America, One Good Day, Hip Hop Cinderella, and Treasure in NYC. She is the recipient of the ASCAP Harold Adamson Lyric Award, the ASCAP Foundation Mary Rodgers/Lorenz Hart Award and ASCAP Foundation/Max Dreyfus Scholarship. She has been in residency at Musical Theatre Factory and Ars Nova. Rona also served as Music Supervisor of A Strange Loop on Broadway. www.RonaSiddiqui.com

2024 Kleban Prize winner, most promising musical theatre librettist Lisa Loomer is a playwright whose work has been produced at major theaters across the country and is taught in both Women's Studies and Latine Studies classes. Her recent play Roe, about Roe v. Wade, debuted at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and went on to such theaters as Arena Stage, The Goodman, and Berkley Rep. Other plays include The Waiting Room (Williamstown, Vineyard), Living Out (Mark Taper, Second Stage), Distracted (Mark Taper, Roundabout), ¡Bocón! (Mark Taper Forum) and Café Vida (LATC). Ms. Loomer is an alumna of New Dramatists and the recipient of The American Theater Critics Award (twice), Pen award, Jane Chambers award (twice), Kennedy Center New Plays Award, Susan Smith Blackburn, and an Imagen Award for positive portrayals of Latine people in all media. Screen credits Girl, Interrupted. She is the bookwriter of the musical adaptation of Real Women Have Curves which is currently running at the American Repertory Theater in partnership with the producers Jack Noseworthy and NAMCO. Current projects include the musical of Like Water for Chocolate and a new play, Side Effects May Include...about Pharma.

Photo Credit: Genevieve Rafter-Keddy