| Recipients of 2025 Kleban Prize for Musical Theatre announced - Benjamin Velez & Madeline Myers | |
| Posted by: Official_Press_Release 02:16 pm EST 01/14/25 | |
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| www.NewDramatists.org/Kleban-Prize-Musical-Theatre The Kleban Foundation announces 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. ABOUT THE 2025 KLEBAN PRIZE WINNERS 2025 Kleban Prize winner, most promising musical theatre lyricist BENJAMIN VELEZ is a composer/lyricist born and raised in Miami, FL. A proud member of the Advanced BMI workshop (2012 Harrington Award), he has developed his original musicals at Ars Nova, Sundance at UCROSS, Berkeley Rep's Ground Floor, New York Stage and Film and the O'Neill, where his musical Borderline opened the 2019 Musical Theater Conference. He was a 2018 Dramatist Guild Foundation Fellow, the 2019 Fred Ebb Award Winner, a 2020 Thom Thomas Award winner, a 2020 Jonathan Larson Grant recipient, and 2023 winner of the Stephen Schwartz Award. His musical Kiss My Aztec, written with John Leguizamo, Tony Taccone, and David Kamp, was developed at the Public Theater (2018), before premiering at Berkeley Rep (2019), and playing at the La Jolla Playhouse (2019) and Hartford Stage (2022). His Public Works musical of The Tempest, directed by Laurie Woolery, premiered at the Delacorte Theater in August 2023. Real Women Have Curves, a collaboration with Joy Huerta (of Jesse Y Joy), Lisa Loomer and Nell Benjamin, directed by Sergio Trujillo, premiered at the American Repertory Theater in December 2023 and will be opening on Broadway this April at the James Earl Jones Theater. 2025 Kleban Prize winner, most promising musical theatre librettist MADELINE MYERS is a musical theater composer and lyricist in New York City. Her musicals include Double Helix (Creative Partners Productions; world premiere Bay Street Theater, 2023) Flatbush Avenue (UNC-Greensboro commission, 2021), and The Devil's Apprentice (world premiere Copenhagen, Denmark, 2018). Madeline is currently working on several new musical projects. Named to the 2022 Broadway Women's Fund "Women to Watch on Broadway" list, Madeline is a 2023 & 2022 Kleban Prize finalist for lyric writing; a winner of the 2021 Billie Burke Ziegfeld Award presented by New York Stage & Film and the Ziegfeld Club; a Jonathan Larson Grant finalist (2017-2020); a 2019 York Theatre Company NEO Writer; an ASCAP Plus Award recipient (2017-2023); and a 2016-2017 Dramatists Guild Fellow. Madeline is an alumna of Vanderbilt University's Blair School of Music, where she majored in music composition and theory. She is an original member of the music department of the Broadway production of Hamilton. Madeline is a proud member of ASCAP and the Dramatists Guild. She is represented by Chris Till at Paradigm Talent & Literary Agency. www.madelinemyers.com. @madelinesmyers The application window for the 2026 Kleban Prize will open on March 17, 2025 and close at 5:00PM EST on May 15, 2025. Guidelines for applying are available to view on New Dramatists' website www.NewDramatists.org/Kleban-Prize-Musical-Theatre . |
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