By Melissa Griegel . . . .
The Kleban Foundation presented their 34th annual Kleban Prize for Musical Theatre on Monday, February 5th at New World Stages (340 West 50th Street). The 2024 Kleban Prize for the most promising musical theater lyricist was awarded to Rona Siddiqui and the most promising musical theater librettist was awarded to Lisa Loomer. 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 made provisions for annual prizes. This year’s winners will each receive $100,000.
In conjunction with ASCAP and BMI, the awards presentation was hosted by Tony Award winners and Kleban board members Richard Maltby, Jr. (Ain’t Misbehavin’, Baby, Miss Saigon) and Maury Yeston (Titanic, Nine, Grand Hotel). “Ed Kleban was one of my best friends,” Yeston told the audience. “Eddie struggled. A composer can play club dates. How do you pay the rent as a lyricist? That is why he established this award. Eddie did not adapt someone else’s work. He took his own experiences, his love of art. The plot, the development, the wit, did not come from preexisting work, but from his own persona.”
“The Kleban Prize for Musical Theatre is one of the theater’s most distinctive honors,” said Maltby Jr., President of the Kleban Foundation. “After the last few challenging years, 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 theater, just when emerging writers—and established writers—need help the most.” Siddiqui echoed these sentiments in her acceptance speech. “I love that this award is given for promise in the craft. It looks forward to what I may create.”
Rona Siddiqui is a composer/lyricist based in NYC. A Grammy nominated artist, 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. In accepting her prize, she talked about her “up and down relationship” with herself as a lyricist. “Now, I embrace that words have temperature and vibration,” she said. “I love the heart-pounding thrill of using language and marrying it with music to manipulate a mood and shake up a moment.” Siddiqui has been in residency at Musical Theatre Factory and Ars Nova. Rona also served as Music Supervisor of A Strange Loop on Broadway.
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). Current projects include the musical adaptation of Like Water for Chocolate and a new play, Side Effects May Include…about Big Pharma. Loomer is an alumna of New Dramatists and the recipient of numerous awards for her craft. She talked about the wonderful moments in life when you can be in a dark place and then be surprised by positivity and light. “This is a time when audiences want to have hope,” she said. “They want to believe that good things happen to good people—like writers!” Loomer’s screen credits Girl, Interrupted. She is the book writer of the musical adaptation of Real Women Have Curves which recently ended a run at the American Repertory Theater in partnership with the producers Jack Noseworthy and NAMCO.
In addition to the awards presentations, the evening included a cocktail reception and performances. A highlight of the evening was a musical tribute to the late Kleban Foundation Board Member and Pulitzer and Tony Award winner Sheldon Harnick. Tony Award winner Danny Burstein (Moulin Rouge, Fiddler On The Roof) and Tony Award winner Andrea Martin (Pippin, Fiddler on the Roof, My Favorite Year) sang a rousing duet of “Do You Love Me?” from Harnick’s Fiddler. Burstein quipped, “I did not know Ed Kleban, but I played him in the Broadway show A Class Act.” The event also featured performances of material by this year’s Kleban Prize recipients, performed by Jonathan Raviv (The Band’s Visit, My Name is Asher Lev), Sherz Aletaha (Merrily We Roll Along), Elisa Galindez (Real Women Have Curves at A.R.T., Evita at Bay Street Theatre), Shadia Almasri (Pregones Theatre Ensemble, Repertorio Español) pianist David Evans, and pianist and music director Alexandra Crosby (Real Women Have Curves at A.R.T., Six on Broadway). Rona Siddiqui accompanied her performers.
Since its inception, Kleban Prize winners have been selected by judging panels comprised of the theater’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 Christine Toy Johnson (The Music Man, Pacific Overtures, Falsettoland).
For over 30 years, the Kleban Prize has recognized and honored some of the American musical theater’s brightest developing talents. Thus far, they have awarded over $6,000,000 to 83 artists who collectively have garnered seven Tony Awards with nearly 30 Tony nominations, 59 Emmy Awards, three Grammy Awards, 10 Drama Desk Awards, nine Outer Critic Circle Awards, five Obie Awards, two Olivier Awards, and two Pulitzer Prizes. Previous winners include 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), and John Weidman (Pacific Overtures, Road Show, Assassins). For more information about the Kleban Award, visit: www.NewDramatists.org/Kleban-Prize-Musical-Theatre
Photos by Melissa Griegel Photography
