Musical duo pick up Kleban Awards

Beth Falcone, Kait Kerrigan honored by Foundation

By GORDON COX

Falcone

Kerrigan

Beth Falcone and Kait Kerrigan have picked up the 19th annual Kleban Awards, handed out every year to up-and-coming tuner lyricists and librettists.

Each kudo comes with a hefty $100,000 cash prize, to be paid out over two years.

Falcone, composer-lyricist of "Wanda's World" (which had a run in Gotham last year), nabbed the laurel for most promising musical theater lyricist, while Kerrigan ("Henry and Mudge") picks up the honor for librettist.

The Kleban Foundation, which hands out the awards, was established under the will of the late Edward Kleban, the lyricist of "A Chorus Line." This year's judges were Sheldon Harnick ("Fiddler on the Roof"), cast recording producer Thomas Z. Shepard and scribe Sherman Yellen ("Oh! Calcutta!").

Prior winters of the Kleban Award include David Lindsay-Abaire, Jason Robert Brown, and Michael Korie.