Stacey Luftig wins 2016 Kleban Prize for Most Promising Lyricist

One morning last December, as I was rewriting a lyric, I received a call from a man named Elliot Brown who told me he was from the Kleban Foundation. ("Omigod, I'm a finalist. Do not get overexcited. A finalist is great, it's great. I am a finalist, a finalist, a finalist.") And then, after affirming he had reached me, he said, "Hold on while I get Richard Maltby on the phone." ("Omigod...I am NOT just a finalist....") Flash forward to February 8, 2016, when Daniel Goldstein and I receive our prizes--him as Most Promising Librettist, and me as Most Promising Lyricist. And we sit for lots and lots of photographs.

Here we are, with Elliot Brown, John Weidman, Sara Douglas, Richard Terrano, Maury Yeston, and yep, Richard Maltby, Jr.