Edward Kleban

Edward Kleban (April 30, 1939 – December 28, 1987) was a Broadway composer, lyricist, and book writer born in the Bronx, New York City. He graduated from New York's High School of Music & Art and went on to attend Columbia University, where his classmates included future playwright Terrence McNally.

Before establishing himself in the theatre, Kleban spent several years at Columbia Records, where he produced albums spanning a wide range of artists, from classical composer Igor Stravinsky to easy-listening bandleader Percy Faith. His work there also included producing cast recordings for the Off-Broadway productions Now Is the Time for All Good Men and Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris. He additionally served as a teacher at the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop for many years.

Kleban is best known as the lyricist of A Chorus Line, the landmark Broadway musical with music by Marvin Hamlisch. The show brought him the 1976 Tony Award for Best Original Score, shared with Hamlisch, as well as the 1976 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, which he shared with Hamlisch and three other contributors to the production. That same year he received the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music and Lyrics. His lyrics also appeared in The Madwoman of Central Park West, a 1979 one-woman show featuring Phyllis Newman.

Kleban died on December 28, 1987, at St. Vincent's Hospital in New York from complications from throat cancer at the age of 48. In his will, he left the rights to his collection of unpublished songs to friends Avery Corman and Wendy Wasserstein, requesting that they incorporate the material into a new musical. When those efforts did not succeed, the rights passed to his longtime companion, librettist Linda Kline. Kline collaborated with director and performer Lonny Price over six years to develop A Class Act, a musical biography of Kleban built from songs he had written for various unproduced musicals, with Kline and Price serving as co-authors. Price also directed the production and played the role of Ed. After a two-month run at the Manhattan Theatre Club, A Class Act transferred to the Ambassador Theatre on March 10, 2001, where it ran for an additional three months. The production earned Kleban a posthumous Tony Award nomination for Best Original Score, along with Drama Desk nominations for Outstanding Music and Outstanding Lyrics.

Kleban's will also established the Kleban Foundation, which administers the annual Kleban Prize in Musical Theatre. The prize awards $100,000, paid over two years, to the most promising librettist and lyricist in American musical theatre. Administered by BMI in association with New Dramatists and ASCAP, the prize has been awarded to 63 musical theatre artists, distributing a total of approximately $5,000,000. Recipients have included Jason Robert Brown, Steven Lutvak, John Bucchino, Robert Lopez, Adam Gwon, John Weidman, and Robert L. Friedman.