FUN HOME's Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori Win Tony for Best Original Score

Lisa Kron (Lyrics) and Jeanine Tesori (Score) have won the 2015 Tony Award for Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) written for the theatre for FUN HOME.

Jeanine Tesori composed the scores to the Broadway productions of Violet, Caroline, or Change (2004 Tony nomination for Best Original Score), Shrek the Musical (Tony and Drama Desk Award nominations for her music) and Thoroughly Modern Millie (2000).

Her Off-Broadway musical Violet, (Obie Award, New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Musical, and Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical), opened on Broadway last season starring Sutton Foster. Her recent Off-Broadway musical, Fun Home, a finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, played a sold-out run at the Public Theater last season, and will open on Broadway in the spring. She has written music for several plays, including Twelfth Night at Lincoln Center (Tony Nom. for best score), John Guare's A Free Man of Color, and Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children, which was part of the 2006 Shakespeare in the Park season and starred Meryl Streep.

Her film scores include Nights in Rodanthe, Every Day, and You're Not You. Her opera, A Blizzard on Marblehead Neck (libretto by Tony Kushner) premiered at Glimmerglass Festival in 2011 and her newest opera, The Lion, the Unicorn and Me, had its world premiere run at D.C.'s Washington National Opera in December 2013. She is the creative director and co-founder (with Idina Menzel) of A Broader Way Foundation, an immersive arts education program for girls from underserved communities of New York City. She is the founding artistic director of Encores! Off-Center at New York City Center and is a lecturer in music at Yale University.

Lisa Kron has been writing and performing theater since coming to New York from Michigan in 1983. In addition to Fun Home, plays include Well, (2006 Best Actress Tony nom., included in "Best Plays of 2003-2004"); 2.5 Minute Ride (Obie, L.A. Drama-Logue, GLAAD Media Awards); In The Wake (Lilly Award, included in "Best Plays of 2010-2011"); The Ver**zon Play (2011 Humana Festival).

Most recent acting: Mrs. Mi-Tzu and Mrs. Yang in the Foundry Theater's acclaimed production of Good Person of Szechuan (Lortel Award-Outstanding Featured Actress). Honors include Guggenheim, Sundance, Lark, and MacDowell fellowships, a Doris Duke Performing Artists Award, a Cal Arts/Alpert Award, ANVPI residency at Arena Stage, the Helen Merrill Award, and grants from the Creative Capital and NYFA.

She is a proud founding member of the legendary OBIE and Bessie-Award-winning collaborative theater company The Five Lesbian Brothers. She serves on the boards of the MacDowell Colony and the Lilly Awards, and on the Council of the Dramatists Guild of America.

Fun Home, the highly-anticipated, Award-winning American musical, opened at the Circle in the Square Theatre (235 West 50th Street) on April 19th. The show features music by four-time Tony Award nominee Jeanine Tesori, a book and lyrics by Tony Award nominee Lisa Kron and direction by Drama Desk nominee Sam Gold.

Pronounced "a beautiful, heartbreaker of a musical" by the New York Times, Fun Home is the groundbreaking new Broadway musical based on Alison Bechdel's best-selling graphic memoir. Fun Home introduces us to Alison at three different ages, revealing memories of her uniquely dysfunctional family - her mother, brothers and volatile, brilliant, enigmatic father - that connect with her in surprising new ways. A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, Fun Home is a refreshingly honest, wholly original musical about seeing your parents through grown-up eyes.

The cast of Fun Home includes Tony Award-winner Michael Cerveris, three-time Tony Award nomineeJudy Kuhn,Beth Malone, Obie Award-winner Sydney Lucas, Emily Skeggs, Roberta Colindrez, Zell Steele Morrow, Joel Perez,Oscar Williams, Lauren Patten, Gabriella Pizzolo, Marrick Smith, Jim Stanek, and Nicole Van Giesen.

Fun Home opened to rave reviews at The Public Theater in October 2013, and was quickly extended four times due to popular demand. It was named Best Musical by the New York Drama Critics Circle, and received the OBIE, Lucille Lortel, Outer Critics Circle and Off Broadway Alliance Awards in the 2013-2014 season.