Mills and Wyner Awarded Kleban Prize For Outstanding Contribution to Musical Theatre

According to Variety, Peter Mills and Barry Wyner will be awarded the 2010 Kleban Prize in Musical Theater on June 21.  Each will receive a prize of $100,000 at the ceremny which will be held at ASCAP. 

Mills is a composer-lyricist who's work includes: Golden Boy of the Blue Ridge, Playboy of the Western World, and The Pursuit of Persephone. Wynerhas written the music, lyrics and book for Calvin Berger and Cyrano de Bergerac.

The Kleban Prize was established in 1988 under the will of A Chorus Line lyricist Edward Kleban, going each year to one lyricist and one librettist. Prize this year was awarded by a trio of judges including lyricist Craig Carnelia (Working), Susan Drury of the Dramatists' Guild Fund and playwright-librettist Jeffrey Sweet.Prior winners of the Kleban prize include David Lindsay-Abaire (Shrek the Musical), Jason Robert Brown (Parade) and Jeff Marx and Robert Lopez (Avenue Q).

ASCAP is a membership association of more than 380,000 U.S. composers, songwriters, lyricists, and music publishers of every kind of music. Through agreements with affiliated international societies, ASCAP also represents hundreds of thousands of music creators worldwide. ASCAP is the only U.S. performing rights organization created and controlled by composers, songwriters and music publishers, with a Board of Directors elected by and from the membership.