NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 20, 2025 – The American Academy of Arts and Letters announces the three recipients of its 2025 Richard Rodgers Awards for Musical Theater. All winning musicals won Staged Reading Awards and will receive funds towards their presentation at nonprofit theaters in New York City. The members of this year’s selection committee were David Lang (chair), Kristoffer Diaz, Mindi Dickstein, Amanda Green, Richard Maltby, Jr., and John Weidman.
Richard Rodgers, who was elected to Arts and Letters in 1955, endowed these awards in 1978 to nurture talented composers and playwrights. Former award recipients include Jonathan Larson for Rent, Anaïs Mitchell for Hadestown, Jason Kim, Helen Park, Max Vernon, and Woodshed Collective for KPOP, and Will Aronson and Hue Park for Maybe Happy Ending. The Richard Rodgers Awards are the only awards administered by Arts and Letters for which applications are accepted.
Black Girl in Paris by Jacinth Greywoode (music) and AriDy Nox (book and lyrics) is a musical within a folktale within a ritual that centers the exploits of Sally Hemings, a young enslaved woman who travels to Paris, France, on the cusp of the French Revolution.
The Dark Lady by Sophie Boyce (book, lyrics, and story) and Veronica Mansour (music and story) has a musical score that fuses synth-pop and classical, and a story that fuses historical fact, speculation, and imagination in an audacious re-look at history and who really wrote Shakespeare’s works.
Helsinki by Barrett Riggins (music and lyrics) and Graham Techler (book and lyrics) is about a love affair that’s put to the ultimate test by the economically depressed landscape of 1990s Finland. An absurdly deadpan, achingly romantic dark comedy, Helsinki asks if life’s losers can find (and keep!) the love they deserve.
The Richard Rodgers Awards will be presented alongside the architecture, art, literature, and music awards at Arts and Letters’s annual Ceremonial in May.
The American Academy of Arts and Letters is an honor society of artists, architects, composers, and writers who foster and sustain interest in the arts. Our 300 members distribute over 70 awards annually; fund concerts and new works of musical theater; purchase and commission contemporary art for donation to museums across the country; and present exhibitions, talks, and events for the public at our historic buildings in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City.
Media Inquiries
Ashley Fedor
(212) 368-5900
afedor@artsandletters.org
For prior news announcements please write to info@artsandletters.org.