Jeremy Desmon, Joe Iconis Win Kleban Awards

New Dramatists has named Jeremy Desmon and Joe Iconis as winners of the 17th annual Kleban Awards for most promising librettist and lyricist, respectively. The winners will be honored at a private ceremony on June 13, and each will receive a $100,000 cash prize. The awards are named for Ed Kleban, the Pulitzer Prize-winning lyricist of A Chorus Line.

Desmon’s work includes The Girl in the Frame, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie & Other Storybooks, and I See London, I See France (The Underwear Musical), which will be part of the 2007 New York Musical Theatre Festival.

Iconis’ new musical The Black Suits, co-written with Robert Maddock, will open next season at MCC Theatre. He recently performed a concert of his songs, Things to Ruin, at Joe’s Pub. Earlier this year, Iconis won the Jonathan Larson Award.

This year’s judges were Rick Elice, Carol Hall, and Charles Kopelman. The directors of the Kleban Foundation are Andre Bishop, Sheldon Harnick, Richard Matlby, Jr., Francis Neuwirth, Alan J. Stein, John Weidman, and Maury Yeston.