Workshop Artistic Coordinator Pat Cook (left) and BMI's Jean Banks flank 2006 BMI Foundation/Jerry Harrington Award winners Jim Colleran, Beth Falcone and Justin Warner.

Winners included first year student Carl Danielsen, second year student Jim Colleran, advanced class student Beth Falcone and librettist student Justin Warner. The Foundation also presented its first Shelley Pinz Prize to Joy Son, a member of the Workshop's advanced class.

Shelley Pinz Prize winner Joy Son (center) is congratulated by BMI's Jean Banks and Pat Cook.

Established by Harrington's longtime friend and colleague, BMI executive Evelyn Buckstein, the awards are given each year in Harrington's honor to celebrate the late attorney's lifelong love of musical theater. Over the past seven years, these awards have given early recognition to some of the most talented and promising young musical theatre composers and librettists working in the field today, including the Tony Award-winning writers of Avenue Q, Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, who received the first Harrington Awards in 2000.

Deemed "the Harvard of musical theatre" by The New York Times, the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop was founded in 1961 by the late Lehman Engel, dean of American musical theatre, to create a setting where new writers could learn their craft. Included among the prestigious honors the Workshop has received are a special 2006 Drama Desk Award "for nurturing, developing and promoting new talent for the musical theater" and the 2005 Drama League Award for Excellence in Musical Theatre.

The BMI Foundation, Inc. is a not-for-profit corporation founded in 1985 to support the creation, performance, and study of music through awards, scholarships, commissions and grants. Tax-deductible donations to the Foundation come primarily from songwriters, composers and publishers, BMI employees and members of the public with a special interest in music. Because both the Foundation staff and the distinguished members of the Advisory Panel serve without compensation, over 97% of all donations and income are used for charitable grants.  

photos by Fernando Leon

The event will be directed by the Manhattan Theatre Club's Michael Bush; producers are Workshop Artistic Coordinator Patrick Cook and Workshop Special Events Coordinator Frank Evans. BMI will host a reception immediately following the performance.

Deemed "the Harvard of musical theatre" by The New York Times, the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop was founded in 1961 by BMI and the late Lehman Engel, dean of American musical theatre, to create a setting where new writers could learn their craft. It is the birthplace of such classic musicals as A Chorus Line, Nine, Little Shop of Horrors, Beauty and the Beast, and current Broadway favorite Avenue Q. The Workshop was recently honored with a special 2006 Drama Desk Award for "nurturing, developing and promoting new talent for the musical theater," and also received the 2005 Drama League Award for Excellence in Musical Theatre.

The showcase will feature new works and writers including Calvin Berger, a hip update of Cyrano by Barry Wyner, winner of the BMI Foundation's 2005 Jerry Bock Award for Excellence in Musical Theatre. The story is about 12th grader Calvin Berger, who grapples with his insecurity about the size of his nose. Lacking the courage to ask out the girl of his dreams, he instead communicates his feelings to her through the handsome new kid in school, which only makes him want her more. The new musical will have a full production at Gloucester (Maine) Stage this summer.

The Third Miracle by Jeff Hughes and Scott Ethier, is based on the film of the same name and examines the spiritual awakening of a priest who is beginning to doubt his faith when he is sent to investigate a "miracle" in the borough of Queens. The Tragic and Horrible Life of the Singing Nun, by Andy Monroe and Blair Fell, is a paean to Jeanine Deckers, the Belgian nun known as Soeur Sourire, who became a chart-topping one-hit wonder with the song "Dominique" in 1963, and how her singing career - and her life - devolved into a nightmare of addiction, depression, betrayal by the church, and a tragic end in 1985.

Rhonda, Queen of the Amazon, by Peter Morris and Mat Eisenstein, is a musical comedy about a New York City "princess" who finds herself selling cosmetics door-to-door in the jungles of South America. Wanda's World, by Beth Falcone, the BMI Foundation's 2006 Harrington Award winner, and Eric Weinberger (Class Mothers) is a "tween" musical set in a contemporary high school setting. 2005 Harrington Award winners Jill Abramovitz and Aron Accurso are writers of The Dogs of Pripyat, based on the play by Leah Napolin. The musical is set in a town less than two miles from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Tony-nominated actor/composer/lyricist Jeff Blumenkrantz (Urban Cowboy) will perform "Toll" from his recently published "Jeff Blumenkrantz Song Book."

The showcase will also feature two songs from Iznogoud - The Musical, based on the French comic books by Goscinny and Tabary, written by Marc Schubring and Phoebe Kreutz. Carried Away, based on the play The Curious Savage, is a new musical comedy with book, music and lyrics by Jim Coleran. The Fisher King, by Steve Routman and Joy Son, is based on the film of the same name.

Dysfunctional Fables has lyrics by Sean Hartley (2004 Drama Desk nominee for Cupid and Psyche) and Sam Davis. Queen Esther is from 2006 Drama Desk nominees Joshua Salzman and Ryan Cunningham, the writing team of I Love You Because.... How to Murder Your Wife is an adaptation of the film by Alisa Klein and Stephen Sislan, composer of Slut! The Musical, which played earlier this season Off-Broadway. Children's Hospital is by Larson Award-winning lyricist Alison Loeb and composer Bob McDowell.