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Edward Kleban

Shows · Edward Kleban

Lyricist 1939–1987

Edward "Ed" Kleban (April 30, 1939 – December 28, 1987) was an American musical theatre composer and lyricist. Kleban was born in the Bronx, New York City, in 1939 and graduated from New York's High School of Music & Art and Columbia University, where he attended with future playwright Terrence McNally. Kleban is best known as lyricist of the Broadway hit A Chorus Line. He and composer Marvin Hamlisch won the 1976 Tony Award for Best Original Score, and he shared the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1976 with Hamlisch and three other contributors to the musical. The one-woman Phyllis Newman show, The Madwoman of Central Park West (1979), featured a few tunes with his lyrics. For several years, he…

Also credited on2 works

A Chorus Line
A Chorus Line (2006 Revival)

These come off the person record, which names a work and not a production. So we can say this name is attached to the work and we cannot say which staging, or in what capacity. For a composer or a writer that is the whole career we hold; there is no cast list to find them in.

In the literature8 passages

  • The fastidiousness of Edward Kleban, best known as the lyricist for A Chorus Line, is directly attributable to the years he spent in Lehman Engel's BMI Musical Theatre Workshop, though Engel refined rather than created that fastidiousness. It already existed, both in Kleban's approach to his work and even his manner of dressing. (The orch…ebooks/Engel, Lehman/Words with Music_ Creating the Broadway Musical Libretto - Lehman Engel.txt
  • Both music and lyrics came from Edward Kleban (c. 1939–1987). Although Kleban was certainly best known (solely known, really) as the Tony-winning lyricist of A Chorus Line, he spent most of his life writing both music and lyrics. While he worked on an inordinate number of other shows, he never saw another one of his musicals produced.ebooks/Filichia, Peter/B007L4OWCU EBOK - Peter Filichia.txt
  • While the final version of A Chorus Line addresses race unevenly, a look into the archives of its lyricist, Edward Kleban, turns up some cut musical numbers that offer a more direct acknowledgment of racial difference. Connie and Richie were given the song “Confidence,” which speaks to their own perceived sense of internal strength in the…ebooks/Hoffman, Warren/Great White Way_ Race and the Broadway Musical, The - Warren Hoffman.txt
  • 3. James Kirkwood and Nicholas Dante, book; Marvin Hamlisch, music; Edward Kleban, lyrics, A Chorus Line (1975; New York: Applause Books, 1995), 31.ebooks/Hoffman, Warren/Great White Way_ Race and the Broadway Musical, The - Warren Hoffman.txt
  • 16. Michael Feingold, “Believing the Myth,” review of A Chorus Line , book by James Kirkwood and Nicholas Dante, music by Marvin Hamlisch, lyrics by Edward Kleban, conceived, choreographed, and directed by Michael Bennett, New York Shakespeare Festival, New York, Village Voice , June 2, 1975.ebooks/Hoffman, Warren/Great White Way_ Race and the Broadway Musical, The - Warren Hoffman.txt
  • 20. Box 3, Folder 9, Edward Kleban Papers, *T-Mss 1988–007, Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.ebooks/Hoffman, Warren/Great White Way_ Race and the Broadway Musical, The - Warren Hoffman.txt

Passages naming this person, found by keyword across 178 books. A keyword match is not a biography, and a common name will pull in the wrong one.

What this page does not know

  • What this person played. No cast list we hold records a character against a performer.
  • Any staging. This name appears in no production cast list we hold — 1,877 of 7,139 people are in that position, most of them writers, composers and designers rather than performers.
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  • Which of the credits above the roles on this record — lyricist — apply to. The roles sit on the person and never on a credit, so a director who also acted looks the same here as one who did not.

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