The American Theatre Wing (ATW) has revealed the 2024 recipients of the Jonathan Larson Grant. The annual prize acknowledges early-career musical theater composers, lyricists and librettists, and is presented to individuals or writing teams. The latest round of recipients will be celebrated with two showcases of their work on March 31 at Joe’s Pub in Manhattan. A 6:30 p.m. presentation will be by invitation only, while the 9 p.m. showing will be open to the public.
Each recipient will be awarded a $16,000 unrestricted grant as well as $2,500 Saw Island Foundation Recording Grant to be used for the production of a new demo recording of each artist’s work.
The 2024 recipients include individuals Kate Douglas, Joriah Kwamé and Dylan MarcAurele, as well as two duos: Shannon Burkett and Heather Christian, and Cheeyang Ng and Eric Sorrels.
Douglas is author of the play “The Apiary,” which played Off-Broadway witht Second Stage Theater in 2024. Douglas was also an eight-year cast member of “Sleep No More.”
Kwamé is known for penning the viral song “Little Miss Perfect,” of which he is writing a full-length musical of the same name. Kwamé co-wrote the song “Top of the World” for the 2022 film “Lyle Lyle Crocodile” with the Tony Award-winning duo (and former Jonathan Larson Grant recipients) Benj Pasek and Justin Paul.
MarcAurele wrote the book, music and lyrics for the musical “Pop Off, Michelangelo!,” which played the 2024 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, as well as the musicals “MEG4N” and “The Real Housewives of NYC: The Musical,” the latter which played at the Green Room 42 and was featured on “Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen.”
Burkett provided the book and lyrics and Christian created the music for “The Female Pope,” which played at National Alliance for Musical Theatre’s Festival of New Musicals in 2022.
Burkett also created, wrote and produced the audio docudrama podcast “Lead,” while Christian is the recipient of a 2022 Special Drama Desk Award for “Oratorio for Living Things.”
Ng and Sorrels collaborated on the musical “Māyā” (Ng wrote the music, Sorrels the lyrics and both penned the book), which played Symphony Space in 2024 and will continue its development in 2025 in London. The duo has also collaborated on “The Phoenix,” which was created with Desdemona Chiang.
“We are continuously bowled over by this generation of composers, lyricists and book-writers shaping the next wave of musical theater,” said ATW president and CEO Heather Hitchens in a statement. “The talent and range of this year’s Jonathan Larson Grant winners is profound, and many were not strangers to us, having been finalists in previous years. We are so grateful to our expert panel — each a star and thought leader in their own right — for their indefatigable work. Please join us on March 31 to experience first-hand these future stars of musical theater!”
The grant recipients were selected by a panel that included artistic director of the Public Theater Oskar Eustis, talent and literary agent at Creative Artists Agency Kevin Lin, Larry Owens (who won a Drama Desk Award for his leading turn in the Off-Broadway mounting of “A Strange Loop”) and “A Strange Loop” music director, music supervisor and arranger (and former grant recipient) Rona Siddiqui.
