Barry Kleinbort

Barry Kleinbort has worked as a director, composer, lyricist, and librettist, earning the prestigious Edward Kleban Foundation Award for Lyric Writing, two Gilman-Gonzalez Musical Theatre Commendations Award, the ASCAP/Jamie deRoy award for songwriting, the Second Stage Constance Klinsky musical theater award, two Back Stage Bistro awards, ten Manhattan Association of Cabarets (MAC) awards, and two Cable “Telly” awards for his efforts. He has also been a three-time finalist for the Fred Ebb Musical Foundation award. Mr. Kleinbort adapted and directed the New York premiere of Bob Merrill’s musical The Prince of Grand Street starring Mike Burstyn for the Jewish Rep, and John Epperson’s well received autobiographical evening Show Trash at the Studio Theater in Washington D.C. He wrote the book and lyrics for the musical Was (based on Geoff Ryman’s cult classic with music by Joseph Thalken), which was the inaugural production of the American Music Theater Project in Chicago, and which has also been seen at the Human Race Theater in Dayton, Ohio. He wrote the incidental music and songs for the off-Broadway production of Second Avenue by Allan Knee and the book, music and lyrics for Angelina, a musical based on That Summer – That Fall by Frank D. Gilroy. As librettist, he co-wrote with David Levy Perfect Harmony, a musical play about the lives of the Barry Sisters. His latest projects include providing the English songs (music and lyrics) for a bilingual musical revue called Metropolita(i)n (which has played successfully in both Paris and New York) and doing the book, music and lyrics for 13 Things About Ed Carpolotti, based on a play by Jeffrey Hatcher.