Alive at Ten wins 2008 Richard Rodgers Award

Alive at Ten has been selected as a winner of the 2008 Richard Rodgers Awards for Musical Theatre, it was announced Feb 21.

Winners were chosen by a six-member jury, under the chairmanship of Stephen Sondheim. The jury also included Lynn Ahrens (Ragtime), John Guare, Sheldon Harnick (Fiddler on the Roof), Richard Maltby Jr (Miss Saigon). and John Weidman (Assassins).

Previous recipients of the award include Jonathan Larson’s Rent (1994), Laurence O’Keefe’s Bat Boy (1999), Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty’s Lucky Stiff (1987), Maury Yeston’s Nine (1980), Julie Taymor’s Juan Darien (1989), Jeanine Tesori’s Violet (1997), and Scott Frankel, Doug Wright, and Michael Korie’s Grey Gardens (2006).

In addition to Alive at Ten (book by Kirsten A. Guenther, music and lyrics by Ryan Scott Oliver), Aaron Jafferis and Ian Williams' Kingdom and Brad Alexander and Adam Mathias' See Rock City & Other Destinations were also selected. All three musicals will be given staged readings in Manhattan in 2008.

Alive at Ten, which is loosely based on real events, concerns "Kimberly Sharp, high school teacher, housewife and murderess with ambitions for TV stardom, who'll stop at nothing to achieve her dreams."

The Richard Rodgers Awards were endowed by the famed composer and are administered by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The awards, according to press notes, "provide financial support for productions, studio productions, or staged readings by nonprofit theatres in New York City."

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