The lucky winners are Neil Bartram, Steven Lutvak and the composer/lyricist teams of Nathan Christensen and Scott Murphy, Michael Cooper and Kyeyoung Kim, and Glenn Slater and Stephen Weiner. Each will get a cash gift ranging from $2,500 to $15,000.

Also winning is The Lark Play Development Center, which will receive an organization award in support of Barnstormer, a musical theatre project in development by Douglas Cohen and Cheryl Davis.

The awards will be presented at a benefit luncheon at the 21 Club. Jason Biggs will emcee the event, which will include performances of songs selected from the work of prior year recipients Jim and Ruth Bauer, Mark Campbell, Amanda Green, Cynthia Hopkins and Gihieh Lee. Performers scheduled to take part in the presentation include Jen Chapin, Julia Murney, Molly Ringwald, Michael Winther, as well as composers Cynthia Hopkins and Gihieh Lee performing their own material.

Applications were judged by a panel of theatre professionals, including Kirsten Childs, David Loud, Joe Mantello and Stephen Schwartz.

The Jonathan Larson Performing Arts Foundation was "created in 1996 to provide financial assistance and encouragement to emerging composers, lyricists and bookwriters, and to nonprofit theatres with a commitment to the development of new musical theatre artists. "