Richard Rodgers Competition Winners Announced

The American Academy of Arts and Letters has announced the winners of the annual Richard Rodgers competition for musical theater. They are: The Tutor by Andrew Gerle and Maryrose Wood, which will receive a studio production; Once Upon a Time in New Jersey by Susan DiLallo and Stephen Weiner and The Devil in the Flesh by Jeffrey Lunden and Arthur Perlman, both of which will receive development awards for staged readings.

The Tutor is described as an edgy six-character musical focusing on the relationship between a neurotic, aspiring novelist and a teenager whom he has been hired to get into Princeton. Once Upon a Time in New Jersey, a musical comedy set in 1956 Hoboken, tells the story of a deli worker who switches places with a local lothario to woo the woman he loves. The Devil in the Flesh is an adaptation of Raymond Radiguet’s novel about World War I and the doomed love affair between a man and a woman whose husband has gone off to battle.

Though the American Academy of Arts and Letters presents annual awards in painting, sculpture, architecture, literature, and music composition, the Richard Rodgers awards are the academy’s only competitive honors. To obtain an application for future consideration, send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, 633 West 155th Street, New York, NY, 10032.