RSO & Lindsay Mendez receive 2026 Muse Award

January 29, 2026

On May 4, 2026, Prospect Musicals held its 2026 Gala to honor extraordinary members of the theater community through the fourth annual Muse Awards:

  • Tony Award-winning theatrical producer Ken Davenport;
  • Tony Award-winning actor and theatrical producer LaChanze;
  • Tony Award-winning actor Lindsay Mendez and Kleban Prize-winning writer Ryan Scott Oliver, co-founders of Actor Therapy;
  • and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Emmy-nominated filmmaker, and Tony-nominated theatrical producer Jose Antonio Vargas.

“The Prospect Muse Award exists to honor leaders who inspire Prospect’s artists through their positive and profound contributions within the theater community and the world at large. This year’s honorees have advocated for inclusive communities, encouraged diverse and nuanced storytelling, and developed and mentored the next generation of theater-makers.”

See below for assorted photos from the event.

Double “Dies”: TOMORROW, THE ISLAND DIES selected for SDSU and Northwestern AMTP residencies

July 15, 2024

RSO’s latest musical Tomorrow, the Island Dies has been named the winner for two theatre development residencies.

At San Diego State University, Tomorrow will receive a reading early this fall, followed by a workshop in spring 2025, and will culminate in a fully-realized production on the Mainstage in spring 2026. Read more about SDSU’s program here.

Northwestern’s American Musical Theatre Project (AMTP) will also develop Tomorrow this spring with a full NYC creative team. Check out AMTP’s program here as well as its previous productions.

An original concept recording is available on Spotify, Apple Music and wherever you stream music. A second recording completing the score will be available later this year.

RSO WINS THE 2023 KLEBAN PRIZE FOR LYRICS

March 1, 2023

Ryan Scott Oliver and librettist Ethan Lipton have been named as winners of the 33rd Annual Kleban Prize for Musical Theatre by The Kleban Foundation. Each winner receives $100, 000.

Past winners have included Jason Robert Brown (Parade, The Last Five Years), John Bucchino (A Catered Affair, It’s Only Life), Jeff Marx and Robert Lopez (Avenue Q), Michael John LaChiusa (Giant, See What I Wanna See, The Wild Party), and John Weidman (Pacific Overtures, Road Show, Assassins).

See the Playbill announcement here.

SPRING UPDATES FROM RSO

June 30, 2020

This spring has been incredibly challenging (the pandemic), changing (#BLM!), and finally prideful for us all. Here are a few RSO updates.

Applications Are Open for Rhinebeck Writers Retreat's NEA and ...

THE RHINEBECK WRITER’S RETREAT SELECTS RSO & ADAM CHANLER-BERAT

The new collaborators are at work revising Rope together during a digital retreat this summer. Find out more, including who the other recipients are, here.

SIGNAL CONCERT

RSO was thrilled to join Duncan Sheik and an incredible roster of writers for SIGNAL IV, a concert on YouTube presented by Adam Lenson (who directed RSO’s 35MM at the Other Palace in London in 2017). Kerstin Anderson performed “Bleed You Dry” from Three Points of Contact. Check out more about the event here, and watch Kerstin’s performance below at the 2’00″00 (2 hour) mark.

BROADWAY RECORDS RELEASED ‘ARTIST IN RESIDENCE’

RSO, Alan Menken, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, Adam Gwon, and many others wrote songs for Artists in Residence, songs by writers during the quarantine. RSO penned “What a Thought” for his upcoming EP based on tales by the queen of classic horror Shirley Jackson, and the shocking, murderous comedy song was performed by Jay Armstrong Johnson. You can listen to it here on Spotify (and stay tuned for upcoming news about the Jackson project).

Artists in Residence [MP3] — Broadway Records

Here’s to Summer 2020 during a global pandemic!