The 2005 Kurt Weill Prize has been awarded to Andrea Most of the University of Toronto for her book, Making Americans: Jews and the Broadway Musical (Harvard University Press, 2004). In an examination of Broadway theater in the period 1925 to 1951, from The Jazz Singer to The King and I, Most maintains that the process of Jewish acculturation in America and the development of the Broadway musical are inextricably joined. Most receives a prize award of $2500. Also singled out by the prize panel for honorable mention in the book category was Bill Egan, for his book Florence Mills: Harlem Jazz Queen (Scarecrow Press, 2004), a biography of a remarkable African-American entertainer of the 1920s. The panel did not award a prize in the article category.
The Kurt Weill Prize is awarded biennially for distinguished scholarship on twentieth-century musical theater. The four-member selection panel consists of representatives from the Modern Language Association, the American Musicological Society, the American Society for Theatre Research, and the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music. Scholarly work first published in 2005 and 2006 may be nominated for the 2007 book and article prizes. Nominations, including five copies of the nominated work and contact information for the author, must be received by 30 April 2007 at the offices of the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, 7 East 20th Street, New York, NY 10003.