Lauren Kahane

Lauren Kahane (Book and Lyrics) is a librettist, lyricist, producer and teaching artist. She is also a mother, daughter, grandmother, and partner. When she was in her 50s, Lauren left her home in Chicago to go to New York to pursue musical theater writing full-time. Lauren often tells the stories of middle-aged people who are parents and grapples with questions of how aging, parenthood, a relationship with a partner, and pressure imposed by cultural norms impact identity and the freedom to pursue personal desires.  

Lauren’s is the 2020 Robert and Stephanie Olmsted MacDowell Fellow. Her work has been seen at The Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts, The 5th Ave Theatre, Goodspeed Musicals, Barrington Stage Company, 54 Below, Prospect Theater, Princeton University, NYU Tisch, Chicago Dramatists, The Porchlight Music Theatre and various other venues around the country (and Singapore). Current projects include The Girl Who Cried Different, and Mimosa: The Disobedient Plant, with composer Danny Ursetti.  

Lauren co-executive produced the concept album of her musical, Regretting Almost Everything, featuring Beth Leavel and Jeff Blumenkrantz. She is also the producer of William Finn and Danny Ursetti’s pandemic song-cycle, Once Every Hundred Years, and assisted William Finn in a series of Master Classes in Lyric Writing.  

Lauren is a member of Maestra, the Dramatists Guild, a Voting Member of the Recording Academy, and a founding member of HomeBrewed Collective. She has a B.S. from Princeton, a J.D. from Harvard Law School and an MFA in Musical Theatre Writing from NYU-Tisch (2017).  

More information about Lauren and her work can be found at laurenkahane.com