Stacey Luftig writes lyrics and book for musical theater. She also writes plays, operettas, and the occasional television show. She is the recipient of the 2016 Kleban Prize for lyrics and is the co-recipient of the 2015 Fred Ebb Award for Excellence in Musical Theatre with composer Phillip Palmer, her long-time collaborator.

Her current project with Phillip is Amelia and Me, inspired by the little-known story of the friendship and conflict between Amelia Earhart and pilot Jackie Cochran. Amelia and Me is based on Stacey’s play Jinxed, which was an O’Neill National Playwrights Conference Finalist as well as Winner and Audience Favorite at Dayton Playhouse FutureFest.  Stacey and Phillip, with bookwriter Jennie Redling, also created My Heart Is the Drum. Set in modern Ghana, My Heart is the Drum had its world premiere at Village Theatre near Seattle, directed by Schele Williams (Motown the Musical). Originated at the BMI Workshop, Drum was presented by the National Alliance for Musical Theatre (NAMT) and further developed at the Johnny Mercer Writers Colony at Goodspeed Musicals and Kent State University.

Stacey’s other current projects are Invincible (book) with Mark Sonnenblick (music and lyrics) and, partially in Spanish, The Tooth Fairy Versus El Ratón Pérez (lyrics) with Susan Murray (book) and Mary Feinsinger (music).

Her operetta, Story of an Hour, with music by Michael Valenti, was awarded the inaugural Salzman-Gramercy Opera Advancement Prize. It premiered with the Portland Chamber Orchestra and was later produced by Gramercy Opera in NYC. The Christmas carol from the operetta was performed by the choir at St. Patrick’s Cathedral at Christmas mass. As one of the lyricists for That’s Life, an off-Broadway revue about contemporary Jewish life, Stacey was nominated for an Outer Critics Circle Award. Her work on the show was singled out by The New York Times and the New York Post.

She has also written book and lyrics for Understood Betsy, a family musical. Based on a novel published in 1916, and maybe even more timely a century later, Understood Betsy tells the story of a timid, overprotected young girl who learns to think and act for herself. Produced at Actors Playhouse in Coral Gables, Florida, Understood Betsy was the winner of the National Children’s Theatre Festival Award and the Jackie White National Children’s Playwriting Award.

​Other writing includes episodes of the animated TV show Pinky Dinky Doo, produced by the Sesame Workshop and Noggin Network. Stacey is also the editor of The Joni Mitchell Companion and The Paul Simon Companion, anthologies published by Schirmer Books.

Stacey lives in New York City, hails from New Jersey (exit 10!), and is a graduate of the University of Virginia. She is a five-time fellow of the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA) and a member of the BMI Advanced Workshop, the BMI Librettists Workshop, the Dramatists Guild, and ASCAP.

She also happens to be a great-niece of Irving Cohn, who wrote the music for the 1923 hit song "Yes, We Have No Bananas."