Steven Jaret Lutvak (July 18, 1959 – October 9, 2023) was an American composer who worked in musical theatre, film, and television. He was best known for writing the music and co-writing the lyrics for the musical ''

A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder ''A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder'' is a musical comedy with music by Steven Lutvak, lyrics by Lutvak and Robert L. Freedman, and a book by Freedman. It is based on the 1907 fictional novel ''Israel Rank: The Autobiography of a Criminal'' b ...

'', which won the

Tony Award for Best Musical The Tony Award for Best Musical is given annually to the best new Broadway musical, as determined by Tony Award voters. The award is one of the ceremony's longest-standing awards, having been presented each year since 1949. The award goes to the ...

in 2014.

Life and career

Steven Lutvak was born in

The Bronx The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...

, New York, on July 18, 1959. He attended

Binghamton University The State University of New York at Binghamton (Binghamton University or SUNY Binghamton) is a public university, public research university in Binghamton metropolitan area, Greater Binghamton, New York, United States. It is one of the four uni ...

, earning a bachelor's degree in music in 1980. He went on to attend the first graduate program in musical theatre writing at the

Tisch School of the Arts The New York University Tisch School of the Arts (commonly referred to as Tisch) is the performing, cinematic, and media arts school of New York University. Founded on August 17, 1965, as the School of the Arts at New York University, Tisch ...

, graduating in 1983. Lutvak wrote a number of musicals which were performed

Off-Off Broadway Off-off-Broadway theaters are smaller New York City theaters than Broadway and off-Broadway theaters, and usually have fewer than 100 seats. The off-off-Broadway movement began in 1958 as part of a response to perceived commercialism of the pro ...

and in regional theatre, and frequently collaborated with Robert L. Freedman. For their musical ''Campaign of the Century'', they won the California Musical Theater Competition from the Beverly Hills Theater Guild. However, they were best known for ''

'' (2012). It ran for over two years on Broadway and won the

. For his work on the show, Lutvak was nominated for the

Tony Award for Best Original Score The Tony Award for Best Original Score is the Tony Award given to the composers and lyricists of the best original score written for a musical or play in that year. The score consists of music and/or lyrics. To be eligible, a score must be written ...

. Lutvak composed the title track to the documentary film ''

Mad Hot Ballroom ''Mad Hot Ballroom'' is a 2005 American documentary film directed and co-produced by Marilyn Agrelo and written and co-produced by Amy Sewell, about a ballroom dance program in the New York City Department of Education, the New York City pu ...

'', and wrote music for ''The Wayside Inn'', ''Esmeralda'', ''Almost September'', and ''Campaign of the Century''. He also released his own album, entitled ''The Time it Takes''. Lutvak's musical ''Alfred Hitchcock Presents'' (based on the

television series A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming plat ...

) will premiere posthumously in

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

in March 2025.

Personal life and death

Lutvak married Michael McGowan in 2015. They had a daughter. Lutvak died from a

pulmonary embolism Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a blockage of an pulmonary artery, artery in the lungs by a substance that has moved from elsewhere in the body through the bloodstream (embolism). Symptoms of a PE may include dyspnea, shortness of breath, chest pain ...

at his studio in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

on October 9, 2023, at the age of 64.

Awards and recognition

In 2014, Lutvak and Freedman's ''A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder'' won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lyrics, and was also nominated for Outstanding Music. The show was also nominated for an Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Score, and received a Tony Award nomination for Original Score. In 2006, Lutvak received the Kleban Award for Lyric Writing for the Theater, as well as the Fred Ebb Award for Songwriting for the Theater alongside Robert L. Freedman. Lutvak was a 2005 recipient of the

American Theatre Wing The American Theatre Wing (the Wing for short) is a New York City–based non-profit organization "dedicated to supporting excellence and education in theatre", according to its mission statement. Originally known as the Stage Women's War Relief ...

's Jonathan Larson Grant. Lutvak was associated with the Sundance Theatre Institute, won a Johnny Mercer Foundation Emerging American Songwriter Award, two Bistro Awards, and three MAC Awards, and was a multi-time recipient of an ASCAP Award.

References

External links

*Playbill
A Chat With Steven Lutvak and Robert L. Freedman, the Gentlemen Behind the ''Murder''
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lutvak, Steven 1959 births 2023 deaths 20th-century American LGBTQ people 20th-century American composers 20th-century American male singers 20th-century American singer-songwriters 21st-century American LGBTQ people 21st-century American male singers 21st-century American singer-songwriters American LGBTQ composers American film score composers American male film score composers American male singer-songwriters American musical theatre composers Binghamton University alumni Broadway composers and lyricists Composers from New York City Deaths from pulmonary embolism Drama Desk Award winners LGBTQ people from New York (state) American male musical theatre composers Musicians from the Bronx Singer-songwriters from New York (state) Tisch School of the Arts alumni