Steven Lutvak

Steven Jaret Lutvak (July 18, 1959 – October 9, 2023) was an American composer, lyricist, and book writer for musical theatre, film, and television. Born in the Bronx, New York, he became best known for his work on A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, the Broadway musical that won the Tony Award for Best Musical in 2014.

Lutvak studied music at Binghamton University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in 1980. He subsequently enrolled in the inaugural graduate program in musical theatre writing at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, completing his studies there in 1983. His early career included musicals produced Off-Off Broadway and in regional theatre, and he developed a long-standing creative partnership with writer Robert L. Freedman. Among their collaborations was Campaign of the Century, which earned them the California Musical Theater Competition from the Beverly Hills Theater Guild.

The partnership with Freedman produced A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, which opened on Broadway in 2014 after its initial development in 2012. The show ran for more than two years and, in addition to winning the Tony Award for Best Musical, earned Lutvak a Tony nomination for Best Original Score. He and Freedman received the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lyrics in 2014 for the production, which was also nominated for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music and an Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Score.

Beyond A Gentleman's Guide, Lutvak composed music for several other stage works, including The Wayside Inn, Esmeralda, Almost September, and Campaign of the Century. He composed the title track for the documentary film Mad Hot Ballroom and released a solo album titled The Time it Takes. A musical he wrote based on the television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents was scheduled to premiere posthumously in Bath in March 2025.

Lutvak received numerous honors throughout his career. In 2005 he was awarded the American Theatre Wing's Jonathan Larson Grant, and in 2006 he received both the Kleban Award for Lyric Writing for the Theater and the Fred Ebb Award for Songwriting for the Theater, the latter shared with Freedman. He also won a Johnny Mercer Foundation Emerging American Songwriter Award, two Bistro Awards, three MAC Awards, and was a multi-time recipient of an ASCAP Award. He was additionally associated with the Sundance Theatre Institute.

In his personal life, Lutvak married Michael McGowan in 2015, and the couple had a daughter. He died on October 9, 2023, from a pulmonary embolism at his studio in Manhattan, at the age of 64.