Steven Lutvak and Robert L. Freedman Win Fred Ebb Award

Steven Lutvak and Robert L. Freedman, the authors of the musical Kind Hearts and Coronets, have been awarded the second annual Fred Ebb Award, which recognizes excellence in musical theatre songwriting by a songwriter or songwriting team that has not yet achieved significant commercial success.

The award, which includes a cash prize of $50,000, is named in honor of the late award-winning lyricist. The award presentation will take place on Tuesday, November 28 at The American Airlines Theatre. Tony Award winner Debra Monk will present the award. In addition, the reception will feature an all-star performance of three numbers from their musical, which is based on the famed 1949 Alec Guiness film of the same name about a man who sets out to kill everyone who stands between him and his becoming a Duke.

The pair have also collaborated on the musical Campaign of the Century, which won the 2006 California Musical Theatre Award, and they won the 2006 Kleban Award for lyric writing. Lutvak has previously won the Johnny Mercer Emerging American Songwriter Award, two awards from the Jonathan Larson Performing Arts Foundation, a grant from the NEA, and numerous ASCAP Awards. Freedman, whose television credits include Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella, and A Deadly Secret, has received the Writers Guild Award, a GLAAD Award, and an Emmy Award nomination.