Broadway composer Steven Lutvak and friends return to Sands Point Preserve for the annual “Not Quite Christmas Cabaret” on Saturday, Dec. 12, at 8 p.m. This year, the cabaret takes place at Hempstead House, once the home of Daniel and Florence Guggenheim, who lavishly entertained their guests inside their enormous Gold Coast mansion.
Lutvak, the composer of the recent Tony Award-winning A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, is bringing a starry lineup that includes Catherine Walker, Jeff Kready and Catherine Porter.
The cabaret is a homecoming of sorts for Lutvak. He’ll be back again at the Preserve in February for the Valentine’s Night Cabaret, a benefit evening, featuring Tony-winning and Gentleman’s Guide star Jefferson Mays.
“I love the spaces at the Preserve,” said Lutvak, about his return to the Guggenheim Estate. “I’ve grown to love the audience. I have such a history with them. My life has changed in such wonderful ways, it’s great to go back.”
As to the decision to hold the cabaret at Hempstead House, Sands Point Preserve’s Managing Director Beth Horn said, “This magnificent mansion is in critical need of exterior restoration work. To bring awareness to the campaign to Save Hempstead House, this evening will take place throughout its grand rooms, the Palm Court, winter and summer living rooms, billiards room, library and dining room, as if we are guests of the Guggenheims.”
Lutvak made his Broadway debut as composer and co-lyricist of A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, which won the Drama Desk, Drama League, Outer Critics Circle and Tony Awards for Best Musical. He’s also written a dozen-plus musicals, and has performed his material at Carnegie Hall, The Oak Room at the Algonquin, Rainbow and Stars, the Russian Tea Room and other New York cabaret rooms. This year’s “Not Quite Christmas Cabaret” marks the first time he brings a night of his original music, including standalone songs and selections from Gentleman’s Guide, Esmeralda, Stuff Comes Out and The Wayside Inn, a show based on an A.R. Gurney play, to the Preserve. The artists have “sung a ton of my music over the years,” Lutvak said, and appear regularly on Broadway and venues in New York City and nationwide.
For the “Not Quite Christmas Cabaret,” Walker is taking the night off from her role as Phoebe D’Ysquith in Gentleman’s Guide. Previously she performed as Mary Poppins on Broadway, where she also performed in Ragtime. Kready starred as Monty Navarro in Gentleman’s Guide. Other Broadway credits include Billy Elliot the Musical, Sunday in the Park with George and Les Misérables. Catherine Porter starred in Next to Normal on Broadway, in Sunset Boulevard opposite Hugh Jackman and sang with Michael Crawford in The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber. Recently she performed at the preserve in Shotgun Wedding.
The Dec. 12 evening promises to be inviting for fans and performers alike.
“I love supporting and being at this venue,” Lutvak said. “It’s like coming home and performing in front of friends.”
“We’re thrilled to welcome Steve back to the Sands Point Preserve,” Horn said. “He is extraordinarily talented, as are all of the artists who perform with him, and they make these evenings great fun.”
Tickets for “Not Quite Christmas Cabaret” are $100 for members of the Friends of the Sands Point Preserve, $110 for nonmembers, and include cocktails, buffet dinner by Philip Stone and dessert with the artists.
To purchase cabaret tickets, visit www.thesandspointpreserve.org or call 516-304-5076, or visit the Gate House at 127 Middle Neck Rd., Sands Point, open daily from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The new 12-month membership is available online, at the Gate House or by calling 516-571-7901.
Friends of the Sands Point Preserve is a nonprofit organization with the mission to protect and preserve the 216-acre waterfront grounds and historic mansions, and to provide a range of cultural arts events and educational programs for families and schools in the Phil Dejana Learning Center.
