Born on April 30, 1951, he was found abandoned in a car in Atlanta, Georgia. Lucas was adopted when he was eight months old by a conservative Pennsylvania couple. His father was an FBI agent; his mother was a painter. She was born Jewish but suppressed the identity, which Lucas relates in his storytelling. He graduated in 1969 from
Conestoga High School in Berwyn, Pennsylvania. In the 1960s and 1970s, Lucas became interested in the political left and discovered an attraction toward men. He is openly gay, Lucas met
Norman René in 1979. Their first collaboration was
Marry Me a Little in 1981. The two wrote a script incorporating songs that had been written for but discarded from Stephen Sondheim musicals, and René also directed. They followed this with the plays
Missing Persons (1981) and
Blue Window (1984);
Three Postcards (1987), an original musical by Lucas and
Craig Carnelia; and another play,
Reckless (1983). In 1990, they had their biggest commercial and critical success with
Prelude to a Kiss. They also collaborated for the feature film
Longtime Companion (1990), the
1992 film adaptation of
Prelude to a Kiss with
Alec Baldwin and
Meg Ryan, and the 1995 film version of
Reckless with
Mia Farrow and
Mary-Louise Parker. Following his early work on romantic comedies, Lucas began to write more serious works about AIDS, including
The Singing Forest (not to be confused with
the film of the same name) and
The Dying Gaul, the latter of which was made into a film that Lucas also directed. Lucas also wrote the book for the musical
The Light in the Piazza, and directed the world premiere at the Intiman Theater in Seattle. The Lincoln Center production, directed by
Bartlett Sher, garnered him a
Tony Award nomination. Lucas has also directed plays such as
Loot. He directed
Birds of America, a film starring
Matthew Perry and
Hilary Swank, in 2007. Lucas's play
Prayer for My Enemy premiered Off-Broadway at
Playwrights Horizons in December 2008. The production was directed by Lucas's frequent collaborator Bartlett Sher and featured
Victoria Clark,
Michele Pawk and
Jonathan Groff. The play ran from November 14 (previews) through December 21. In June 2013,
Melbourne's
Regent Theatre hosted the world premiere (and
Broadway try-out) of
King Kong, for which Lucas has provided the
book with a score by
Marius de Vries. As of 2014, Lucas is no longer involved with this musical.
Amélie, a musical based on the award-winning film of 2001, premiered at the
Berkeley Repertory Theatre (Berkeley, California) In September 2015, with a book by Lucas, music by Daniel Messé (of
Hem), lyrics by
Nathan Tysen and Messé, and directed by
Pam MacKinnon. The production had its pre-Broadway engagement at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles. It transferred to Broadway, starting previews on March 9, 2017 and closing on May 21, 2017, after 27 previews and 56 regular performances. ==Awards==