Kander and Ebb
Contributions to the American Musical Theatre
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“The Visit”
The Verdict: Read Reviews of Kander and Ebb's The
Visit on Broadway By Playbill Staff (23 Apr 2015)
Chita Rivera returns to Broadway in her first original
role in more than two decades as the star of Kander
and Ebb's The Visit, which officially opened on
Broadway April 23 at the Lyceum Theatre.
Based on Friedrich Dürrenmatt's 1956 play, The Visit
has a score by Tony Award-winning Cabaret,
Chicago and Kiss of the Spider Woman collaborators
John Kander (music) and the late Fred Ebb (lyrics).
The musical features a book by Tony Award-winning
playwright Terrence McNally (Kiss of the Spider
Woman, Master Class, It's Only a Play).
A cast album will be release June 26.
CABARET
FRED EBB
1928 - 2004
For four decades, Ebb collaborated exclusively with
composer John Kander on musicals notable for their
often startling originality, each score having a unique
sound and style. Superb musical dramatists, they were
among the last theatre composers whose songs could
stand on their own while being fully integrated into the
shows they were written for. Their first Broadway show
was Flora The Red Menace (1964), a moderate success
that helped launch the career of Liza Minnelli, who
would be closely linked with many of Kander and Ebb's
hit songs.
Flora The Red Menace (1964)
The first Broadway show
for Kander and Ebb was
Flora The Red Menace
(1964), a moderate success
that helped launch the
career of Liza Minnelli, who
would be closely linked
with many of Kander and
Ebb's hit songs.
Cabaret (1966)
The moderate success of Flora led
to the triumph of Cabaret (1966), a
landmark musical drama that
featured Joel Grey as the leering
Emcee. It received eight Tony
Awards, including honors for Best
Composer and Lyricist (the Best
Score category did not exist that
year), as well as Best Musical. The
original production racked up 1,166
performances, and enjoyed
successful runs in London and
elsewhere.
More successes followed
Kander and Ebb's Broadway scores include
The Happy Time (1968), Zorba (1968), The
Act (1978), Chicago (1975), Woman of the
Year (1981), The Rink (1984), the Tonywinning Kiss of the Spider Woman (1993),
and Steel Pier (1997). They also created
original scores for the films Funny Lady
(1975) and New York, New York (1977).
Their songs were showcased in the popular
off-Broadway revue And The World Goes
'Round.
Experiments and revivals
Fred Ebb
Kander & Ebb worked on musical versions
of The Visit and The Skin of Our Teeth.The
1997 revival of Chicago is the longest
running revival in Broadway history, and
the 1998 revival of Cabaret outran its
original production. After years of illness,
Ebb died of heart failure in 2004, with
sources placing his age at anywhere from
71 to 76. His remains were interred at
Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn.
John Kander
Born 1927 (Kansas City, MO)
Kander started his theatrical career as the
rehearsal pianist for Gypsy (1959). After working
with James and William Goldman on the
unsuccessful A Family Affair (1962), Kander began
a collaboration with lyricist Fred Ebb that has
lasted more than thirty five years. Their first show
was Flora The Red Menace (1964), a moderate
success that helped launch the career of a star who
would be closely linked with many of Kander and
Ebb's hit songs Liza Minnelli.
PLAYBILL ranks Kander and Ebb’s Top Ten Songs…
Chicago film (2002)
The film version of Chicago
(2002) became the first
musical in thirty five years
to win the Academy Award
for Best Picture.
LEGACY
Kander & Ebb's four decade collaboration ended with
Ebb's death in 2004,three more of their works
eventually reached Broadway -- Curtains (2007), The
Scottsboro Boys (2010) and The Visit (2015).
The World Goes Round
1991
Curtains
2010
Scottsboro Boys (2011)
Through the years