Tony-Winning Lyricist Fred Ebb Dead at 72
Ebb was born on April 8, 1932 in New York City to Harry and Anna Ebb. He received his undergraduate education at New York University and a graduate degree in English at Columbia University. In the early 1960s, he began to write lyrics, collaborating with Jerry Herman on numbers for the revue A to Z and writing songs with Kander. Kander and Ebb had a hit with "My Coloring Book", first recorded by Streisand in 1962. Another rising star, Minnelli, starred in their first stage musical, Flora, the Red Menace, which opened at the Alvin Theatre on May 11, 1965.
Two years later, Kander and Ebb had their first bona fide hit, Cabaret, a musicalization of John Van Druten's play I Am a Camera set in 1930s Berlin. The production earned eight Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Score and ran for 1165 performances Roundabout Theatre Company's 1998 revival lasted even longer--2377 performances. Other Broadway collaborations during the era for Kander and Ebb included The Happy Time, about a Canadian photographer reminiscing about his family, Zorba, based on Michael Cacaoyannis' Zorba the Greek and 70, Girls, 70, set in an old folks' home.
After Bob Fosse's 1972 acclaimed film version of Cabaret won eight Academy Awards, the team created the stage musical Chicago with Ebb co-writing the book as well as lyrics, loosely based on Maurine Watkins' play about a woman who becomes a celebrity after murdering her lover. Even if it ran over two years, from 1975 to 1977, the show was overshadowed during award season by A Chorus Line which opened in the same season. Chicago didn't become a true stage hit until the current Broadway revival of the show opened in 1996, winning six Tony Awards including Best Musical Revival. The 2002 film version of the musical went on to win big at the Academy Awards, taking the Best Picture prize and earning Kander and Ebb their second nomination for Best Song for "I Move On." Their first nomination came in 1976 for "How Lucky Can You Get," written for Streisand for the film Funny Lady.
Since their early success with Cabaret and Chicago, Kander and Ebb have remained regular presences on the Great White Way, turning out award-winning scores for several shows. In 1978, they premiered The Act, a nightclub-style musical tailored to the talents of Minnelli. The musical adaptation of the Spencer Tracy/Katharine Hepburn film Woman of the Year came three years later, a star vehicle for Bacall. Rivera won Tony Awards for both of Kander and Ebb's next stage ventures, the short-lived The Rink 1984 and Kiss of the Spider Woman 1992.
The final Broadway book musical entry for Kander and Ebb was the marathon dancing musical Steel Pier, which played at the Richard Rodgers Theatre briefly in 1997. Since then, the duo have premiered two new musicals that were seen regionally without bowing on Broadway: Over and Over, an adaptation of Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth that played regionally at Washington, D.C.'s Signature Theatre and The Visit, which was announced for Broadway in 2001 but cancelled when star Angela Lansbury withdrew from the project it was later seen at Chicago's Goodman Theatre as a vehicle for Rivera. More recently, Kander and Ebb had been finishing up the musical Curtains, which was workshopped in New York last year. In 1999, Ebb made his debut as a Broadway director with Minnelli's concert show Minnelli on Minnelli, for which he also wrote the book.
Ebb along with Kander received twelve Tony Award nominations during his fruitful career, winning four times. His first two Tonys came in 1967 for his work on Cabaret and he won in the category of Best Score for both Woman of the Year and Kiss of the Spider Woman. In 2003, Kander and Ebb published their joint autobiography, titled Colored Lights: Forty Years of Words and Music, Show Biz, Collaboration, and All That Jazz.