Chicago and Cabaret lyricist Fred Ebb dies
Fred Ebb, who wrote the lyrics for hit Broadway musicals including Chicago and Cabaret, as well as the big-city anthem, New York, New York, has died of a heart attack.
Ebb died on Saturday at his home, said David McKeown, an assistant to composer John Kander, Ebb’s long-time collaborator.
The lyricist was believed to be 76, although Ebb was always “sweetly vague” about his age, said director Scott Ellis, who worked with him on several shows.
With Kander, Ebb wrote the scores for 11 Broadway musicals, many of them for such leading ladies as Gwen Verdon, Chita Rivera, Liza Minnelli and Lauren Bacall.
Minnelli was a particular favourite of the songwriting team, and over the years, the duo created special material for the performer’s solo appearances on Broadway and on television specials.
Among the other musicals Kander and Ebb wrote during their four decades of collaboration were Kiss Of The Spider Woman (1993), The Rink (1984), Woman Of The Year (1981) and Zorba (1968).
New York, New York was written for the 1977 Martin Scorcese film of the same name, which starred Minnelli and Robert De Niro. The song became a standard, particularly after it was recorded by Frank Sinatra.
Together, the songwriting team won Tony Awards for their scores of Cabaret, Woman Of The Year and Kiss Of The Spider Woman. In addition, the 2002 film version of Chicago, directed by Rob Marshall, won the Academy Award for best picture.
Born in New York, Ebb went to school at both New York University and Columbia, where he received a master’s degree in English literature. The lyricist got his start in the theatre writing for revues, one of which, From A to Z, had a short run on Broadway in 1960.
Ebb was brought together with Kander in the 1960s by music publisher Tommy Valando and one of their first collaborations, the song, My Coloring Book, was recorded by Barbra Streisand.
The team was hired by producer Harold Prince and veteran director George Abbott to write the score for Flora, The Red Menace, starring a 19-year-old Minnelli. The show, which opened on Broadway in 1965, was not a success, but Kander and Ebb were signed to do Prince’s next musical, a show based on Christopher Isherwood’s Berlin Stories and the play, I Am A Camera.
Called Cabaret, it opened in November 1966 and ran for 1,165 performances, immediately establishing Kander and Ebb as musical-theatre songwriters to watch. The production, set in pre-war Germany, featured a huge mirror which reflected back into the audience and featured a sexually provocative master of ceremonies, played by Joel Grey, who taunted and teased the audience in song.
The team’s last Broadway collaboration, an original musical called Steel Pier, had a short run in 1997. They also did a musical version of The Visit, starring Chita Rivera, at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre in 2001, but a New York engagement never materialised.
At the time of Ebb’s death, the team was working on several projects including revising Over And Over, a musical version of Thornton Wilder’s classic, The Skin Of Our Teeth, and a murder-mystery musical called Curtains.
