Kander and Ebb: From Stage to Film
by Claire J Rottenberg
In the mid-1960s, a new composing team,
John Kander
and Fred Ebb,
were starting to make their mark on Broadway. From
1966 to 1975, the team created five Broadway
musicals, including two that eventually became
successful movie musicals.
Kander and Ebb's first play in 1965, "Flora The Red
Menace," was a flop, playing for only 87
performances. I saw the play in previews and the only
thing I remember about it was its one redeeming
feature - it starred a new, young actress-singer who
would shake up Broadway. Liza Minnelli, the
extraordinarily talented daughter of Judy Garland,
made her Broadway debut in the lead role. The part
earned Minnelli a Tony award and started a long
career for her, including several more musicals with
Kander and Ebb.
A year later, Kander and Ebb wrote the score to one
of their finest works, "Cabaret." The play was a huge
success on Broadway, winning a Tony award for Kander
and Ebb's score, along with 7 other Tony awards, and
running for 1,165 performances. "Cabaret" established
Kander and Ebb as Broadway's newest composing team
and they followed that hit with two more Broadway
musicals in 1968 - "The Happy Time," a play that
brought Robert Goulet back to Broadway, and "Zorba."
Neither play ran for very long, but they both
received good reviews and quite a few Tony
nominations and awards (10 nominations and 3 wins for
"The Happy Time" and 8 nominations and 1 win for
"Zorba").
It took Kander and Ebb three more years until their
next Broadway musical, "70, Girls, 70," but it was a
major flop, and the team did not have any more
successes until 1975. That year, they wrote the score
for "Chicago," which was a success on Broadway twice
and was turned into an Academy Award winning film in
2002.
"Cabaret"
and "Chicago" were the only two Kander and Ebb
Broadway musicals that later became films.