Musicals Blog

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.