Fred Ebb (April 8, 1933^[1] - September 11, 2004) was a musical theatre lyricist. Probably best known for his work with composer John Kander as part of the Kander and Ebb partnership, Ebb frequently wrote for such performers as Liza Minnelli and Chita Rivera. His lyrics are often known for their humor and acerbic, cynical wit, though his best known lyrics for New York, New York do not possess these qualities. April 8 is the 98th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (99th in leap years). ... 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... September 11 is the 254th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (255th in leap years). ... It has been designated the: International Year of Rice (by the United Nations) International Year to Commemorate the Struggle against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO) 2004 World Health Day topic was Road Safety (by World Health Organization) Year of the Monkey (by the Chinese calendar) See the world in... Musical theatre (sometimes spelled theater) is a form of theatre combining music, songs, dance, and spoken dialogue. ... John Kander (born March 18, 1927) is the composer of a series of musical theatre successes as part of the songwriting team of Kander and Ebb. ... Kander and Ebb is the songwriting team of composer John Kander, born March 18, 1927 and lyricist Fred Ebb (April 8, 1933 - September 11, 2004). ... Liza Minnelli. ... Chita Rivera (born Dolores Conchita Figueroa del Rivero on January 23, 1933 in Washington, D.C.) is a Broadway musical actress and dancer of Puerto Rican heritage, and the first Hispanic woman to receive a Kennedy Center Honors award. ... For the city, see City of New York. ...

Early life and career

Born in Manhattan to a Jewish family, Ebb worked during the early 1950s bronzing baby shoes and as a trucker's assistant, and he also was employed in a department store credit office and at a hosiery company. In 1955, he graduated from New York University with a bachelor’s degree in English literature, and two years later, he earned his Master’s from Columbia University. His first professional writing experience was with Phil Springer, and the first song they wrote together (“I Never Loved Him Anyhow”) was sung by Carmen McRae. Another song Ebb wrote with Springer was “Heartbroken” (1953), which was recorded by Judy Garland, the mother of his future protégée, Liza Minnelli. Other Springer-Ebb tunes include "How Little We Know," "Moonlight Gambler," "Nevertheless I Never Lost the Blues" and "Santa Baby." The Borough of Manhattan, highlighted in yellow, lies between the East River and the Hudson River. ... The word Jew ( Hebrew: יהודי) is used in a wide number of ways, but generally refers to a follower of the Jewish faith, a child of a Jewish mother, or someone of Jewish descent with a connection to Jewish culture or ethnicity and often a combination of these attributes. ... Carmen McRae (April 8, 1920-November 10, 1994) was an American jazz vocalist. ... Judy Garland (June 10, 1922 – June 22, 1969), born Frances Ethel Gumm, was an American film actress considered by many to be one of the greatest singing stars of Hollywoods Golden Era of musical film. ...

On his first theatrical writing job he did songs with Norman Martin for the revue Put It in Writing, directed by Christopher Hewitt. He also worked with composer Paul Klein in the late 1950s, contributing songs to the Broadway revue From A to Z. With Klein, Ebb wrote his first book musical, Morning Sun. Originally, Bob Fosse was attached as director. Fosse eventually withdrew from the project, and the show was unsuccessful. Bob Fosse, early promotional image. ...

Kander and Ebb

Music publisher Tommy Valando introduced Ebb to Kander in 1962. After a few songs such as "My Coloring Book," Kander and Ebb wrote a stage musical, Golden Gate, that was never produced. However, the quality of the score convinced producer Harold Prince to hire them for their first professional production, the George Abbott-directed musical Flora the Red Menace, based on Lester Atwell's novel Love is Just Around the Corner. Although it won star Liza Minnelli a Tony Award, the show closed quickly. Hal Prince (born January 30, 1928), full name Harold Smith Prince, is a theatre producer and director associated with many of the best-known Broadway musical (and less notably, dramatic) productions of the past half-century. ... George Abbott (June 25, 1887 - January 31, 1995) was among the greatest of Broadway showmen. ... Flora the Red Menace is a 1965 musical by Kander and Ebb starring Liza Minnelli in the title role. ... What is popularly called the Tony Award (formally, the Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre) is an annual award celebrating achievements in live American theater, including musical theater, primarily honoring productions on Broadway in New York. ...

Their second collaboration, Cabaret, was considerably more successful, running for nearly three years. Directed by Prince and based on the John van Druten play I Am a Camera (which, in turn, was based on the writing of Christopher Isherwood), the musical starred Jill Haworth as Sally Bowles, Lotte Lenya as Fraulein Schneider and Joel Grey as the emcee. It won eight of the 11 Tony Awards for which it was nominated, including Best Musical and Best Score. Adapted into a film by Bob Fosse, it won numerous Academy Awards, though not Best Picture. It was revived twice, first in 1987 with Grey reprising his role and again in 1998 in a long-running revival, originally starring Alan Cumming as the emcee and Natasha Richardson as Sally Bowles. Cabaret is a form of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue — a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting around the tables (often dining or drinking) watching the performance. ... I Am a Camera was a play by John Van Druten, inspired by Christopher Isherwoods The Berlin Stories, which in turn went on to inspire the musical and film Cabaret. ... Christopher Isherwood and W.H. Auden, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1939 Christopher Isherwood (prior to 1946 Christopher William Bradshaw-Isherwood) (August 26, 1904 – January 4, 1986), Anglo-American novelist, was born in the ancestral seat of his family, Wybersley Hall, High Lane, in the north west of England. ... Lotte Lenya (October 18, 1898 – November 27, 1981), singer and actor, born Karoline Wilhelmine Blamauer, in Vienna, Austria. ... Bob Fosse, early promotional image. ... Alan Cumming. ... Natasha Richardson Natasha Richardson (born May 11, 1963 in London, England) is a British actress who played the title character in The Handmaids Tale, the 1990 film based on Margaret Atwoods dystopian novel. ...

Their next few works were less successful: The Happy Time, directed by Gower Champion and starring Robert Goulet, ran for less than a year. Zorba, directed by Prince, also ran less than a year, though it was more successful in its 1983 revival; and 70, Girls, 70, which was originally intended as an off-Broadway production, closed after 35 performances. Gower Champion was an American theatre director, choreographer, and dancer. ... Robert Gerard Goulet (born November 26, 1933) in Lawrence, Massachusetts, is a Canadian/American entertainer. ...

In 1972, he wrote the television special, Liza with a Z. In 1974, Kander, Ebb and Fosse, contributed to Liza (concert), a concert for Minnelli on Broadway. In 1975, the team wrote the score to Funny Lady, the sequel to Funny Girl. Chicago (1975) had mixed reviews but ran for more than two years. Starring Chita Rivera, Jerry Orbach and Gwen Verdon in her last Broadway role, it suffered from a cynical attitude, which contrasted with the record-breaking popularity of A Chorus Line. Though rumors of a film production directed again by Fosse were heard, the show did not seriously re-surface until 1996, when it was revived as part of the Encores! series. A huge hit, the minimalist production transferred to Broadway and as of 2006 is still running after more than 3,500 performances. The 2002 film version won Best Picture at the Academy Awards. Funny Lady was a musical film of 1975, starring Barbra Streisand. ... Funny Girl is a 1964 semi-biographical musical that tells the story of Broadway star Fanny Brice. ... ‹ The template below has been proposed for deletion. ... Chita Rivera (born Dolores Conchita Figueroa del Rivero on January 23, 1933 in Washington, D.C.) is a Broadway musical actress and dancer of Puerto Rican heritage, and the first Hispanic woman to receive a Kennedy Center Honors award. ... Jerry Orbach as Detective Lennie Briscoe in Law & Order Jerome Bernard Orbach (October 20, 1935 – December 28, 2004) was an American actor best known for his starring role as wisecracking NYPD Detective Lennie Briscoe in the Law & Order television series, and for his musical theater roles. ... Gwen Evelyn Verdon (January 13, 1925 in Culver City, California – October 18, 2000 in Woodstock, Vermont) was an acclaimed Tony Award winning American dancer and actress. ... A Chorus Line is a Broadway musical that opened at the Shubert Theatre July 25, 1975 and closed there April 28, 1990 after 6,137 performances. ... 2006 is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Ebb himself wrote the book for Shirley MacLaine’s Broadway solo revue in 1976. The following year, Kander and Ebb worked with Minnelli and Martin Scorsese twice: first, in the film New York, New York, which had them write what is perhaps their best-known song, the title track; and, again in The Act, a musical about a fictional nightclub act. It ran for under ten months. After contributing a song to Phyllis Newman’s one woman musical, the team wrote Woman of the Year, which starred Lauren Bacall and won the team their second Tony Award for Best Score. Shirley MacLaine, (born Shirley MacLean Beaty on April 24, 1934 in Richmond, Virginia), is an Academy Award-winning American actress well-known not only for her acting, but for her devotion to her belief in reincarnation. ... For other uses, see New York, New York (disambiguation). ...

The Rink teamed Kander and Ebb again with Minnelli and Rivera. The cast also included Jason Alexander and Rob Marshall. Following the closure of the show after six months, Kander and Ebb would not produce new material, save for a song in Hay Fever in 1985, for nine years. In 1991, the revue And the World Goes ‘Round opened off-Broadway, which brought Karen Ziemba, Susan Stroman and Scott Ellis to the attention of the theatre community. The team’s musical adaptation of Kiss of the Spider Woman opened in 1993, starring Chita Rivera. Reunited with director Harold Prince, the show ran for more than two years and won them their third and last Tony Award for best score. The Rink was Charlie Chaplins 8th film for Mutual Films. ... Jason Alexander Jason Alexander (born Jason Scott Greenspan, September 23, 1959, in Newark, New Jersey), is a television, cinema and musical theatre actor. ... Rob Marshall is a director. ... For the play, see Hay Fever Allergic rhinitis, also called pollinosis, hay fever or nasal allergies, and often also written together as hayfever, is a collection of symptoms, predominantly in the nose and eyes, that occur after exposure to airborne particles of dust, dander, or the pollens of certain seasonal... Susan Stroman is a Broadway director, choreographer, and performer. ... Kiss of the Spider Woman is a 1985 film which tells the story of two men in an Argentine prison during the 1970s military government — one a political prisoner, the other in prison for his homosexuality — who learn to respect each other. ... Chita Rivera (born Dolores Conchita Figueroa del Rivero on January 23, 1933 in Washington, D.C.) is a Broadway musical actress and dancer of Puerto Rican heritage, and the first Hispanic woman to receive a Kennedy Center Honors award. ... Hal Prince (born January 30, 1928), full name Harold Smith Prince, is a theatre producer and director associated with many of the best-known Broadway musical (and less notably, dramatic) productions of the past half-century. ...

The team’s last original work on Broadway opened in 1997. Steel Pier brought together Ziemba, Ellis and Stroman and though the show was nominated for 11 Tonys, it won none and closed after two months. It is perhaps most notable for its introduction of Kristin Chenoweth to the Broadway stage. In 1997, Ebb reworked lyrics to Richard Rodgers' melody for the television production of Cinderella. Two decades earlier, Ebb refused the opportunity to write the musical Rex with Rodgers. Steel Pier is a musical written by the songwriting team of Kander and Ebb. ... Kristin Chenoweth. ... An autographed photo of Richard Rodgers Richard Charles Rodgers (June 28, 1902 – December 30, 1979) was one of the great composers of musical theater, best known for his song writing partnerships with Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II. He wrote more than 900 published songs, and forty Broadway musicals. ... Gustave Dorés illustration for Cendrillon For other uses, see Cinderella (disambiguation). ...

The team also had two works produced outside New York: The Skin of Our Teeth (aka Over & Over), an adaptation of the Thornton Wilder play, and The Visit, which played a successful run in Chicago, starring Chita Rivera. This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Thornton Wilder (April 17, 1897 – December 7, 1975) was an American novelist and playwright. ... The Visit is the title of various English translations of Friedrich Dürrenmatts play Der Besuch der alten Dame (literally, The Visit of the Old Lady). It is probably the most well-known of his work, at least in the English-speaking world. ...

Death

Ebb died of a heart attack at his home in New York City on September 11, 2004. A myocardial infarction occurs when an atherosclerotic plaque slowly builds up in the inner lining of a coronary artery and then suddenly ruptures, totally occluding the artery and preventing blood flow downstream. ... Nickname: The Big Apple Official website: City of New York Government Counties (Boroughs) Bronx (The Bronx) New York (Manhattan) Queens (Queens) Kings (Brooklyn) Richmond (Staten Island) Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Geographical characteristics Area Total 468. ... September 11 is the 254th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (255th in leap years). ... It has been designated the: International Year of Rice (by the United Nations) International Year to Commemorate the Struggle against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO) 2004 World Health Day topic was Road Safety (by World Health Organization) Year of the Monkey (by the Chinese calendar) See the world in...

Notes

1. ↑ Ebb’s birth year is a source of mystery. Many sources list 1933 as his birth year, 1, others, such as Colored Lights, claim 1936. After his death, many said that his actual birth year was 1928 2.

External links

• Fred Ebb Foundation
• New York Review of Books: Hilton Als' "Girls & Guns" (3/27/03)