From Chicago's "All That Jazz" to Cabaret's "Wilkommen," Tony, Oscar, and Golden Globe-winning composer John Kander knows how to write a vamp (a musical phrase that repeats, often at the top of a song and in-between verses). But though those iconic vamps might be Kander's calling card, it's far from where his genius ends.
Kander was born March 18, 1927, making him a true living Broadway legend as he turns 98 years old today. Born in Missouri, it was the opera where Kander first fell in love with musical theatre, eventually becoming a composition major at Columbia University. He would begin his career as a music director, conductor, and dance arranger, making his Broadway debut with the divine dance arrangements of Gypsy in 1959. He would get his first musical produced in 1962 with A Family Affair, written with James and William Goldman (the former of Follies fame). Later that year, when his publisher suggested working with lyricist Fred Ebb, Kander would find his most frequent collaborator. The two wrote a standalone pop song called "My Coloring Book," and the legendary songwriting duo of Kander and Ebb was officially born.
Their first full Broadway score would be Flora the Red Menace in 1965, not a great success but very notable. Liza Minnelli made her Broadway debut in the show, and the score introduced the now-standard, "A Quiet Thing." The show was also the beginning of a lifelong association between the duo and Minnelli.
Kander and Ebb reached legendary status the following year with Cabaret, one of the most perennially successful musicals ever produced—a revival is playing Broadway right now at the August Wilson Theatre, the work's fifth Broadway production. Based on the stories of Christopher Isherwood about the twilight of Weimar Germany with Naziism moving in, Cabaret established what is arguably the most notable Kander and Ebb hallmark: seemingly easy, entertaining songs with a bite of cynicism hiding just below the surface. In Cabaret, Sally Bowles has a near mental breakdown on stage at the Kit Kat Club after having an abortion and thus giving up what seems to be her only chance at a seemingly normal, safe life. She does so while singing the musical's title number, a rousing song that would be, in other circumstances, triumphant; but in the context of the plot, the song "Cabaret" becomes a tragedy. They would revisit this technique throughout their career, in shows like Chicago, Kiss of the Spider Woman, The Scottsboro Boys, and others.
Speaking of Chicago, when that musical opened in 1976, it was a modest hit. Modest because megahit A Chorus Line opened the same season, dwarfing any kind of major accolades for Kander and Ebb's collaboration with Bob Fosse. But the show became a cult classic amongst theatre fans, which let it come around again, when New York City Center Encores! staged a concert revival in 1996. That production later transferred to Broadway. A film adaptation of the musical hit the big screen in 2002, becoming the rare musical to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards and thrusting the work into cultural landmark status—while also helping reestablish movie musicals as a beloved Hollywood genre. The Broadway revival continues its run at the Ambassador Theatre, where it is currently the second longest-running show in Broadway history.
Cabaret and Chicago are the pair's greatest hits, but their other titles also include The Act, Woman of the Year, The Rink, Steel Pier, and Kiss of the Spider Woman, the latter readying its own film adaptation starring Jennifer Lopez. Ebb would die in 2004, leaving their The Scottsboro Boys, Curtains, and The Visit to premiere posthumously. In recent years, Kander has collaborated with lyricist Greg Pierce on The Landing and Kid Victory, and with Lin-Manuel Miranda on New York, New York (though that show was something of a Kander and Ebb jukebox musical).
It's also fitting that today in 1991, the Kander and Ebb revue And the World Goes 'Round opened Off-Broadway at the West Side Theatre, the beginning of what would become a one-year, 408-performance run. Aside from offering audiences a variety of Kander and Ebb songs to hear, the musical was part of the then-burgeoning careers of Scott Ellis, Susan Stroman, and David Thompson; all three have become Broadway legends in their own right, and lifelong collaborators with Kander and Ebb.
Happy birthday, you legend of legends!
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