Fred Ebb
Fred Ebb (* 8. April 1928 in New York ; † 11. September 2004 ) was an American songwriter and musical - lyricist . His most famous creations are the musical Cabaret and the Text from New York, New York .
Life
Fred Ebb, who later kept the year he was born a secret - when his relatives said his age was 76 when he died in 2004 - was from Manhattan and received a master's degree in English literature from Columbia University in New York before going to the In the 1950s began writing for smaller variety and night club shows, initially with moderate to little success. It wasn't until he met the composer John Kander in 1961 that he found the right partner for his ideas. The first songs they wrote together were My Coloring Book and I Don't Care Much , which were later recorded by Barbra Streisand .
Along with John Kander Ebb wrote the lyrics to eleven Broadway - musicals . They received their first engagement from Broadway producer Harold Prince for the musical Flora, the Red Menace , with Liza Minnelli in the lead role. For Liza Minnelli her great world career began and she received a Tony Award for this show.
In 1966 they then created their most successful work to date: Cabaret . The musical ran non-stop on Broadway for 1,166 performances and won a total of eight Tony Awards. In this stage version, the action focuses on Miss Schneider , played by Lotte Lenya . With the 1972 Hollywood film adaptation, Liza Minnelli won an Oscar as Sally Bowles .
Kander and Ebb then continued to write texts and personality specials for Liza Minnelli, such as the Emmy Award winning show Liza with a Z (1972), The Act (1977) and Minnelli on Minnelli (2001). At Minnelli's wedding to Jack Hayley in 1974, Ebb was her father of the bride. Ebb also worked in a similar way for Shirley Bassey and Frank Sinatra , for whose comeback show Ol'Blue Eyes Is Back (1973) he designed the entire script.
His long-standing work for Liza Minnelli also resulted in his most famous song - the text to the classic Theme from New York, New York , which he wrote in 1977 to the music of John Kander for the film New York, New York, directed by Martin Scorsese wrote and which was first interpreted there by Minnelli. Frank Sinatra later made this song his anthem.
In the 1980s, Fred Ebb, again with music by Kander, had great success with the play Woman of the Year , a special with Lauren Bacall in the lead role, which won four Tony Awards . Another phenomenal success was the Kander Ebb musical Kiss of the Spider Woman , which with Chita Rivera in the title role won a total of seven Tony Awards in 1993 and was nominated for four more.
He last drew attention to himself in 2002 at Kander's side with the film adaptation of the musical Chicago and was nominated for an Oscar the following year . He wrote the lyrics for the stage version , which premiered in 1975 under the direction of Bob Fosse and won six Tony Awards.
In 2004 Fred Ebb had a heart attack from which he did not recover and the consequences of which he succumbed on September 11th.
Web links
- Literature by and about Fred Ebb in the catalog of the German National Library
- Fred Ebb in theInternet Movie Database(English)
- Fred Ebb in the Internet Broadway Database (English)
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Ebb, Fred |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American songwriter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 8, 1928 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | New York , United States |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 11, 2004 |
| Place of death | New York , United States |