Best Kander and Ebb Musicals List: A Complete History

Flora, The Red Menace gave Liza Minnelli her Broadway debut. She went on to win a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical at 19. While most of the songs aren’t well known, this musical made “Sing Happy” and “A Quiet Thing” quite popular. Set during the Great Depression in the 1930s, this musical follows aspiring fashion designer Flora as she falls in love with the artist and communist Henry, who persuades her to join the party.Flora, The Red Menace debuted in 1965 at the Alvin Theatre (now the Neil Simon Theatre) and ran for 87 performances.

Cabaret was based on the play I Am a Camera (1951), which was based on the Christopher Isherwood novel Goodbye to Berlin (1939). This musical is set in Berlin in 1929-1930 as the Jazz Age was ending and Nazis were rising to power. This show was a box office hit, running for 1,166 performances. Renowned Broadway producer Harold Prince wanted a powerful and evocative score, which Kander and Ebb delivered. Cabaret was adapted into a film in 1972, directed by Bob Fosse and starring Liza Minnelli and Joel Grey. A revival starring Eddie Redmayne is playing on Broadway right now.

Gower Champion directed and choreographed The Happy Time, based on a play of the same name. It opened at The Broadway Theatre in early 1968 and had a limited run of only 286 shows over nine months. Robert Goulet starred as world traveling photographer Jacques Bonnard, returning to his family after five years.

Hal Prince directed Zorba, adapted from the 1946 novel by Nikos Kazantzakis Zorba the Greek. This musical, which premiered in 1968, is set in Crete and follows Nikos and his free-spirited friend Zorba. Zorba got a Broadway revival in 1983, featuring several new musical numbers, including the song “Woman.” Anthony Quin and Lila Kedrova, who starred in the 1964 film of the same name, also starred in this revival. For her performances, Kedrova won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical.

70, Girls, 70, based on the play Breath of Spring by Peter Coke, follows a group of elderly thieves who like to steal fur coats in New York City. This musical opened at the Broadhurst Theatre in 1971 and had a run of 35 performances. Several veteran actors were involved, including David Burns, who collapsed from a heart attack on stage and later died. He was replaced by Hans Conried, who is perhaps best known for voicing the characters of George Darling and Captain Hook in the Disney animated feature Peter Pan. 

The original Broadway production of Chicago was directed by Bob Fosse and starred Gwen Verdon and Chita Rivera as Roxie Hart and Velma Kelly respectively. The 1996 revival is still running today, holding the record for the longest-running musical revival in Broadway history. The Oscar-winning film adaptation, directed by Rob Marshall, starred Renee Zellweger as Roxie Hart and Catherine Zeta-Jones as Velma Kelly. 

The Act starred Liza Minnelli, who won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical for her role as Michelle Craig, a film star trying to revive her career with a nightclub act in Las Vegas. Martin Scorsese directed this musical, which also starred Barry Nelson and Mark Goddard. The Act had the highest advance sales in Broadway history at the time, reaching $2 million, though it did not ultimately recoup.

Woman of the Year, starring Lauren Bacall and Harry Guardino, opened in New York at the Palace Theatre in 1981. This musical follows TV personality Tess Harding (Bacall) and cartoonist Sam Craig (Guardino) as they merge their marriage and careers. Kander and Ebb won a Tony Award for Best Original Score. The New York Times said, “Mr. Kander’s accompanying music is sprightly indeed. From the moment we hear the cheering overture…it’s clear that the score is flush with melodic ballads and show-biz brio...[Fred Ebb’s lyrics] ascend to witty heights in the prolific comedy turns.”

The Rink marked the tenth collaboration of Kander and Ebb and ran for 204 performances. Liza Minnelli and Chita Rivera starred in this 1984 production about the owner of a roller skating rink selling her property to real estate developers. Despite the box-office draw of its stars, the show received mostly negative reviews. Stockard Channing replaced Minnelli in July of 1984.

The original Broadway production of Kiss of the Spider Woman was directed by Harold Prince with book by Terrence McNally, music by John Kander, and lyrics by Fred Ebb. Kiss of the Spider Woman, based on the book El Beso de la Mujer by Manuel Puig, had an impressive run of 904 performances and won a Tony Award in 1993 for Best Musical. It was recently announced that Jennifer Lopez is starring in an upcoming movie musical adaptation.

Scott Ellis directed Steel Pier, with music by Kander and Ebb from David Thompson’s original book. With choreography by Susan Stroman and starring Karen Ziemba, Daniel McDonald, and Kristin Chenoweth in her Broadway debut, this production ran for 76 performances in 1997. This musical received three Tony Award nominations (Best Book, Best Score, and Best Musical), but lost all three to Titanic. Variety said, “By turns dark and cheerfully old-fashioned, ‘Steel Pier’ is set in an Atlantic City ballroom of 1933. The Depression-era craze of marathon dancing is in full swing, and an assortment of hopefuls have come together at the Steel Pier dance hall to compete for a $2,000 prize and a shot at showbiz fame…[this musical] has the stamina and heart to win any marathon.”

David Hyde Pierce won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical in the murder mystery musical Curtains. Both the original book writer Peter Stone and lyricist Fred Ebb died during the musical’s development, but despite these setbacks, Rupert Holmes was hired to rewrite the book and the finished show premiered in Los Angeles in 2006 before moving to Broadway in 2007, where it ran for 511 performances.

The Broadway musical theatre production of Scottsboro Boys was directed and choreographed by Susan Stroman with a book by David Thompson. It initially debuted Off-Broadway, then went on to receive 12 Tony nominations as a Broadway musical. When Ebb died in 2004, the project was put on hold until 2008. Kander finished the lyrics for this production on his own. The Hollywood Reporter said, “the show spins a chilling burlesque out of the true story of nine black teenagers whose lives were shattered after their 1931 conviction for the falsified rape of two white Alabama [women]...this bold musical keeps you tapping your feet while it socks you with an emotional punch to the gut. That’s a tough combo for mainstream commercial acceptance, but it makes for arresting theater.”

The Visit, starring Chita Rivera as Claire Zachanassian, is a musical about a rich woman who offers her bankrupt town a fresh start, in exchange for the murder of the man who abandoned her. The production initially opened in Chicago in 2001 but failed to catch viewers from New York and California who were hesitant to fly. A one-act version of The Visit eventually made it to Broadway in 2015, starring Rivera. The Guardian said, “[the musical] has a discreetly lush score by John Kander and skillful lyrics by Fred Ebb….Rivera, a Broadway grande dame…has rarely seemed grander or more dame-ish.”

Frank Sinatra recorded the song “New York, New York” for the Martin Scorsese film of the same name starring Liza Minnelli and Robert De Niro; that film provided the loose inspiration for the musical. New York, New York had new Kander music and Ebb lyrics, with additional lyrics by John Kander, Fred Ebb, and Lin Manuel Miranda, and book by David Thompson and Sharon Washington.