John Kander, Broadway composer and half of the songwriting team of Kander and Ebb, is 96 years old today.
Born in Kansas City, Kander attended the Oberlin Conservatory of Music before earning a Master's degree at Columbia University. There, he was a protégé of Douglas Moore. He studied composition with Jack Beeson and Otto Luening. His studies were interrupted at Oberlin when he served in the Cadet corps of the United States Merchant Marines.
Kander began his Broadway career as substitute rehearsal pianist for West Side Story. The stage manager for West Side Story then asked Kander to play the auditions for her next show, Gypsy.
During the auditions, Kander met the choreographer, Jerome Robbins, who suggested that Kander compose the dance music for the show in 1959. After that experience, he wrote dance arrangements for Irma la Douce in 1960. His first produced musical was, A Family Affair, written with James and William Goldman.
Kander met lyricist Fred Ebb in 1962, and began a songwriting collaboration that would last for more than four decades. Later that year, rising star Barbra Streisand recorded two of the duo's songs, "My Coloring Book" and "I Don't Care Much."
In 1965, Kander and Ebb landed their first show on Broadway, Flora the Red Menace, produced by Hal Prince, directed by George Abbott, and with book by George Abbott and Robert Russell. Liza Minnelli made her initial Broadway appearance in the show.
Kander and Ebb have since been associated with writing material for both Liza Minnelli and Chita Rivera, and have produced special material for their appearances live and on television. The musicals Cabaret and Chicago have been made into films. The film version of Chicago won the 2002 Academy Award for Best Picture.
Kander, along with Ebb, also wrote songs for Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth. It was set to premiere in London, but the rights were pulled by Wilder's nephew.
He also says that Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones, the writers of The Fantasticks, wrote a musical of Wilder's Our Town and it took them thirteen years to write, only to have the rights pulled as well by the nephew.
His first musical without Fred Ebb (who died in 2004) was The Landing, with book and lyrics by Greg Pierce. It opened the Vineyard Theatre’s 2013–2014 season.
Kander's musical, Kid Victory, with book and lyrics by Greg Pierce, had its world premiere February 28, 2015 at the Signature Theatre in Arlington, VA. It premiered Off-Broadway at the Vineyard Theatre on February 1, 2017 in previews, and opened officially on February 22, 2017.
Here, Liza Minnelli performs Kander’s Cabaret, the 1972 film version