Fred Ebb papers, 1927-2004.

Links

• View catalog record
• View PDF finding aid (111.31 KB)

Creator

Ebb, Fred.

Location

Music Division

Extent

• 85 linear feet (107 boxes)

Scope/Contents Note

The Fred Ebb papers contain materials from 1927 though 2004, including scripts, scores, and production files pertaining to Ebb's musicals, as well as photographs, awards, and personal and business files. One of the highlights of the collection is the extensive set of scrapbooks Ebb kept on each of his shows and general aspects of his life and career. The collection also includes drafts of songs that were cut from Kander and Ebbproductions, such as Cabaret and Chicago, and Kiss of the Spider Woman, as well as material for unproduced Kander and Ebb projects, including Golden Gate and Santa Teresa, a musical about Eva Peron. In addition to Ebb's many projects with his most frequent colaborator, John Kander, this collection also covers Ebb's early career, when he collaborated with other composers, such as Paul Klein and Phil Springer. The collection mainly documents Ebb's professional life and contains only a few personal items. The scrapbooks and scripts make up the bulk of this collection.

Biographical/Historical Note

Lyricist and librettist, Fred Ebb (1928-2004) was best known for his long and successful partnership with composer John Kander. Together, the team was responsible for a number of notable Broadway musicals, including Cabaret (1966), Chicago (1975), and Kiss of the Spider Woman (1993). A native New Yorker, Ebb attended New York University and Columbia University and by 1951 he had published his first songs. Ebb worked with several composers early on, including Mary Rodgers and Charles Strouse, but his primary collaborator throughout the 1950swas Paul Klein. Ebb was introduced to Kander in the early 1960s and their first Broadway musical was Flora, the Red Menace (1965). Over the next forty years, among Kander andEbb's most frequent collaborators were Hal Prince, Liza Minnelli, Chita Rivera and Martin Scorsese. In addition totheir extensive Broadway credits, Kander and Ebb provided songs for the Emmy Award winning television special, Liza with a Z (1972), and the films, Funny Lady (1975) and New York, New York (1977). Ebb's final original show to open on Broadway was Steel Pier (1997), but two other Kander and Ebb projects, The Visit and The Skin of Our Teeth (or Over and Over) had subsequent regional theatre productionsand another Ebb project, Curtains, which also involved thelibrettist Peter Stone, was produced posthumously in 2006 at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles.

Controlled Access Terms

• Ebb, Fred.
• Kander, John.
• Librettists -- United States.
• Lyricists -- United States.
• Musical films -- United States.
• Musical theater -- New York (State) -- New York.
• Television musicals -- United States.
• Awards.
• Photographs.
• Scrapbooks.
• Scripts (documents)
• Scores.
• Librettists.
• Lyricists.

Additional Creator Names

• Ebb, Fred. Cabaret.
• Ebb, Fred. Chicago.
• Ebb, Fred. Golden gate.
• Ebb, Fred. Kiss of the spider woman.
• Ebb, Fred. Santa Maria.
• Kander, John. Cabaret.
• Kander, John. Chicago.
• Kander, John. Golden gate.
• Kander, John. Kiss of the spider woman.
• Kander, John. Santa Maria.
• Minnelli, Liza.
• Prince, Harold, 1928-
• Rivera, Chita.
• Scorsese, Martin.