Kander and Ebb: The Razzle Dazzle Duo Behind Broadway’s Greatest Hits
"All That Jazz." "Cabaret." "New York, New York." If you've ever hummed one of these Broadway classics and wondered who could write such wonderful hits, you're not alone — some of the most recognizable songs on "the great white way" all trace back to the same two minds: John Kander and Fred Ebb.
For over four decades, Kander and Ebb created magic together, building a lifelong friendship and professional partnership that didn't just produce hit songs — it helped redefine the modern Broadway musical — and we are so excited to honor their music and legacy in The World Goes 'Round, our 2026/27 Season opener in the Stackner Cabaret.
John Kander and Fred Ebb first met in the early 1960s after being introduced to one another by their mutual music publisher Tommy Valando. The creative chemistry was immediate. The very first song they wrote together, "My Coloring Book," was recorded by artists including Sandy Stewart and Barbra Streisand, and earned Kander and Ebb a Grammy nomination for Song of the Year. This initial success was just a taste of what was to come.
Their first Broadway musical Flora, the Red Menace opened in 1965 and introduced the world to 19-year-old starlet Liza Minnelli, who became one of the pair’s closest collaborators and muses. The production strengthened their relationship with legendary producer Harold Prince, who had produced Flora and then brought Kander and Ebb onto his next major project—one that would change musical theater forever.
The very next year, that project launched as Cabaret and took Broadway by storm. Set in a Berlin nightclub on the eve of World War II, Cabaret used glitz and glamour to tell a story about the dangers of complicity in the face of fascism. The show won eight Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and exploded in popularity after the 1972 Academy Award-winning film adaptation was released, starring Minnelli and Joel Grey.
Later, in the fall of 2010, Cabaret would usher in a defining era in Milwaukee Rep's history. At the beginning of Artistic Director Mark Clements' tenure, one of his primary goals was to bring Broadway musicals back to the mainstage – the first of which was this Kander and Ebb classic that arrived in the Quadracci Powerhouse to widespread critical acclaim, with Urban Milwaukee critic Tom Strini celebrating it as "a dazzling theatrical juggernaut."
Kander and Ebb's next era-defining hit arrived on Broadway in 1975 with Chicago. This genre-breaking musical was unlike anything anyone had ever seen before, mixing sex, violence and celebrity with vaudeville glamour and satirical wit. The 1996 revival became a cultural phenomenon in its own right, continuing to dazzle audiences today as the longest-running American musical in Broadway history.
Kander and Ebb’s credits eventually grew to sixteen Broadway musicals, including Woman of the Year,The Rink and Kiss of the Spider Woman, collecting three Tony Awards, two Grammy Awards, two Emmy Awards, a Laurence Olivier Award, and the Kennedy Center Honors along the way.
What set them apart was not the accolades, but their impact. Kander and Ebb revolutionized the world of theater by pairing the bright, flashy packaging of a musical with fearless social commentary that entertained in thought-provoking ways. Over the course of their partnership, they wrote about topics like corruption and greed, using humor and showmanship to smuggle serious ideas into popular entertainment.
Fred Ebb tragically passed away in 2004, bringing his four-decade partnership with composer John Kander to an end. Kander has continued composing and, at age 96, helped create the 2023 Broadway musical New York, New York. The production combined classic and previously unheard Kander and Ebb songs with new music by Kander and additional lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton, In the Heights).
More than six decades after they first sat down to write together, John Kander and Fred Ebb's songs remain some of the most recognizable, most performed and most revolutionary in Broadway history. The musical tribute The World Goes ‘Round features over 30 of these unforgettable tunes, running September 11 – November 1 in the Stackner Cabaret.