Colored Lights
by
John Kander and Fred Ebb
As told to Greg Lawrence |
Published 2003
231 pages
26 illustrations
Faber and Faber, Inc. New York
List price $23.00 |
Click here to buy this book
 |
The music-and-lyrics team of John Kander and Fred Ebb have given Broadway a
steady stream of memorable scores ever since they wrote the short lived, but
well remembered, Flora, the Red Menace, in which Liza Minnelli earned
her first Tony Award. That was 1965. (They actually began collaborating in
1962 and had their first hit, "My Coloring Book," introduced on the Perry
Como television show.) Today they are still at it, having their latest
musical, The Visit, currently looking for a theater on Broadway, and the
revival of Chicago still playing on Broadway where interest was
stimulated by the success of the movie version which won the Oscar as best
movie of last year. They marked their anniversary by discussing their careers
with each other for Greg Lawrence and the readers in a series of
conversations that reveal a great deal about their portion of the history of
the American musical stage. The conversations also are a clear demonstration
of the respect and affection they share for each other which is the basis of
the quality and the longevity of their collaboration.
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Contents: This edited transcript presents
John Kander and Fred Ebb telling stories of their collaboration on Flora,
the Red Menace; Cabaret; The Happy Time; Zorba; 70, Girls, 70; Chicago; The
Act; Woman of the Year; The Rink; Kiss of the Spider Woman; And the World
Goes 'Round; Steel Pier and other projects.Unlike other "as told to" books which impose
the "author's" voice in place of the subjects', this one is a transcript of
the two-person conversations that the credited co-author, Greg Lawrence, has
assembled, and one assumes, edited. Only in the chapter openings in which he
provides the dates, names of theaters and lengths of runs of the shows being
discussed does he insert his voice into the proceedings. As a result, the
book is just what the reader would hope for -- a chance to be a bug on the
wall listening to Kander and Ebb reminisce and share stories. It is a
delight to get to experience the respect and affection these two long-time
colleagues have for each other and the honorable way they conduct their
business. It is
particularly enjoyable when one tells a story and the other exclaims "I
hadn't heard that before."
The book is filled not only with back-stage
stories but with intelligent observations on their working relationship,
their views on the business they so clearly love and the craft of show
making. Potomac Region readers will be intrigued by their discussion of the
problem the song "This Life" presented in their Signature Theatre premiere
of Over and Over when Dorothy Loudon stopped the show, but the show
was the weaker for it. The book is filled with detailed stories that will
fascinate, but it is the insight into the collaborative process that is
musical theater that is most memorable. Listen to Ebb on the difficulty of
making a song work in a musical: "Look at how many people come to bear on
one number -- a lyric writer, a composer, a director, a librettist. To think
of how many people can defeat a number -- a bad horn player, a conductor
getting a tempo wrong, a director not understanding it, a librettist not
properly leading the audience into it, a performer who goes flat footed or
forgets a line ... the fact that anything comes off is quite remarkable ..."
While all this is fascinating, enjoyable and frequently thought provoking,
there are still a few shortcomings in the book that need to be mentioned.
Most important is the fact that the book does not include an index. This is
a serious flaw in a volume that is likely to sit on your shelf for years
after you read it. When one of the fascinating stories comes up in
conversation or when you attend a revival of a Kander and Ebb show and try
to rack your brain over some detail you recall from the book, it would be so
nice to be able to consult a thorough index to find the source of your
memory. Instead, it will take a frustrating scan of the chapter involved to
find what you want. There are also sidebars from Liza Minnelli and Hal
Prince telling their sides of some of the stories that Kander and Ebb get
into. These seem like interruptions, unwelcome ones at that. |
