My journey into the musical world of Kander & Ebb continues on YouTube! Watch the video, or, if you’d prefer, read my script below. Intro After last week’s discussion of an iconic musical, today we’re traveling back to the realm of obscure flops. I’ve been ranking every Kander and Ebb musical based on listening to the original Broadway cast album. I have videos on my channel discussing Flora the Red Menace and Cabaret already, so be sure to check those out as we turn our attention to the third show by John Kander and Fred Ebb to hit Broadway, 1968’s The Happy Time . I had heard of this show but I never before listened to this album, and I didn’t even know any of the songs. Everything I did know about this show came from reading William Goldman’s classic book The Season . If you haven’t read this, I highly recommend it. Written by the screenwriter of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Princess Bride, The Season is a non-fiction book about all the ...
My new YouTube series examines the musical legacy of John Kander and Fred Ebb. Watch on YouTube, or, if you’d prefer, read my script below. Intro Wilkomenn to the second installment of my ranking of every Kander & Ebb musical based on listening to the original broadway cast album. Today we’re talking about Cabaret from 1966. Not the Bob Fosse-directed movie with Liza Minnelli, not the Sam Mendes gritty 90s revival starring Alan Cumming and not the Rebecca Frecknall-directed revival that has been running for five years on the West End. All of those versions influence what the popular conception of Cabaret as a musical is, so much so that the original production rarely gets discussed anymore. I want to talk about why that is and what it was about this piece that has made it one of the iconic musicals of all time. Context Cabaret opened on Broadway in November 1966 at the Broadhurst Theatre and it closed in 1969 after running 1,166 performances and 21 previews...