So I just finished reading Colored Lights: Forty Years of Words and Music, Show Biz, Collaboration, and All That Jazz, an oral history of and told by composer John Kander and lyricist Fred Ebb to Greg Lawrence. Lawrence seems to have intitated conversations with Kander and Ebb on each of their major works and then basically transcribed and organized these conversations. There were also introductions and interjections from frequent Kander and Ebb collaborators Liza Minnelli and Harold Prince.
This was a fascinating document and reading it is what it must be like to sit down with these gentlemen at lunch or at a cocktail party. They hold forth on a variety of subjects, both on and off topic, and seem to be discussing some things between themselves for the very first time.
They underline many times what an easy collaboration they have together (part of why each has resisted working with others) and it seems that that ease has let much go unsaid over the years. For example, at one point, Ebb expresses surprise upon learning that Kander never cared for the original idea that became Steel Pier. Kander explains that he went along with that show, because everyone else involved was too enthusiastic about it for him to object.
But Kander came around. Both men agree that Steel Pier and The Rink, another financially unsuccessful musical, were their favorite creative experiences and that they wish every show had the joy, camaraderie, and energy of those experiences.
The book is of recent enough vintage for Kander and Ebb to discuss last year's Oscar-winning film version of Chicago, of which they are immensely proud. However they do bring up the various issues with Miramax's attempt to add more contemporary music, first to the film itself and then to the soundtrack, in a (in hindsight) misguided and unnecessary attempt to lure younger music fans. The result of all this was a new Kander and Ebb song called "I Move On" that was sung over the end credits and ended up being nominated for an Oscar. Kander discusses at length why the song appears as it does at the end of the film and how the discussions over credit and billing for the film lead to the creation of the intro section of the song.
This book is an immensely fascinating document for musical theatre fans. It's not as in depth as some books (notably Ted Chapin's recent memoir of the creation of Follies), but getting all this information straight from the source is invaluable in drawing a portrait of these men and their work.
For companion listening I recommend, in addition to any and all of the cast albums of their works, the cast album of And the World Goes 'Round, a revue of their work that played off-Broadway in the early 1990's, and Brent Barrett's solo disc The Kander and Ebb Album, on which the popular stage actor interprets a wide variety of songs from the duo, some in close to the original arranagements and some...well...some that are quite different from any versions you've heard before.
Posted by Jere at February 20, 2004 04:15 PM | TrackBack