Composer John Kander, who celebrates his 99th birthday on March 18, has been credited on at least one show running on Broadway for the last 45 years. Kander is responsible for the scores of 15 different musicals, including “Chicago” and “Cabaret,” for which he and the late lyricist Fred Ebb received the Tony Award for Best Original Score.
Kander has been working on Broadway consistently since 1959, when “Gypsy,” which included his dance arrangements and for which he served as rehearsal pianist, opened at the Broadway Theatre. He went on to compose the scores for no fewer than 15 Main Stem musicals, including several with Ebb. Kander won four Tony Awards and is the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award. He’s garnered two Primetime Emmy Awards a Grammy Award and a Laurence Olivier Award for his compositions.
The last full calendar year in which there was no show with Kander’s involvement running on Broadway was 1980, following the closure of “The Madwoman of Central Park West” on Aug. 25, 1979. Kander’s “Woman of the Year” then debuted at the Palace Theatre on March 29, 1981. It would go on to run for two years, closing on March 13, 1983.
Since 1981, Kander has been credited on at least one show running on the Rialto every year for 45 consecutive years, with the occasional gap of a few months between shows. (The official 45-year anniversary will be on March 29; with “Chicago” still running to financial success, we expect he’ll make it.)
The current Broadway production of “Chicago,” which opened in 1996, will enter the 30th year of its run on Nov. 14. The revival recently reported its largest-ever weekly gross, taking in $1,457,930.77 for the week ending March 15, following the casting of “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” star Whitney Leavitt in the role of Roxie Hart.
