Last Sunday,
theater lovers tuned into the Tony Awards, Broadway’s famous awards show.  Many of the plays and musicals we regard
today as classics have won Tony awards, and many of the theater professionals
involved in their creation have had storied careers.

Two of
these artists are the composer and lyricist duo Kander & Ebb.  They wrote the lyrics and music to a number
of musicals on and off Broadway, and have been nominated for a number of Tony awards.  Interestingly, one of their most popular
musicals—Chicago—did not earn any
awards (out of eleven nominations) on its first Broadway run, later winning six
Tony awards for the 1997 revival.  In
1993, their musical Kiss of the Spider
Woman won the Tony for Best Score—but tied with the musical The Who’s Tommy, a relatively unusual
event in Tony Award history.

To learn
more about the rich career of Kander & Ebb, James Leve’s book—one of those in the Yale Broadway Masters Series—offers an
examination of their careers, collaboration, and works.  If you were interested in reading up on more
Tony Award trivia, there are more fun facts along with these at the Tony Awards
website.