The Fred Ebb Foundation (Mitchell Bernard, Trustee) in association with the Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director) will present the sixth annual Fred Ebb Award for aspiring musical theatre songwriters to Douglas J. Cohen. The award, named in honor of the late award-winning lyricist Fred Ebb, will be presented by David Thompson (The Scottsboro Boys) on Monday, November 29th from 6-8pm at a by-invitation-only ceremony in the Penthouse Lobby of The American Airlines Theater.
The
Fred Ebb Award recognizes excellence in musical theatre songwriting, by a lyricist, composer, or songwriting team that has not yet achieved significant commercial success. The award is meant to encourage and support aspiring songwriters to create new works for the musical theatre. The prize includes a $50,000 award. The
Fred Ebb Foundation is funded by royalties from Mr. Ebb's vast catalogue of work. Past winners include
John Bucchino (2005),
Steve Lutvak and
Robert L. Freedman (2006),
Peter Mills (2007),
Adam Gwon (2008), and
Marcy Heisler and
Zina Goldrich (2009). The selection panel is comprised of: Foundation Trustee Mitchell S. Bernard; lyricist, writer and composer
Sheldon Harnick; Music Director
David Loud; Actress
Rebecca Luker; actor, lyricist and composer
Lin-Manuel Miranda; Playwright/producer
Tim Pinckney; Theatre producer
Arthur Whitelaw.
Douglas J. Cohen is the composer/lyricist of The Big Time, an original musical with a book by
Douglas Carter Beane, which is Broadway bound (producer,
Rob Ahrens, Xanadu) and premiered in the NYMF Festival directed by
Christopher Ashley. He won two
Richard Rodgers Awards and the Gilman & Gonzalez-Falla Theatre Foundation Award for writing book, music, and lyrics to No Way To Treat A Lady based on
William Goldman's novel (currently optioned for New York by producer
Larry Hirschhorn) and produced twice off-Broadway (Outer Critics Circle nomination Best Revival,
York Theatre Company, with over 100 productions throughout the world including The Coconut Grove Playhouse,
Signature Theatre, Barrington Stage) and The Gig, based on the
Frank D. Gilroy film, for which Doug won the first Noël Coward Prize. The Gig has received workshops and productions at O'Neill Music-Theatre Conference, Goodspeed, MTC Stage II, California Music Circus, a European premiere in Baden-Baden, Germany and a concert at the
York Theatre Company recorded and released on Jay Records.
Doug was a 2005 Drama Desk nominee for Outstanding Lyrics for Children's Letters To God (composer
David Evans/librettist Suart Hample; off-B'way production at the Lamb's Theatre with productions throughout the country; original cast CD on Jay Records). He also contributed the original songs to the off-Broadway show, Boozy (10 Best List in TIME OUT and NY DAILY NEWS) written and produced by the Obie award-winning
Les Freres Corbusier and directed by
Alex Timbers.
His brand-new musical, Nine Wives, is written with collaborator
Dan Elish (librettist of 13 on Broadway) based on Mr. Elish's published novel. Other musicals include Barnstormer (composer, with book/lyrics by Cheryl
L. Davis), based on the life of the first African American aviatrix, Bessie Coleman. A bare bones production directed by
Jerry Dixon at the Lark Play Development Center received a
Jonathan Larson Grant. Later presented in
Hartford Stage Company's "Brand: New Festival"(November 2007), it was selected for the NAMT 20th Festival in New York and produced at the Red Mountain Theatre Company in Birmingham January 2010; The Opposite Of Sex (composer/lyricist and co-librettist), a musical based on the film, which was produced at the
Williamstown Theatre Festival and The Magic Theatre in San Francisco directed by
Robert Jess Roth; GLIMMERGLASS based on
James Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales (composer, productions at Goodspeed-at-Chester, NAMT Festival, Spirit of Broadway production - voted Best Production of the Year); Valentino's Tango (lyricist-librettist of an original musical with composer
Howard Marren); and A
Charles Dickens Christmas (composer), originally produced by Theatreworks/USA and now licensed through
Music Theatre International.
Doug recently completed his first play, Lovely Send Anywhere, which received two roundtable reading at the Lark Play Development Center in 2009-2010. He is currently working on a musical adaptation of
Frank D. Gilroy's novel, From Noon Till Three. Doug is a member of ASCAP, the Dramatist Guild and a graduate of Amherst College.
As a writer, lyricist, composer and director,
Fred Ebb made incalculable contributions to the New York theatrical community. Mr. Ebb is a Tony®, Grammy®, Emmy®, Olivier® and Kennedy Center Honors Lifetime Achievement Award winning recipient.
Fred Ebb's first professional songwriting assignment came in 1953 when he and Phil Springer were hired by
Columbia Records to write a song for
Judy Garland called "Heartbroken." Mr. Ebb was introduced to composer
John Kander in 1964 by music publisher
Tommy Valando and became one of the most legendary songwriting teams in American history. The first successful collaboration was on the song "My Coloring Book," recorded by
Barbra Streisand. Their second theatrical collaboration, Flora, the Red Menace, created a star out of
Liza Minnelli in her Tony® Award-winning Broadway debut. In 1966, their collaboration Cabaret, opened and received seven Tony® Awards including Best Musical and Best Score. A 1972 movie version of Cabaret starring
Liza Minnelli was nominated for 10 Academy Awards and won eight awards and was nominated for nine Golden Globe Awards and won three including Best Picture, Musical or Comedy. The same year, the songwriting team wrote a number of songs for Minnelli's television special "
Liza with a Z," which received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Single Program - Variety or Popular Music. In 1975, the two wrote the Broadway musical Chicago, directed by
Bob Fosse and starring
Gwen Verdon,
Chita Rivera and
Jerry Orbach. The musical was successfully revived 20 years later at
City Center ENCORES! and subsequently transferred to Broadway where it is currently the longest running revival in Broadway history. In 1977, the team collaborated with
Martin Scorsese on the movie New York, New York; the title song was introduced by Minnelli and later recorded by
Frank Sinatra becoming the unofficial theme song of New York City. The Minnelli Broadway vehicle The Act also opened that year. After a four-year absence, Mr. Ebb and Mr. Kander returned with Woman of the Year (1981), The Rink (1984), Kiss of the Spiderwoman (1985) and Steel Pier (1997). They were honored by the Kennedy Center with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998. Miramax's 2002 feature film Chicago was nominated for 13 Academy Awards and won six, including Best Picture and was nominated for eight Golden Globe Awards and won three, including Best Picture, Musical or Comedy.
At the time of Mr. Ebb's passing, he and Mr. Kander were at work on several new musicals. Curtains, starring
David Hyde Pierce and
Debra Monk, debuted at CTG/
Ahmanson Theatre in 2006 and came to Broadway in 2007, receiving a Tony Nomination for Best Musical as well as a Best Score nomination for Kander & Ebb. In 2007, All About Us was staged at
The Westport Country Playhouse. The Visit, starring
Chita Rivera and
George Hearn, received a staging at DC's
Signature Theatre in 2008. Earlier this year, The Scottsboro Boys debuted at New York's
Vineyard Theatre. The production received an additional production at the
Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis before coming to Broadway this fall.
Photo Credit: BWW-Staff
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