Announcing the Fred Ebb Award for Songwriting

The Fred Ebb Foundation (Mitchell Bernard, Trustee) in association with the Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director) are pleased to announce the inauguration of the Fred Ebb Award for aspiring musical theatre songwriters. The award is named in honor of the late award-winning lyricist Fred Ebb.

The Fred Ebb Award will recognize 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.

Applications can be obtained through the official website at www.FredEbbFoundation.org

Submissions will be accepted between May 1st, 2005 and June 30th, 2005. The winner will be announced at a ceremony in November 2005.

The judges will be Broadway director Scott Ellis; lyricist, writer and composer Sheldon Harnick; playwright and producer Tim Pinckney and theatre producer Arthur Whitelaw.

Due to the longstanding relationship between Mr. Ebb and the Roundabout Theatre Company, the Roundabout will provide creative and administrative guidance. In its six-year run, Roundabout's Tony Award-winning production of John Kander and Fred Ebb's Cabaret became the theatre company's most successful production, creating the opportunity for Roundabout to make Studio 54 its permanent home for musical theatre.

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 Women of the Year (1981), The Rink (1984), Kiss of the Spiderwoman (1985) and Steel Pier (1997). 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.

The official website with additional information on eligibility, application, submission, selection and announcement details can be accessed at www.FredEbbFoundation.org.