Fred Ebb Foundation Donates $1.2 Million to Broadway Cares/ Equity Fights AIDS

The Fred Ebb Foundation (Mitchell Bernard, Trustee) has just announced that its 2011 donation to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS will total $1.2 million dollars, marking the largest single contribution in BC/EFA history. The foundation, which is funded by royalties from the late award-winning lyricist Fred Ebb's vast catalogue of work, makes an annual donation to BC/EFA. This contribution tops last year's donation of $1 million dollars which was, at the time, the largest single contribution in BC/EFA history.

"Fred Ebb's lyrics abounded in an ebullient energy, wry humor and zest for living," said BC/EFA Executive Director Tom Viola. "With John Kander, Fred gave us some of the most delightful, smart, hilarious and heartfelt songs in more than a dozen groundbreaking and acclaimed musicals of the last 50 years. Fred's creative genius has also become a legacy of his great generosity of spirit with his on-going support of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. This astounding award of $1.2 million this year from the Fred Ebb Foundation is the largest single donation made to Broadway Cares in our history. It enables us to secure and increase our support for the essential safety net of social services provided by The Actors Fund, as well as hundreds of HIV/AIDS and family service organizations nationwide at a time when other funding sources are cutting back as more and more men, women and children reach out for assistance. What an incredible gift Fred has given them. 'Long as we pull together, we can do anything, anything, anywhere,' Fred wrote in The Rink. Thank you, Fred! Your most generous gift will allow BC/EFA to act on those wise and kind words."

The Fred Ebb Foundation, in association with the Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director) also presents an annual award, named for Mr. Ebb, to aspiring musical theatre songwriters. This year's award, which includes a $50,000 prize, was presented to Jeff Blumenkrantz. Past winners include John Bucchino (2005), Steve Lutvak and Robert L. Freedman (2006), Peter Mills (2007), Adam Gwon (2008), Marcy Heisler and Zina Goldrich (2009), and Douglas J. Cohen (2010).

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 and received another concert staging this fall on Broadway. Last season, The Scottsboro Boys opened on Broadway and received 12 Tony Nominations, including Best Musical and Best Score.

Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS is one of the nation's leading industry-based, nonprofit AIDS fundraising and grant-making organizations. By drawing upon the talents, resources and generosity of the American theatre community, since 1988 BC/EFA has raised over $195 million for essential services for people with AIDS and other critical illnesses across the United States.

BC/EFA is the major supporter of seven programs at The Actors Fund, including the HIV/AIDS Initiative, the Phyllis Newman Women's Health Initiative, the Al Hirschfeld Free Health Clinic and more. BC/EFA also awards annual grants to more than 400 AIDS and family service organizations nationwide.

For more information, visit www.broadwaycares.org.