Synopsis

Barry Manilow concludes this series with a look at composer John Kander and lyricist and librettist Fred Ebb, whose long and successful songwriting partnership ended with the latter's death in 2004.

They've been rewarded with Tonys on Broadway, Oscars in films, and Emmys on television, and as Kennedy Center honourees they were praised for tackling "serious, challenging subjects - Nazism, abortion, murder, capital punishment, prison torture, greed, corruption - with an originality and fearlessness rarely seen in popular entertainment".

Kander and Ebb were behind some of the great creations of the musical stage including Cabaret, Chicago, Kiss of the Spider Woman, as well as New York, New York, a song immortalized by Frank Sinatra. As a neighbour of Fred Ebb's in New York, Barry Manilow was the first to hear the famous opening vamp of this tune. He heard it over and over again, as the pair searched for the lyric, while brushing his teeth in the bathroom!