geoff: Broadway's big night, the
Tony awards, will be held this
Sunday.
The new show, "New York, new
York" is a top contender,
nominated in nine categories,
including best musical.
The composer of its music, John
Kander is separately being
honored with a special award for
"Lifetime achievement in the
theater."
Quite a life extraordinary
achievement, which continues.
Jeffrey brown joined Kander at
the piano in his New York, new
York home for our arts and
culture series, canvas.
♪♪
correspondent: The new Broadway
musical "New York, New York",
since shortly after World War
II, opens with a song called
"Cheering for me now", in which
we meet characters who've come
to New York with uncertain
futures, but big dreams.
The show is a love letter to a
city.
And, for its 96 year old
composer, John Kander, it
captures the wonder of working
with others to create something
new.
>> I've lived a long time. And
one of the good things I can
tell you about living a long
time is that you keep finding
out things and learning things
about, not just your own life,
about life itself, or what
really matters.
And I found myself at the end of
the workshop of "New York, new
York" saying to the company, in
thanking them, that one of the
greatest pleasures in life was
making art with your friends.
♪♪
correspondent: Kander, who grew
up in Kansas City, was himself
one of those people who came to
post-war New York to make it.
He did, big-time, and it was
through the collaborative
process, as half of one of
musical theater's greatest
teams.
Music by John Kander, lyrics by
Fred ab -- ebb.
♪♪
creators of such blockbusters as
"Chicago", which premiered in
a 1996 revival is now the
1975.
Longest-running show on
Broadway.
Another classic, gammaray --
cabaret from 1966, later a film
starring liza minnelli and Joel
gray.
They wrote 16 Broadway musicals
and all and thousands of songs,
including a certain anthem that
pretty much everyone on the
planet must've heard.
♪♪
correspondent: It was originally
written for the 1977 film drama
directed by martin scorsese, and
as the story goes, when star
Robert Deniro didn't much like
the first version Kander and ebb
brought them, the two went off
and did what they did best, sat
at the piano and got to work.
>> We went home pissed off.
>> Yeah, about, Deniro didn't
like your song.
>> It is true, and we went into
this little room where we work
with Freddie and sat down and
said, ´well, let's do it again.'
and my hands while, probably
what we were talking went --
♪♪
and with Fred, immediately
inside of that vamp is --
the very first lines.
♪♪
correspondent: In fact, Kander
says, music is always playing in
his head, even as we talked. His
job, improvise until he finds
the good parts, while Fred ebb,
who died in 2004, was doing the
same with an endless string of
words.
>> She could -- and this is
brilliant.
I do not know a lot of people
who could do this.
He could improvise in a rhyme
and meter in the same way that I
could do --
♪♪
without thinking, seemingly
without thinking.
Correspondent: You're
improvising at the keyboard and
he's improvising with the rhymes
in his head.
And somehow it comes together.
Correspondent: --
>> Right, it is mysterious,
because I think it is so deeply
unconscious for us.
♪♪
correspondent: The new "New
York, New York" musical,
directed and choreographed by
Susan Stroman, another longtime
Kander collaborator, is loosely
based on the earlier film, with
new characters and storylines.
♪♪
at its heart, a young musician,
played by Colton Ryan, who lost
his brother in the war.
And a singer, played by Anna
uzele, facing racial
discrimination as she struggles
for opportunities.
Many of the songs are older ones
by Kander and ebb. Seven were
written with a new partner and
friend, contemporary Broadway
giant lin-manuel Miranda, who
joined the cast and production
team in a rousing 96th birthday
song for Kander.
♪♪
>> We have a good time working
together, and it reminds me a
little bit of Freddy, because he
is, Lin is very fast and I'm
very fast.
Correspondent: Fast is in the
ideas are coming quickly?
>> Yeah, and again, the ideas
can be terrible.
And nobody is a bad person
because they have it, but so you
write it, and then you change
it.
Correspondent: There is a lot of
craft to songwriting, right?
>> Yes, and that is the word.
I think we are all carpenters.
Correspondent: Knowing how to
put it together.
>> Yeah, it is one thing to want
to make art.
It is another to do it, and that
is craft.
You get better at it, hopefully,
as you work, or not.
The rehearsal is for me the
safest place in the world,
because you can do anything.
You can be so terrible, but it
is private.
Correspondent: Yeah.
>> And eventually you end up in
the rehearsal room with
something that's as close as you
can get to what you intended.
Correspondent: Even with "New
York, New York" now on Broadway,
Kander, who lives with his
husband Albert Stephenson, was
about to leave after our talk to
join a workshop session for a
potential revival of the Kander
and ebb 1990 musical, "Kiss of
the spider woman." He is very
much still at it.
>> My mother had a great phase
which no, none of us understood
until later in life.
She said, you do the best you
can.
A horse cannot do any better.
Correspondent: A horse can't do
any better.
>> And I understand now what
that means.
In other words, if you're
writing a show, you do the best
you can.
Sometimes without thinking of
the ramifications.
Correspondent: You are 96 and
still working.
What is the secret?
>> Well, are you supposed to
stop doing the things that give
you pleasure?
Who wrote that rule?
Correspondent: No one wrote that
rule, certainly not for John
Kander.
♪♪