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Charles Strouse | |
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 Strouse in 2013 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | 7 June 1928 New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Origin | New York City, United States |
| Occupation | Songwriter |
| Years active | 1959–present |
| Spouse | Barbara Siman (m. 1962;died 2023) |
Charles Strouse (born June 7, 1928) is an American composer and lyricist best known for writing the music to such Broadway musicals as Bye Bye Birdie , Applause , and Annie .
Strouse was born in New York City, to Jewish parents, Ethel (née Newman) and Ira Strouse, who worked in the tobacco business. A graduate of the Eastman School of Music, he studied under Arthur Berger, David Diamond, Aaron Copland and Nadia Boulanger. [1] [2]
Strouse's first Broadway musical was Bye Bye Birdie , with lyrics by Lee Adams, which opened in 1960. [3] Adams became his long-time collaborator. For this show, Strouse won his first Tony Award in the category of best musical. [4]
Strouse's next show was All American (1962), with a book by Mel Brooks and lyrics by Adams; it was not a success, closing after 80 performances, [5] but it produced the standard “Once Upon a Time” (recorded by Perry Como, Eddie Fisher, Al Martino, Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, and Bobby Darin, among dozens of others).
Following this was Golden Boy (1964, also with Adams), starring Sammy Davis Jr., which ran for 568 performances. The musical It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman (1966, based on the popular comic strip) closed after 129 performances, but introduced the song "You've Got Possibilities" sung by Linda Lavin. [6] [7] Its theme would also be adopted by Washington, D.C. television station WTOP (now WUSA) for news broadcasts. [8]
In 1970, Applause (starring Lauren Bacall, with book by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, and lyrics by Adams) won Strouse his second Tony Award, for Best Musical. [9] In 1977, Strouse adapted another comic strip for the stage, creating the hit Annie , which included the song "Tomorrow," which quickly became a "monstrous song hit," and garnered him his third Tony Award and two Grammy Awards. [10]
Other Strouse musicals include Charlie and Algernon (1979), Dance a Little Closer (1983, with lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner, which closed after one performance), Rags (1986; which closed after four performances and 18 previews), Nick & Nora (1993, which closed after 9 performances), and An American Tragedy (1995, with lyrics by David Shaber, performed at Muhlenberg College).
Strouse also wrote musical revues, many with Adams, and his songs were included in revues. The revues included Shoestring Revue (with Adams and Michael Stewart) (1955 – Off–Broadway), [11] Medium Rare (with Adams) (1960 - Chicago), [12] By Strouse (1978 – Off–Broadway at The Ballroom), [12] [13] Upstairs At O'Neals (1982 – Nightclub Revue), [14] Can't Stop Dancin (1994 – Marymount Theatre), and A Lot Of Living! (1996 – conceived and directed by Barbara Siman at Rainbow and Stars). [15]
Strouse wrote the music and lyrics for the animated special Lyle, Lyle Crocodile which aired on HBO in 1987. [16] His film scores include Bonnie and Clyde (1967), There Was a Crooked Man... (1970, with Henry Fonda and Kirk Douglas), the Norman Lear production of The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968, with Adams) and the popular animated movie All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989). He and Adams also wrote the theme song “Those Were the Days” [17] for the Norman Lear television show All in the Family . Strouse's songs have been heard on the radio throughout his career and have run the gamut from girl-band pop to hip hop. In 1958, his song “Born Too Late” was number seven on the Billboard charts, and in 1999 the quadruple platinum Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem) by artist Jay-Z (which sampled "It's The Hard Knock Life" from Annie) was the winner of a Grammy for Best Rap Album of the year & the Billboard R&B Album of the Year.
Strouse's writing also extends into orchestral works, chamber music, piano concertos and opera. His Concerto America, composed in 2002 to commemorate 9/11 and the spirit of New York City, premiered at The Boston Pops in 2002, [18] and his opera Nightingale (1982), starring Sarah Brightman, had a successful run in London, followed by many subsequent productions. In 1977, Strouse founded the ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop in New York, through which many young composers and lyricists have found a forum for their work.
A musical stage adaptation of the Paddy Chayefsky film Marty starring John C. Reilly premiered at Boston's Huntington Theatre in October 2002, with lyrics by Lee Adams and Strouse and the book by Rupert Holmes. [19] Real Men, for which Strouse wrote the music and lyrics, premiered in January 2005 at the Coconut Grove Playhouse in Miami, Florida, [20] and his musical Studio, premiered at Theatre Building Chicago in August 2006. The musical Minsky's , with music by Strouse, book by Bob Martin, and lyrics by Susan Birkenhead (loosely based on the movie The Night They Raided Minsky's ) premiered in January 2009 at the Ahmanson Theater. [21]
Strouse won Emmy Awards for music in television adaptions of Bye Bye Birdie and Annie. He is also the recipient of the 1999 ASCAP Foundation Richard Rodgers Award [22] and the Oscar Hammerstein Award. He is a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame (in 2001) [23] and the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Strouse was married to director-choreographer Barbara Siman until her death on February 16, 2023. [24] They had 4 children: Benjamin, Nicholas, Victoria and William. [25]
Strouse received an Emperor Has No Clothes Award at the Freedom From Religion Foundation's 34th annual national convention on October 8, 2011. [26] The award is "reserved for public figures who make known their dissent from religion".[ citation needed ]
Bye Bye Birdie is a stage musical with music by Charles Strouse and lyrics by Lee Adams, based upon a book by Michael Stewart.
Stephen Lawrence Schwartz is an American musical theatre composer and lyricist. In a career spanning over five decades, Schwartz has written hit musicals such as Godspell (1971), Pippin (1972), and Wicked (2003). He has contributed lyrics to a number of successful films, including Pocahontas (1995), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), The Prince of Egypt, and Enchanted (2007).
James Elliot Lapine is an American stage director, playwright, screenwriter, and librettist. He has won the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical three times, for Into the Woods, Falsettos, and Passion. He has frequently collaborated with Stephen Sondheim and William Finn.
Michael Stewart was an American playwright and dramatist, librettist, lyricist, screenwriter and novelist.
Lee Richard Adams is an American lyricist best known for his musical theatre collaboration with Charles Strouse.
Applause is a musical with a book by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, lyrics by Lee Adams, and music by Charles Strouse. The musical is based on the 1950 film All About Eve and the short story on which the movie is based, Mary Orr's "The Wisdom of Eve". The story centers on aging star Margo Channing, who innocently takes a fledgling actress under her wing, unaware that the ruthless Eve is plotting to steal her career and her man.
Martin Charnin was an American lyricist, writer, and theatre director. Charnin's best-known work is as conceiver, director, and lyricist of the musical Annie.
Ann Reinking was an American dancer, actress, choreographer, and singer. She worked predominantly in musical theater, starring in Broadway productions such as Coco (1969), Over Here! (1974), Goodtime Charley (1975), Chicago (1977), Dancin' (1978), and Sweet Charity (1986).
Thomas Edward Meehan was an American playwright. He wrote the books for the musicals Annie, The Producers, Hairspray, Young Frankenstein and Cry-Baby. He co-wrote the books for Elf: The Musical and Limelight: The Story of Charlie Chaplin.
The Night They Raided Minsky's is a 1968 American musical comedy film written and produced by Norman Lear, with music and lyrics by the duo of Charles Strouse and Lee Adams, and directed by William Friedkin. Based on a 1960 novel by Rowland Barber, the film is a fictional account of the invention of the striptease at Minsky's Burlesque in 1925. It stars Jason Robards, Britt Ekland, Norman Wisdom, Forrest Tucker, Harry Andrews, Denholm Elliott, Elliott Gould and Bert Lahr.
It's a Bird... It's a Plane... It's Superman is a 1966 musical composed by Charles Strouse, with lyrics by Lee Adams and book by David Newman and Robert Benton. It is based on the comic book character Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster and published by DC Comics.
Robert Martin is a television and musical theatre actor and writer from Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Bring Back Birdie is a 1981 musical with music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Lee Adams, and a book by Michael Stewart. It is a sequel to the 1960 musical Bye Bye Birdie, which was written by the same team.
Susan Birkenhead is an American lyricist.
Mr. Broadway: Tony Bennett's Greatest Broadway Hits is a 1962 album by Tony Bennett.
Gregg Barnes is an American costume designer for stage and film. Barnes is a three-time winner of the Tony Award for Best Costume Design in a Musical for his work on the Broadway productions of The Drowsy Chaperone (2006), Follies (2011), and Some Like It Hot (2022).
Casey Nicholaw is an American theatre director, choreographer, and performer. He has been nominated for several Tony Awards for his work directing and choreographing The Drowsy Chaperone (2006), The Book of Mormon (2011), Aladdin (2014), Something Rotten! (2015), Mean Girls (2018), The Prom (2019), and Some Like It Hot (2023) and for choreographing Monty Python's Spamalot (2005), winning for his co-direction of The Book of Mormon with Trey Parker and his choreography of Some Like It Hot. He also was nominated for the Drama Desk Awards for Outstanding Direction and Choreography for The Drowsy Chaperone (2006) and Something Rotten! (2015) and for Outstanding Choreography for Spamalot (2005).
Michael Starobin is an American orchestrator, conductor, composer, arranger, and musical director, primarily for the stage, film and television. He won Tony Awards for the orchestrations of Assassins (2004) and Next to Normal.
An American Tragedy is a 1995 musical with music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Lee Adams and Mark St. Germain, and a libretto by David Shaber and Mark St. Germain. It was based on Theodore Dreiser's 1925 novel An American Tragedy.
"Applause" is the title song from the 1970 Broadway musical Applause, with music by Charles Strouse and lyrics by Lee Adams, originally performed by Bonnie Franklin, who originated the role of Bonnie in the musical, and recorded as a single with orchestra and chorus conducted by Donald Pippin. The single was released with a B-side featuring the star of the production, Lauren Bacall, making her musical theatre debut, performing "Something Greater" together with Len Cariou. The single's popularity led to Franklin's being invited to perform it on the 24th Tony Awards broadcast on television, where the show gained Best Musical, Bacall Best Leading Actress in a Musical, but Bonnie Franklin missed out on the best supporting actress to Melba Moore.
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