Charles Strouse papers

1890-2000 [bulk 1947-2000]

Charles Strouse was wan born in New York, NY on June 7, 1928. Strouse developed a love of music from his mother, who played the piano. In 1944 he enrolled at the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music, where he studied piano and composition. After graduating in 1947, he studied with Aaron Copeland, under whose direction several of Strouse’s compositions were performed at Tanglewood and with Arthur Berger, David Diamond and Nadia Boulanger.

However, Strouse was exposed to the world of New York musical theater when he had to take jobs as an audition pianist to pay for his lessons. Under the mentorship of Broadway composer-lyricist Frank Loesser, Strouse put his ambitions for a career in the classical music world on hold and in 1949 he met lyricist Lee Adams, who has been his most frequent collaborator. During the 1950s, the composer/lyricist team of Strouse and Adams wrote several revues, such as Off the Top (1957), Pound in Your Pocket (1959) and Take Me to Your Leader (1959). Strouse also contributed songs, usually written with Adams, to revues such as The Shoestring Revue (1955), What’s the Rush (1956), The Littlest Revue (1956) and Shoestring ’57 (1957). In 1958, Strouse and lyricist Fred Tobias wrote a Billboard hit pop song, “Born Too Late.”

In 1960, Strouse and Adams broke onto the Broadway scene with one of the biggest hits of their careers, Bye Bye Birdie. The popular musical comedy, which was notable for being one of the first musicals to address the rock n’ roll movement, ran 607 performances in its original production and won 4 Tony Awards, including Best Musical. Star Dick Van Dyke and director/choreographer Gower Champion also received Tonys. Other members of the creative team, book-writer Michael Stewart and star Chita Rivera were old colleagues from the Shoestringrevues. The 1963 film version starred Van Dyke, Janet Leigh and Ann-Margret and the 1995 television version starred Jason Alexander and Vanessa Williams.

Strouse and Adams followed Birdie up with All American (1962), a vehicle for dancer-comedian Ray Bolger satirizing college football, which had a book by Mel Brooks and was directed by Joshua Logan. Though the show only lasted 80 performances, it provided one of Strouse’s most enduring hit songs, “Once Upon a Time.” Their next show, Golden Boy (1964) was a musical adaptation of Clifford Odets’ 1937 play, built to showcase the talents of Sammy Davis Jr. The show was nominated for 4 Tony awards and ran 568 performances. Their next show was Strouse’s first musicalization of a comic strip, the campy musical comedy, It’s a Bird…It’s a Plane…It’s Superman!(1966), which had a run of 129 performances, received 3 Tony nominations and was adapted for television in 1975.

During the 1960s, Strouse wrote music directly for the screen, providing the songs, with Adams, for the film, The Night They Raided Minsky’s (1968) and the animated television musical, Alice in Wonderland (1966). In addition to two songs with Adams, Strouse wrote the score for the film, Bonnie and Clyde (1968), for which he was nominated for the Best Original Score Grammy award. Strouse and Adams also wrote the theme song for the television show All in the Family (1971), “Those Were the Days.”

The Strouse /Adams team scored their biggest hit with Applause (1970), a musical version of the acclaimed and popular film All About Eve (1950), starring Lauren Bacall and Len Cariou, with a book by Betty Comden and Adolph Green. The show, which played 896 performances, won Tonys for Best Musical, Bacall’s performance and for Ron Field’s direction and choreography. The 1973 television adaptation featured Bacall and Penny Fuller, recreating their stage roles. After Applause, Strouse experimented with shows in venues other than Broadway. He wrote music, lyrics and book for the short-lived off-Broadway show, Six (1971) and he and Adams collaborated with playwright Jay Presson Allen on a musical about Queen Victoria, I and Albert (1972), which was produced in London. In 1973, Strouse wrote music and lyrics for a musical of E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web (1973) and incidental music for a 1975 Broadway revival of A Member of the Wedding.

Strouse’s first Broadway musical in seven years turned out to be a phenomenon. Annie (1977), with lyrics by Martin Charnin and book by Thomas Meehan, won seven Tony awards, including Best Musical and Best Score, two Grammys and ran 2,377 performances on Broadway. Annie has subsequently been produced all over the country and the world, revived on Broadway in 1997 and adapted into a feature film in 1982 and a television film in 1999. In 1998, rapper Jay-Z proved the versatility of Strouse’s score to Annie when his cover of one of its songs, “The Hard-Knock Life” was #1 on the Billboard charts for five weeks.

After Annie, Strouse wrote a string of shows that were less commercially successful, though many of their scores were acclaimed. He reunited with Adams for A Broadway Musical(1978) and Bring Back Birdie (1981), the sequel to Bye Bye Birdie. Broadway shows with other lyricists included Charlie and Algernon (1980) which Strouse and lyricist/librettist David Rodgers had previously opened in London under the title Flowers for Algernon, Dance a Little Closer (1983) with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner, Rags (1986) with lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and book by Joseph Stein, and Nick and Nora (1991), with lyrics by Richard Maltby Jr. and book by Arthur Laurents. Strouse wrote music and lyrics for Mayor in 1985 and for the animated film, All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989). With Charnin and Meehan, Strouse worked on a sequel to Annie¸ which closed out of town as Annie 2, but was revamped for Off-Broadway as Annie Warbucks (1993) where it played 200 performances. Strouse’s latest show, Marty, an adaptation of the Paddy Chayefsky film with lyrics by Adams and book by Rupert Holmes was produced in Boston, starring John C. Reilly in 2002.

Strouse has focused on musical theater during his career, but he has occasionally written classical compositions, including Concerto America (2002), written for the pianist Jeffrey Biegel and operas such as Nightingale and The Cozy. Strouse has been an active member of the American Society of Composers and Publishers (ASCAP) for many years and in 1977 he founded the ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop, which he directed until 1993. Charles Strouse is married to dancer/choreographer Barbara Siman, with whom he has four children, Benjamin, Nicholas, Victoria and William.