Charles Strouse

Charles Strouse, a long-standing member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Theater Hall of Fame, is one of America’s most successful musical theatre composers. His first Broadway musical, Bye Bye Birdie, was written with his long–time collaborator Lee Adams and starred Dick Van Dyke, Chita Rivera, and Paul Lynde. It produced hit songs including “Put on a Happy Face,” “A Lot of Livin’ to Do,” and the fan anthem “We Love You, Conrad.” The show won Strouse a Tony Award and the London Critics Best Foreign Musical Award. In 1970, Applause, a musical adaptation of All About Eve starring Lauren Bacall, achieved the same honors, earning Strouse his second Tony. In 1977, Strouse teamed with lyricist Martin Charnin and librettist Thomas Meehan on the Broadway musical Annie. Running for 2,377 performances and yielding countless productions around the world, Strouse’s scores included “Tomorrow,” “It’s the Hard–Knock Life,” “You’re Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile,” and “I Don’t Need Anything But You.” The Broadway phenomenon earned Strouse his third Tony Award. Strouse has also garnered Tony nominations for his Broadway scores of Golden Boy, an adaptation of the Clifford Odets classic starring Sammy Davis Jr.; Charlie & Algernon, a musical based on the Daniel Keyes novel Flowers for Algernon; Rags, a collaboration with Stephen Schwartz and Joseph Stein starring opera star Teresa Stratas; and Nick and Nora, a musical based on Dashiell Hammett’s The Thin Man characters, written with Richard Maltby, Jr. and Arthur Laurents. Strouse’s other musicals on Broadway and/or London’s West End include All American, starring Ray Bolger, book by Mel Brooks, direction by Joshua Logan, and featuring the popular ballad “Once Upon a Time”; It’s A Bird… It’s A Plane… It’s Superman, a stage adaptation of the comic strip, produced and directed by Hal Prince; I And Albert, the West End musical about Queen Victoria, directed by John Schlesinger; A Broadway Musical; Bring Back Birdie, the sequel to Bye Bye Birdie; and Dance a Little Closer, written with Alan Jay Lerner. Strouse wrote both the music and lyrics for Off–Broadway’s Mayor, an adaptation of Ed Koch’s book, and teamed again with Martin Charnin to create Annie Warbucks, the stage sequel to Annie.