“Bye Bye Birdie” and “Annie,” the composer Charles Strouse’s most popular musicals, were not just big hits that are regularly revived on professional and amateur stages. They captured essential elements of American culture, including a yearning for escape from an older generation’s shackles and a can-do spirit to overcome adversity.
Strouse, who died Thursday at 96, wrote jingles, pop songs and movie scores, but he remains famous for his Broadway shows. In addition to those two blockbusters, three others help make up his career peaks.
Here are five numbers that illustrate Strouse’s suppleness as a composer and his knack for instantly hummable melodies.
Few musicals showcase as many great numbers as this hit about the Elvis Presley-like star Conrad Birdie, who, as a publicity stunt, visits a Midwest family before shipping off to the Army. The movie version, from 1963, is one of Hollywood’s best musicals of that decade, even though it made big changes to the show. The most egregious was casting Janet Leigh in the role of Rose Alvarez, played by Chita Rivera on Broadway. But it is hard to nitpick with the focus being shifted to Kim, a teenager discovering her sultry side, because she was played by Ann-Margret in an explosive performance that made her a star — she was particularly electric in the number “A Lot of Livin’ to Do.”
Bonus video: In 2024, Vanessa Williams performed that song at the annual Miscast event, keeping the pronouns originally sung by Conrad Birdie intact.
Strouse teamed up again with his “Birdie” lyricist, Lee Adams, for this somber-minded, boxing-themed vehicle for Sammy Davis Jr. (one of the entertainer’s only four Broadway credits). The composer’s ability to tap into a brassy energy is on full display in the sharp-edged number “Don’t Forget 127th Street,” and overall this is probably his jazziest score — “Night Song” has been covered by several jazz acts including Art Blakey, Sarah Vaughan and Nina Simone. Based on a Clifford Odets play from 1937, the “Golden Boy” musical changed the lead character of Joe from Italian American to Black and the underlying concerns from immigration to racial equality. The show was very much connected to the preoccupations of the civil rights era, and its interracial romance — and duets like “I Want to Be With You” between Davis and his co-star, Paula Wayne — was not the kind of thing you often saw onstage at that time.
Had the makers of “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” consulted Strouse, he might have informed them that superhero musicals are a tough nut to crack. In 1966, he and Adams tried to make Superman sing and dance on Broadway, and the show crashed like the Man of Steel after being exposed to Kryptonite. The overall vibe was very much in sync with that of the goofy “Batman” TV series, which also premiered in 1966 — the musical even included a number titled “Pow! Bam! Zonk!” A standard did make it out, however: “You’ve Got Possibilities.” Linda Lavin originated it on Broadway (and sang it in her cabaret shows over the decades), but this sultry cover by Peggy Lee, from her 1966 album “Big Spender,” makes the most of Strouse’s uncommon melodic gifts.
1970
‘Applause’
This number, “But Alive,” in which Lauren Bacall’s diva of a character visits a Greenwich Village bar clearly packed with adoring gay men has to be one of the campiest romps ever. Strouse and Adams’s musical “Applause” was based on the Mary Orr short story that inspired “All About Eve” (the studio did not relinquish the rights to the film itself), updated by the book writers Betty Comden and Adolph Green to 1970. Bacall played Margo Channing (immortalized by Bette Davis in the movie), and to say she was not an adept singer or dancer would be an understatement. She had, however, the necessary aura and she was game, making “But Alive” completely irrepressible — perhaps even more so precisely because Bacall was not, well, Ann-Margret. Wouldn’t you have been dancing and singing along with her, too?
1977
‘Annie’
The “Annie” number at the 1977 Tony Awards went on for a whopping 10 minutes, which feels downright epic by current Tony standards. Original cast members, including Andrea McArdle (Annie) and Dorothy Loudon (Miss Hannigan), presented an overview of the show dotted with generous excerpts from such great songs as “You’re Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile,” “Easy Street” and, of course, the anthem of eternal optimism known as “Tomorrow.” The show about a plucky young orphan who finds a new family during the Great Depression, by Strouse, the lyricist Martin Charnin and the book writer Thomas Meehan, was an instant smash, winning seven Tonys including best musical, and earning a spot in the pop-culture pantheon.
