Charles Strouse has passed.

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 5/15/25 at 5:02pm

My friend, my hero, the man who gave us so many wonderful songs has passed at 96. I was so lucky to be his assistant. I will miss him terribly.

[DramaTeach]

Posted: 5/15/25 at 5:10pm

Lucky enough years ago to hear him talk about his compositions and perform some of them. He was in his 80s and said he still wrote music every day because it kept him young. Lovely man.

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 5/15/25 at 5:19pm

His work spread a lot of joy for many years. A long and wonderful life. May he rest in peace.

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 5/15/25 at 6:32pm

TotallyEffed said: "His work spread a lot of joy for many years. A long and wonderful life. May he rest in peace."

Agreed! His legacy will live on through the music he shared with us. 

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 5/15/25 at 7:05pm

Thanks to all of you celebrating him. And everyone who came to our shows at 54 Below celebrating him. They always brought him such joy.

[Idiot]

Posted: 5/15/25 at 8:06pm

APPLAUSE for a beautifully productive life in the arts!

Updated On: 5/16/25 at 08:06 PM

[UWS10023]

Posted: 5/15/25 at 9:25pm

I loved his music! I had no idea that he composed the theme song for All In The Family. Stick Around from Golden Boy was always my go to audition number back in the day. I am happy that he and his wife had such a long life together.

After Jonathan Groff finishes the Bobby Darin musical perhaps he could do a Bye Bye Birdie revival with City Center Encores or for Broadway. Better yet for television! RIP….

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 5/15/25 at 9:37pm

I loved so many of his scores, but...IT'S SUPERMAN! most of all. The Encores! is a favorite musical comedy memory. 

 

"Tomorrow" will live forever. 

[sbflyfan]

Posted: 5/16/25 at 9:06am

I absolutely love the original cast recording of "Nightingale" with Sarah Brightman. He wrote such a clever, catchy score with great wit in the lyrics. It's one of those recordings you listen to and really feel you get a complete sense of the show and story... no visuals required.

Updated On: 5/16/25 at 09:06 AM

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 5/16/25 at 10:11am

After Jonathan Groff finishes the Bobby Darin musical perhaps he could do a Bye Bye Birdie revival with City Center Encores or for Broadway. Better yet for television!

Sadly, BYE BYE BIRDIE doesn’t seem to translate well anymore, though the music holds up magically. The 1990 National Tour with Tommy Tune, Ann Reinking, Marc Kudisch, Marcia Lewis and Susan Egan never came to Broadway. Encores! did it in 2004 with Karen Ziemba as Rosie. Kennedy Center did it twice: in 2008 then 2024 with Christian Borle as Albert. The 2009 Broadway revival with John Stamos and Gina Gershon flopped like a dead fish and the 1995 ABC TV adaptation with Jason Alexander, Vanessa Williams and Tyne Daly wasn’t well received. 

[nmartin]

Posted: 5/16/25 at 10:36am

His score, along with Stephen Schwartz's lyrics, for Rags is one of my favorites.

I never tire of the overture for Applause.

And who can resist his and Lee Adams' "Hymn for a Sunday Evening"?

 

[rattleNwoolypenguin]

Posted: 5/16/25 at 11:32am

I'm sure every kid in theatre was exhausted and annoyed by how many times they had to hear "Tomorrow" growing up.

 

But it is undeniably one of our greatest melodies. Just the mere fact you hear it once, and you know it forever. That's great songwriting.

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 5/16/25 at 11:49am

BrodyFosse123 said: "After Jonathan Groff finishes the Bobby Darin musical perhaps he could do a Bye Bye Birdie revival with City Center Encores or for Broadway. Better yet for television!

Sadly, BYE BYE BIRDIE doesn’t seem to translate well anymore, though the music holds up magically."


I think BIRDIE would work just fine with the right, playful director/choreographer (Christopher Gattelli?) and the right cast.

Yes, a bit of the book would need some polishing, and making sure Kim and Conrad are about the same age is vital, but it's still a show that works.

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 5/16/25 at 11:57am

Lee Adams (100) and John Kander (98) are now basically the last two surviving major musical theatre writers of that generation, right?

I think of Strouse as an underrated composer despite having two mammoth hits, and his lesser-known works are even better than the ones that made him famous IMO. Strouse never found an ideal lyric-writing partner after his professional split with Adams (and Adams was not always firing on all cylinders). Would have loved to hear him collab more with Comden & Green, who did the book, but not the lyrics, for Applause.

[darquegk]

Posted: 5/16/25 at 12:37pm

I wonder if the Kim-Conrad age gap has actually become more of a positive? Bye Bye Birdie was behind the time in its assessment that youth culture and rock music wouldn't last, but ahead of its time in portraying its faux-Elvis as taciturn, socially maladjusted, in a state of arrested development, and into questionably young women. For a show as fluffy as it otherwise is, it comes across as more of a barbed satire of Elvis's less savory side than I think it was entirely intended to.

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 5/16/25 at 12:43pm

darquegk said: "I wonder if the Kim-Conrad age gap has actually become more of a positive? Bye Bye Birdie was behind the time in its assessment that youth culture and rock music wouldn't last, but ahead of its time in portraying its faux-Elvis as taciturn, socially maladjusted, in a state of arrested development, and into questionably young women. For a show as fluffy as it otherwise is, it comes across as more of a barbed satire of Elvis's less savory side than I think it was entirely intended to."

I think that is indeed an interesting thing, but a populist version of BYE BYE BIRDIE might not be the vehicle to explore this dynamic.

Its exploration of fan culture and access to celebrity grows more prescient by the year.

[JSquared2]

Posted: 5/16/25 at 12:57pm

Although I'm sure they've already set their next season, it would be wonderful for City Center Encores (or just City Center) to do RAGS next season.  Such an underrated score.  

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 5/16/25 at 2:50pm

JSquared2 said: "Although I'm sure they've already set their next season, it would be wonderful for City Center Encores (or just City Center) to do RAGS next season. Such anunderrated score."

I suspect that wouldn’t happen unless they are willing to do the revised version. Stephen has been devoted to revising it and the new version most recently seen in London a few years ago is what is to be licensed, at least that was the intent.

[Wayman_Wong]

Posted: 5/17/25 at 9:51am

What a pity the Tonys didn't get around to giving Strouse and Lee Adams (now 100) special Tonys for their Lifetime Achievements. For ''Bye Bye Birdie,'' ''All-American,'' ''Golden Boy,'' ''It's a Bird, It's a Plane ... It's Superman,'' ''Applause'' ...

Once upon a time, in 2013, I had the treat of chatting with Strouse, then 84, about his ''Superman'' musical at Encores! and other projects and ''Possibilities.''

https://www.talkinbroadway.com/page/rialto/past/2013/032713.html

Updated On: 5/17/25 at 09:51 AM

[Daisy Crumpler]

Posted: 5/17/25 at 12:32pm

I have no idea how the revised version compares to the original, but I wish Encores would stop trying to be a worklab for revisals. Seems they always leave the audience somewhere between disappointed and disgruntled.

Judy Kuhn was absolutely ravishing singing "Blame It on the Summer Night" at this spring's Broadway Leading Ladies concert and she would definitely be my pick to play Rebecca in a City Center (or any!) production.

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 5/17/25 at 1:09pm

Daisy Crumpler said: "I have no idea how the revised versioncompares to the original, but I wish Encores would stop trying to be a worklab for revisals. Seems they always leave the audience somewhere between disappointed and disgruntled."

The revised RAGS has been seen at Goodspeed and on the West End, and is now the only licensed version of the show, so in a hypothetical world where Encores did it, it would not be a "worklab" situation.

Since the very beginning Encores has almost always done some level of script revisions. When David Ives was their primary "concert adapter", he talked about how his first task was always to "take out the wife-beating jokes" (aka, to remove distracting political-incorrectnesses) and to trim the books down to flow better in a setting where they were being put up with ten days of rehearsal. (Sometimes he was also restructuring scenes or adding jokes.)

In the post-Jack Viertel era, City Center has basically only done three shows with substantial revisions (PAL JOEY, THE LIFE, THE TAP DANCE KID). The former was put together by commercial producers and came with enhancement money, and the latter two were part of the strange post-COVID season and were attempts to do something different –– which clearly didn't work, and the org has not attempted revised shows on that level since then as part of the main Encores season.

Updated On: 5/17/25 at 01:09 PM

[MezzA101]

Posted: 5/18/25 at 12:36pm

The Broadway Best of Charles Strouse

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/16/theater/charles-strouse-annie-applause.html?unlocked_article_code=1.IE8.cyPl.-r5ahfh2S93g&smid=nytcore-android-share

[Demitri2]

Posted: 5/18/25 at 3:07pm

I loved his music with "Blame It On A Summer Night" from RAGS being my very favorite. I was only disappointed once with his score to A BROADWAY MUSICAL which I saw in previews. An overall disaster.

[merle57]

Posted: 5/18/25 at 4:05pm

I have always thought Golden Boy was a particularly excellent score with stunning ballads -- Golden Boy ,Night Song, Lorna's Here, I Wanna Be With You, and While the City Sleeps.  Superman has a fabulous overture, You've Got Possibilities, the title song, You've Got What I Need, Woman for the Man Who Has Everything. Rags is one great musical moment after another from Greenhorns to Brand New World to Rags to Children of the Wind to the absolutely ravishing Blame it On The Summer Night.  There is also good work in his other flops, especially Nick and Nora and All American. 

Updated On: 5/18/25 at 04:05 PM

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 5/19/25 at 11:42pm

I am listening to RAGS and though I'm sure I've heard some of it before, I'd never really given it a shot and it is bowling me over. That is an exquisite score. 

 

Edit: Definitely sticking to the original recording

Updated On: 5/20/25 at 11:42 PM