Charles Strouse and Lee Adams

Charles Strouse
b. 7 June 1928, New York City, New York, USA. A composer who has experienced the sweet taste of Broadway success - but not for some considerable time. When Strouse graduated from the Eastman School of Music he intended to make a career in the classical field, and studied for a time with Aaron Copland. After meeting lyricist Lee Adams in 1949 he changed course, and during the early 50s they contributed songs to revues at the popular Green Mansions summer resort, and in 1956 they had some numbers interpolated into the Off Broadway shows The Littlest Revue and Shoestring '57. Their big break came in 1960 with Bye Bye Birdie, which is often cited as the first musical to acknowledge the existence of rock 'n' roll. It starred Dick Van Dyke and Chita Rivera and ran for 607 performances. The witty and tuneful score included "Kids!", "A Lot Of Livin' To Do", and "Put On A Happy Face". Ironically, two years earlier, Strouse, with Fred Tobias, had written a bona fide rock 'n' roll hit, "Born Too Late', which the Poni-Tails took to number 7 in the US chart. As for Strouse and Adams' shows, All American (1962), a musical about college football, failed to score heavily, but Golden Boy (1964) lasted for 569 performances on the sheer strength of Sammy Davis Jr.'s appeal. It's A Bird, It's A Plane, It's Superman (1966), which was based on the syndicated comic-strip, came down to earth with a bump after only 129 performances. It was four years before Strouse and Adams took off again with Applause, their second big hit which ran for over two years, and, like Golden Boy, had a gilt-edged box office star in Lauren Bacall. In 1971 Strouse wrote his own lyrics for Six - which ran for eight - performances, that is, Off Broadway.

The composer collaborated once again with Adams for I And Albert in 1972 - presented in London only - but audiences there were definitely not amused. Strouse's hit-of-a-lifetime came five years later - but not in collaboration with Lee Adams. Martin Charnin provided the lyrics for another Strouse show that was based, like It's A Bird, It's A Plane, on a comic-strip - in this case Little Orphan Annie. Together with librettist Thomas Meehan they turned it into Annie (1977), the hottest Broadway ticket of the 70s which ran for 2,377 performances. Since then, over a period of some 15 years, Strouse has had a string of flops - and some real beauties at that: A Broadway Musical (one performance), Flowers For Algernon (London 28 performances) - adapted for New York as Charley And Algernon (17), Bring Back Birdie (four), Dance A Little Closer (one), Mayor (268, but still a failure), Rags (four), Lyle (didn't reach Broadway), Annie 2, the follow-up to his mega-hit (closed in Washington), and Nick And Nora (nine).

In 1991, the 1986 disaster, Rags - which has a truly delectable score - was revived Off Broadway, and two years later a scaled-down version of Annie 2, retitled Annie Warbucks, was also presented there. Experienced Broadway watchers say that in spite of all the setbacks, the musical theatre has not seen the last of Charles Strouse. During the remainder of the 90s Strouse hosted An Evening With Charles Strouse in the renowned Lyrics And Lyricists series and at the Lincoln Center, as well as working on a variety of projects reported to include a musical adaptation of Theodore Dreiser's 1924 novel, An American Tragedy (with Adams) and a new musical based on the film comedy, The Night They Raided Minsky's (with Susan Birkenhead). There were also several projects honouring his previous works, such as the revues Simply Strouse at New York's Rainbow & Stars (1996) and Barbara Siman's A Lot Of Living! at London's Jermyn Street Theatre (August 1997), with Dave Willetts, Bonnie Langford, Joanna John, and Chris Coleman. Cabaret performer Jason Graae also released a "sensational" collection of Strouse's songs on You're Never Fully Dressed Without A Smile. His career honours have included three Tony Awards for his work on Bye Bye Birdie, Applause and Annie, a Grammy for the Annie Original Cast album, and an Emmy for the song "Let's Settle Down" (with Adams) from the 1996 television version of Bye Bye Birdie. Strouse has also composed several operas, a piano concerto, various chamber music, and several film scores, including Bonnie And Clyde (1967), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968), There Was A Crooked Man (1970), Just Tell Me What You Want (1980), and All Dogs Go To Heaven (1989). The concerto for piano and orchestra, which he wrote when he was in his twenties, finally received its world premiere in October 1995 when Barbara Irvine played it with the Maryland Symphony Orchestra. In 1998, the piece was included in a programme called The Other Side Of Broadway, in which Irvine also previewed works by Harvey Schmidt (The Fantasticks) and David Shire (Big). As for musical theatre itself, experienced watchers say that, in spite of all the setbacks, Broadway has not yet seen the last of Charles Strouse.


Lee Adams

b. 14 August 1924, Mansfield, Ohio, USA. A notable lyricist and librettist for the musical theatre, after studying at the Ohio State University and at Columbia University's Pulitzer School of Journalism in New York, Adams worked for a time in the newspaper and magazine business before meeting composer Charles Strouse in 1949. During the 50s the new team wrote material for a great many summer resort revues, and contributed to the New York production Shoestring '57. In 1960 they wrote the complete score for Bye Bye Birdie which ran for 607 performances and starred Dick Van Dyke and Chita Rivera. Two years later, their All American could only manage 80 performances, although it contained the lovely "Once Upon A Time", which was introduced by Ray Bolger and Eileen Herlie. After collaborating with Jerry Herman on just one song - "Before The Parade Passes By" - for his smash hit, Hello, Dolly! (1964), Adams and Strouse endured mixed fortunes during the next few years. Golden Boy, starring Sammy Davis Jr. and Billy Daniels, ran for 569 performances, It's A Bird, It's A Plane, It's Superman could only manage 129, but Applause (1970), a vehicle for the Hollywood legend Lauren Bacall, gave the songwriters their second hit and stayed around for over two years. In the 70s and 80s, it was downhill all the way for Adams and Strouse, although the latter was more successful with other collaborators. I And Albert was dismissed by London audiences after only three months, A Broadway Musical gave just one performance at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre in New York in 1978, and an attempt to cash in on a previous success with Bring Back Birdie was given the bird and folded after four nights. Adams turned to Mitch Leigh, the composer of Man Of La Mancha, a show that had run for well over 2,000 performances in the 60s, but their attempt to musicalize a biography of the legendary producer Mike Todd, which they called Mike, closed during its pre-Broadway try-out in 1988. Not to be outdone, five years later they managed to stage it in New York under the title of Ain't Broadway Grand, but it only ran for 25 performances. Lee Adams was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1989.