Charles Strouse, the musical composer for such Broadway hits as Bye Bye Birdie, Applause and Annie, movies together with Bonnie and Clyde (1967) The Evening They Raided Minsky’s (1968) and All Canine Go To Heaven (1989) and for the TV collection All In The Household, died at his house in New York Metropolis on Might 15. He was 96.
His demise was introduced by his kids Benjamin, Nicholas, Victoria, and William Strouse. (He was predeceased by his spouse, the choreographer Barbara Siman, to whom he was married from 1962 till her demise in 2023.
As a prolific musical composer throughout media and genres, Strouse added mightily to the scale of the American songbook, with immediately recognizable melodies equivalent to “Placed on a Glad Face” from Bye Bye Birdie, “Tomorrow” from Annie and, from All In The Household, “These Had been The Days,” one among TV’s most well-known opening theme songs, sung by stars Carroll O’Connor and Jean Stapleton in character as Archie and Edith Bunker.
The nostalgic “These Had been The Days” lyrics, written by frequent collaborator Lee Adams, started with immediately acquainted “Boy the best way Glenn Miller performed.” The music was carried out at an upright piano by actors Carroll O’Connor as Archie Bunker and Jean Stapleton as Edith Bunker, and it launched greater than 200 episodes of Norman Lear’s groundbreaking collection
Over the course of a profession spanning seven a long time, he received three Tony Awards (for Bye Bye Birdie, Applause, and Annie), and was nominated for Golden Boy, Charlie & Algernon, Rags, and Nick & Nora.
Strouse was born on June 7, 1928 in New York Metropolis, the son of Ethel (Newman) and Ira Strouse. After graduating from the Eastman College of Music in 1947, he obtained two scholarships to Tanglewood, the place he studied beneath composer Aaron Copland. Subsequently, Copland organized for Strouse to get a scholarship with legendary instructor, Nadia Boulanger, in Paris.
Strouse met songwriting accomplice, lyricist Adams, at a celebration in 1949, and the duo started a longtime collaboration beginning with writing songs for summer time resorts within the Adirondacks. Strouse and Adams contributed materials to quite a few Off-Broadway musical revues, together with Catch a Star, Shoestring Revue, The Littlest Revue and Kaleidoscope, and wrote specialty materials for Kaye Ballard, Carol Burnett, Jane Morgan and Dick Shawn.
In 1958, Strouse and lyricist, Fred Tobias wrote the chart-topping pop music “Born Too Late” (recorded by The Poni-Tails), and it was in that very same 12 months that Strouse and Adams had their Broadway breakthrough. They had been employed by producer Edward Padula to put in writing a satirical musical about rock and roll and teenage idol tradition. The present, Bye Bye Birdie, turned their first Tony Award-winning hit. The manufacturing starred Chita Rivera and Dick Van Dyke and received 4 1961 Tony Awards together with Finest Musical, incomes Strouse the primary of his three Tony Awards.
The present launched the world to such songs as “Put On A Glad Face,” and “A Lot of Livin’ to Do.” A 1962 film model, starring Ann-Margret, was one of many top-grossing movies of the 12 months, and featured Margret’s now iconic efficiency of the movie’s newly added title music, “Bye Bye Birdie.” Strouse would later win a 1996 Emmy Award for the brand new music, “Let’s Settle Down,” written with Adams and added for the musical’s 1995 TV adaptation, starring Jason Alexander and Vanessa Williams.
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Extra collaborations with Adams embody the Mel Brooks musical All American (1962) starring Ray Bolger. Although the present was not a business success, it featured what would grow to be the favored American customary “As soon as Upon a Time” (recorded by Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, and lots of others). Golden Boy (1963), a musical adaptation of the play by Clifford Odets starred Sammy Davis Jr., garnered Strouse his second Tony Award nomination. It’s a Chicken…It’s a Aircraft… It’s Superman! (1965, written by David Newman & Robert Benton, who died earlier this month on Might 11) gave audiences one other widespread Strouse & Adams music, “You’ve Obtained Prospects” (first recorded by Linda Lavin). And in 1970, when the staff wrote the rating for Applause (based mostly on the movie All About Eve and Mary Orr’s The Knowledge of Eve and starring Lauren Bacall), Strouse would win his second Tony Award.
Strouse’s greatest Broadway success was with collaborators Martin Charnin and Thomas Meehan on Annie (1977), based mostly on the cartoon, “Little Orphan Annie,” by Harold Grey. The Despair-era musical a few plucky red-headed orphan woman who wins the center of billionaire Oliver Warbucks, was one among Broadway’s greatest hits of the Seventies, profitable seven Tony Awards, together with Finest Musical, and garnering Strouse his third Tony Award and a Grammy Award for Finest Forged Present Album. Strouse’s rating included “Tomorrow,” “It’s the Exhausting–Knock Life,” “You’re By no means Totally Dressed With no Smile,” and “I Don’t Want Something However You.” Annie ran for over 2,300 performances on Broadway, the place it has been revived twice and has impressed a whole lot of worldwide productions. It has additionally been tailored for 2 movie and two tv productions.
Strouse was obsessed with collaboration and would earn Tony Award nominations for his scores with lyricists: David Rogers, Charlie & Algernon (1980), based mostly on the novel Flowers for Algernon, Steven Schwartz, for Rags (1986), with e book author Joseph Stein starring Teresa Stratas, and Nick and Nora (1991), a musical based mostly on Dashiell Hammett’s The Skinny Man characters, written with Richard Maltby, Jr.
Strouse’s movie scores embody Bonnie and Clyde (1967) starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway (and with a screenplay by Newman and Benton; the soundtrack for the ’30s period crime romance included songs by bluegrass legends Flatt & Scruggs, but it surely was Strouse’s rating, typically jaunty, typically elegiac, completely captured the madcap, bloody tone of the movie.
Different movie credit included The Evening They Raided Minsky’s (1968), There Was a Crooked Man (1970), with Henry Fonda and Kirk Douglas, Sidney Lumet’s Simply Inform Me What You Need, and the animated characteristic All Canine Go To Heaven (1989).
Along with his awards, Strouse was the recipient of a number of honorary doctorates. He was a longtime member of the Songwriters Corridor of Fame, inducted in 1985, and the Theatre Corridor of Fame.
Strouse additionally composed orchestral works, chamber music, piano concertos, and an opera. His authentic piano work, Concerto America, was composed in 2002 to commemorate 9/11 and premiered at The Boston Pops in 2004. His opera Nightingale (1982), starring Sarah Brightman, had a profitable run in London, adopted by many subsequent productions.
In 1977, Strouse based the ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop, by way of which many younger composers and lyricists honed their craft and developed their work. Strouse authored the autobiography Placed on a Glad Face: A Broadway Memoir, printed by Union Sq. Press in July 2008.
Along with his 4 kids, Strouse is survived by eight grandchildren, Sam and Arthur Strouse, Navah Strouse, Vivian, Weston and Ever Brush, and Owen and Theodore Strouse.
A personal ceremony can be held at Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel in New York Metropolis.
