Remembering Legendary Broadway Composer Charles Strouse

Photo by Joan Marcus

Charles Strouse — the great composer of such hits as “Annie” (which began at Goodspeed Opera House in 1976 and changed that theater’s future forever), “Applause” and “Bye Bye Birdie,” died at his Manhattan home on May 15 at the age of 96.

Strouse had written scores for over 30 musicals and more than a jaw-dropping dozen made it to Broadway, and well over 20 if you count revivals, revues and incidental music). His first Broadway musical was “Bye Bye Birdie,” which first opened in 1960. That work won him his first Tony Award.

But some of my favorite works of his, if not songs, were from his lesser shows such as “Rags,” “All American,” and “It’s a Bird, t’s a Plane, It’s Superman!” Even his “flops” such “A Broadway Musical,” Bring Back Birdie” and “Dance A Little Closer” (whose title song is one of my favorites) had numbers that were engaging, even if the show as a whole was not.

I so agree with Jason Robert Brown who wrote about Strouse in American Theatre magazine: “If you were looking to build an ideal Golden Age Broadway Composer, someone who could write funny, write heartbreaking, write toe-tapping, write ferocious, and make each score its own perfectly integrated universe, your model would be Charles Strouse.

I remember spending an afternoon at Strouse’s home in Litchfield County when a revival of “Golden Boy” — a show with an absolutely stunning score — was being produced by New Haven’s Long Wharf Theatre. But more poignantly, I spoke with him during the pandemic in 2021, as part of a special feature for the short-lived and great ENCORE magazine (which had the misfortune to launch just when live theater was shut down for more than a year). The piece was about theater legends aged 90 and above and it was an honor to join with legendary theater photographer Joan Marcus to interview and photograph such greats as John Kander, Chita Rivera, Lois Smith, Joel Grey, Carmen de Lavallade, and others.

Here’s my short piece on Strouse, which ran in December of 2021. He was frail at the time but still engaged, nostalgic and always at the piano. I added a quote or two that did not make the final version. His wife, Barbara Siman, a choreographer, died in 2023 after 61 years of marriage.

Charles Strouse: Always Tomorrow

By FRANK RIZZO

Composer Charles Strouse regularly sits at the piano at his Manhattan home, a practice he has continued for more than 70 years.

At 93, the composer of “Bye Bye Birdie,” “Applause” and “Annie,” among many others, says its a practice ingrained in him by his teachers, idols and mother.

“For me I had wonderful teachers who inspired — and still inspire me — and that’s the truth.”

He credits his work ethic and love of composing to teachers such as Arthur Berger, David Diamond, Aaron Copland and Nadia Boulanger. “These were my great heroes, people I wanted to emulate, and I wanted to have their success, Lenny [Bernstein], who became a friend, in particular.”

His parents were a great force in his life, “Especially my mother, who was very musical and had very strong ambitions for me. A great part of my life was wanting to make her proud. She gave me a lot of drive and that aspect of her still resides in me very strongly. I loved her very much.

“Of course I met [lyricist partner] Lee Adams and we hit it off tremendously. Before he moved out of New York, we would meet every day and write something. When he moved away Martin Charnin stepped into that spot in my life but he wasn’t totally devoted to writing. I always have been. I could write about this interview if I wanted to and it would give me a great deal of pleasure in recounting it musically.

“I remember the first show I did with [book writer] Mike Stewart and when the curtain fell on that first performance I thought the applause was minimal, to say the least, and I figured the audience didn’t like it at all. So I ducked into a broom closet in the lobby so I wouldn’t have to face anyone or hear them speaking about the awful show they just saw. That’s when I heard a voice say ‘Get out!’ It was Mike Stewart who was hiding there, too.”

“Lee, Martin and the wonderful composition teachers were all inspirations and they drove me to be better, and aim higher. I still have the same urge to do that. Writing music is in my blood. I’m a hard worker and my heart goes into that every day. I could go [to the piano] right now and write about this interview. It gives me the greatest pleasure to sit down and write a chord or a sequence of notes or something that can turn on a new light for me.

Strouse says he was emotionally vulnerable to the many ups and downs of the business. “I had no defenses at all,” he says, adding however that he had a good support system including his collaborators and “a wife whom I love and who loves me.” (

“I’ve seen the curtain fall on shows of mine that have been disasters and Ive seen the other side of life in the theater and I much prefer the successes..”

His advice to young composers: “Keep practicing, keep writing, keep having that drive.”

To that end, he’s written a new song for the NBC Live presentation of “Annie” and even a song earlier this year about what appeared to be the end of ther pandemic.

“Writing music is very personal,” he says. “I think if I couldn’t compose I wouldn’t have much of a life.”

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