Charles Strouse, Broadway composer of ‘Annie’ and ‘Bye Bye Birdie,’ dies at 96

Tony Award-winning Broadway composer Charles Strouse has died. The creator of the hit musicals Bye Bye Birdie, Applause and Annie died at his home in New York City on Thursday, according to a press release shared with NPR by The Press Room. Strouse was 96.

His four children, Benjamin, Nicholas, Victoria, and William, shared the news of his passing. He was predeceased by his wife, choreographer Barbara Siman, in 2023 after six decades of marriage.

Strouse was a musical chameleon, said theater historian Laurence Maslon. “Strouse was a great craftsperson. He adopted and adapted his vocabulary to whatever the needs of the particular genre were.”

He could write songs in the style of early rock and roll, like “One Last Kiss” from Bye Bye Birdie, or Depression-Era New York, like “You’re Never Fully Dressed Without A Smile” in Annie, or ultra-groovy 1970s New York, as in “But Alive” from Applause.

Strouse was classically trained at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, and worked with American composer Aaron Copland. He was making a living playing rehearsal piano for Broadway shows until a stage manager who wanted to be a producer approached him, as he told NPR in 2008.

“And he said to me, ‘I hear you write music,'” Strouse recounted. “And I said, ‘Yes, I do.’ He said, ‘I have an idea for a show about teenagers, would you be interested?’ I said, ‘Would I!'”

The show was Bye Bye Birdie. It opened in 1960 and, even though the New York Times panned it (calling it “neither fish nor fowl nor good musical comedy”), the show became an enormous hit, winning the Tony for Best Musical. And since then, it’s been one of the most performed shows in community theaters and high schools.

“It’s a wonderful feeling. And I am modest, though not humbled in any way,” Strouse told NPR. “But I’m a very lucky man.”

Though he suffered a string of flops afterwards, Strouse had another Tony Award-winning smash in 1970 with Applause, a musical version of All About Eve.

Strouse heard even more applause, and in 1977, he won a Tony Award for best score, with Annie, based on the comic strip “Little Orphan Annie.” He said the best-known song from that score, “Tomorrow,” was written in rehearsal, just to cover a set change.

“She found the dog and she had to, in 12 seconds, let’s say, get back to the orphanage,” he explained. “So, we needed a song there.”

Andrea McArdle was 12 years old when she starred in Annie. “My favorite thing was to listen to him play his songs,” McArdle said. “Not every composer is as charming as Charles Strouse is when he plays his music.”

Strouse kept working into his 80s on new projects, at a time when most creators would have been happy resting on their laurels.

“I love composing, I love it,” Strouse said. “You know, and if I’m not composing, if I don’t have a new project or something, I’m rather at a loss of what to do.”