July 6, 2008 'I'm not humble, but I'm modest.' In his new memoir, Broadway composer Charles Strouse, 80, looks back on success ("Bye Bye Birdie"), failure ("Nick and Nora"), and tumult (a fistfight with Warren Beatty). By David Patrick Stearns instead, Strouse faced his friend of many falters. Inquirer Classical Music Critic years and muttered, "I didn't know you liked me." He wasn't quite serious - but That comes of having an unusually, NEW YORK - The tributes were when President Bush's birthday brutally clear sense of who he is, and predictably extravagant at the 80th- proclamation was read by one of his four isn't - an awareness no doubt honed in birthday party for Broadway composer children, Strouse assumed it was a the writing of his just-out memoir, Put Charles Strouse one recent evening at family prank. It wasn't. on a Happy Face (Union Square Press). the posh 21 Club. "Melodies that touch In it, Strouse emerges as something of a the heart and lodge in the head," was An explanation is warranted. Zelig-like figure in his own life, creating how his longtime collaborator, Bye Bye shows that have become part of the Birdie lyricist Lee Adams, described the "There's something in my nature - it's nation's theater landscape (several of music Strouse has written for 30 shows complicated. I'm not humble," says which started in out-of-town tryouts in over 50 years. Strouse, "but I'm modest." He's still Philadelphia). thrilled when his songs pop out of the You might expect to see the recipient of radio, but if he goes to a cabaret and his He may be the best-trained Broadway such plaudits walking on air or water; music is absent, "I get. " His voice composer of his generation, having spent a year in Paris with Nadia Boulanger, whose students include Aaron Copland and Philip Glass. He's worked with most of the greats, from Gower Champion in Bye Bye Birdie to Alan Jay Lerner in Dance a Little Closer. He had a fistfight with Warren Beatty while recording the film score he wrote for Bonnie and Clyde. The theme song for TV's All in the Family is his. He tossed off "Tomorrow" just to cover a scene change in the now-classic Annie. Nonetheless. "I've never been considered a number- one choice to do a show, because people think of me as pleasant and happy, and that's not part of today's world," he says. Often, he's oblivious to the later life his songs have in non-Broadway circles. It was news to him that punk poet Patti Smith sang "Tomorrow" as a post-9/11 anthem of hope. Nor did he realize that "Hard Knock Life," also from Annie, had been sampled into a hip-hop mega- MARTHA SWOPE ANITA AND STEVE SHEVETT hit by rapper Jay-Z, until he heard two Charles Strouse celebrated his 80th birthday with a book party for his just-published Backstage at “Annie” in 1977: Charles Strouse at the piano with (from left) author Thomas Meehan, girls singing it on the street. lyricist/director Martin Charnin, actress Andrea Mcardle, actor Reid Shelton, musical director Peter autobiography “Put On A Happy face: A Broadway Memoir” at the 21 Club in New York on June 16. Howard and Sandy. The compser of musicals such as “Annie” and “Golden Boy” also wrote the theme for TV’s “All in the Family” and had his work sampled by Jay-Z A life on and off Broadway than the original, he says. But does Like many who have made great anyone notice? fortunes by projecting a sunny temperament, the author of "Put on a One of his worst trials was 1991's Nick Happy Face" admits to a mostly-cloudy and Nora. In fact, the only person in New York City upbringing. His Strouse's book who receives a thorough chronically depressed mother frequently trashing is Nick and Nora author/director discussed suicide and eventually was Arthur Laurents. He comes off as a poor institutionalized for prescription drug collaborator, and so prone to insults that addiction. His father had diabetes, Strouse fantasized about being on trial arteriosclerosis, a cough that never for his murder ("He could be mean as stopped, and difficulty walking. hell"). "He couldn't stand things that were Yet Strouse continues coming back for unpleasant. I think that 'Put on a Happy more. His musical version of The Night Face' stems from wanting to please my They Raided Minsky's goes into parents," Strouse says. "For years, I'd rehearsal late this year at the Ahmanson call myself a depressive. Working your Theater in Los Angeles. At least three way out of that . the sunshine is other projects - including a version of brighter." Marty, starring John C. Reilly in the Ernest Borgnine role, that was produced Nonetheless, his memoir is bouncy, several years ago at Boston's Huntington candid, tragicomic and only occasionally Theater - are in the wind. horrifying. Consider his encounters with drugs: He took hashish with So there's still more living to do, albeit author/composer Paul Bowles in Paris maybe not the kind he's lived before. and ended up terrified, but was told he Though he has often resented the way had a good trip; a pill from Alan Jay rock musicals are praised at the expense Lerner to cure his backache left him of his more traditional ones, he'll admit asking for his wife and children to be with some prodding that he loved Hair brought to his bedside to say goodbye. and that Rent author Jonathan Larson was a student of his (and a resourceful He knew Chita Rivera when the two of one). He recently saw Broadway's rock- them toyed with giving her a less-ethnic and blues-influenced Passing Strange stage name: Chita O'Hara. He toured in and was left feeling a bit envious of the the Deep South as piano accompanist to ability of its star and author Stew to Gone With the Wind's Butterfly become carried away with his own McQueen and was literally spat on at a music. roadside diner. The fight with Beatty had to do with the actor asking for piccolos "There's a great lesson for me in that. I'm and tubas for Bonnie and Clyde. During Courtesy of the Charles Strouse Collection a self-conscious person. I find it rare and the 1964 pre-Broadway Philadelphia Musical memorobilia. Left, Charles Strsoue at the piano, circa 1945. Right, a matchbook, circa 1950, advertises the future Broadway composer’s sometimes difficult to lose myself and previews of Golden Boy with Sammy nightly pianiat gig st the Pin-Up Room cocktail lounge on Lexington Avenue in New York. get crazy. I've got it in me. I've got Davis Jr., Strouse and others were the rhythm," he says, with a beatbox subjected to so many racially based demonstration of hip-hop styling worthy threats that they had bodyguards escort Stylistically, Strouse is impossible to pin Birdie's "I've Got a Lot of Living to Do." of Jay-Z. them to the theater. down. His music functions so But it's there. Strouse recalls her wanting One thing that couldn't be taught was completely to meet the immediate needs to hear everything he'd written, even a Strouse's ability to weather flops. Then there's the group camaraderie of Davis requested so many changes in the of the show or film at hand, the only song he wrote at age 12 titled "Moon Statistically speaking, he's had as much that world: "I don't have that ability," he show that Strouse pleaded creative consistent factor is his buoyant, Over 83rd Street." She respected his bad luck as good, much of it having says, "but I'm learning it." exhaustion and penned the song "No inexhaustible lyricism. It's always been talent for light music (as the French do) nothing to do with his efforts. His Annie More" - which received a sterling review there, and still is, right up to his new and gave him a sense of who he was and follow-up, 1993's Annie Warbucks, Hear David Patrick Stearns on Charles from none other than Martin Luther stage adaptation of the 1955 Oscar- what he could be: "Boulanger would've flopped in Washington, then was Strouse on WRTI's "Creatively Speaking" at King Jr. Later, Strouse and Davis winning film Marty. encouraged me to not go to the same E- triumphantly revised in Chicago - but http://go.philly.com/stearnsonradio marched for civil rights during a fraught flat because we've heard it before," he was only a middling success when visit to Selma, Ala. It's hard to perceive influences from the says. "So I have a way of going for a stuffed into a small, off-Broadway Contact music critic David Patrick Stearns severe Nadia Boulanger in, say, Bye Bye higher or different note." theater in New York. The sequel is better at [email protected]. .