Put on a Happy Face: A Broadway Memoir
Just about everyone who can hum knows and loves Charles Strouse’s music. He composed some of the most successful shows in Broadway history (Annie, Bye Bye Birdie, Applause, and Golden Boy); wrote the film score for Bonnie and Clyde as well as the unforgettable theme song for All in the Family; has been sampled by one of today’s biggest rap stars—Jay-Z, in the Grammy-winning Hard Knock Life; and his songs have been sung by musical greats from Frank Sinatra to Ray Charles to Barbra Streisand.\...
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Just about everyone who can hum knows and loves Charles Strouse’s music. He composed some of the most successful shows in Broadway history (Annie, Bye Bye Birdie, Applause, and Golden Boy); wrote the film score for Bonnie and Clyde as well as the unforgettable theme song for All in the Family; has been sampled by one of today’s biggest rap stars—Jay-Z, in the Grammy-winning Hard Knock Life; and his songs have been sung by musical greats from Frank Sinatra to Ray Charles to Barbra Streisand.Timed to coincide with public celebrations of his 80th birthday, Put on a Happy Face grants an insider’s glimpse of Broadway, Hollywood, and beyond. With sparkling wit, Strouse relates the behind-the-curtain stories of his remarkable achievements, and tells fascinating tales about the people he’s worked with along the way, including Butterfly McQueen, Gower Champion, Sammy Davis Jr., Lauren Bacall, Mel Brooks, Clifford Odets, Warren Beatty, Hal Prince and Carol Burnett. Strouse is a musical-theater legend who is as entertaining on the page as his work is on the stage! Publishers Weekly Three-time Tony Award—winning composer Strouse is best known for the musical Annie and his All in the Family theme, "Those Were the Days." While "wary of the ghosts that appear," he summons up memories of a career that spans decades, beginning with his Manhattan boyhood, study at Rochester's Eastman School of Music, touring the South with Butterfly McQueen and early collaborations with lyricist Lee Adams. His 1950s pianist gigs ran the gamut from strip clubs to musical theater classes at the Actors Studio: "Typically, I would have accompanied Kevin McCarthy and Marilyn Monroe in a scene from Oklahoma!" After his 1960 smash hit Bye Bye Birdie, there were plenty of happy faces and more long runs. Although he covers his film scores and music for TV commercials, the book's best chapters center on the staging struggles of Annie and Applause, plus breaking racial barriers with Sammy Davis Jr. in Golden Boy. Many songs are cited, but the lack of lyrics is disappointing, Strouse instead regales with fascinating, sometimes surprising, anecdotes, such as Mike Nichols, clad in a new camel-hair coat, skidding about in his own vomit at an airport. Detailing desperate rewrites, insecurities of theater people, footlight failures and humiliations, as well as theatrical triumphs, Strouse's superb backstage memoir deserves a standing ovation. 16-page b&w insert. (July)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Overture 1A Lot of Living 3A Healthy, Normal American Boy 8The Hard-Knock Life 18Those Were the Days 26Nice to See Ya 40Coming Attractions 55We Love You, Conrad 71Everything's Easy When You Know How 91Fight Song 105Before the Parade Passes By 124There's Music in That Boy 134You've Got Possibilities 167Fasten Your Seat Belts 181It Would Have Been Wonderful 200I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here 208Tomorrow 229Dance a Little Closer 245Cheer Up, Hamlet 260As Long As You're Happy 270Exit Music: Coming Attractions 287Shows and Awards 297Acknowledgments 313Index 315
\ Publishers WeeklyThree-time Tony Award—winning composer Strouse is best known for the musical Annie and his All in the Family theme, "Those Were the Days." While "wary of the ghosts that appear," he summons up memories of a career that spans decades, beginning with his Manhattan boyhood, study at Rochester's Eastman School of Music, touring the South with Butterfly McQueen and early collaborations with lyricist Lee Adams. His 1950s pianist gigs ran the gamut from strip clubs to musical theater classes at the Actors Studio: "Typically, I would have accompanied Kevin McCarthy and Marilyn Monroe in a scene from Oklahoma!" After his 1960 smash hit Bye Bye Birdie, there were plenty of happy faces and more long runs. Although he covers his film scores and music for TV commercials, the book's best chapters center on the staging struggles of Annie and Applause, plus breaking racial barriers with Sammy Davis Jr. in Golden Boy. Many songs are cited, but the lack of lyrics is disappointing, Strouse instead regales with fascinating, sometimes surprising, anecdotes, such as Mike Nichols, clad in a new camel-hair coat, skidding about in his own vomit at an airport. Detailing desperate rewrites, insecurities of theater people, footlight failures and humiliations, as well as theatrical triumphs, Strouse's superb backstage memoir deserves a standing ovation. 16-page b&w insert. (July)\ Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.\ \ \ \ \ Library JournalStrouse, Tony and Emmy Award-winning composer of Bye Bye Birdie, Annie, and other iconic Broadway musicals, offers a fascinating tale for those interested in theater or music, studded with glimpses of a wide array of titanic figures such as Leonard Bernstein, Sammy Davis Jr., and Mike Nichols. However, this is equally a story of penniless artists struggling to put a show together for the sheer joy of it, and this excitement gives the narrative a great deal of vitality. Strouse emerges as a compelling and likable protagonist, and though he grapples with the depression and insecurity common to many artists, he is able to see (or at least frame) some of his darkest moments with a sense of comedy. Like the best of his musical creations, Strouse's memoir skillfully balances pathos and sunshine and results in an entertaining story of genuine warmth. Essential for all musical theater, theater, and popular music collections; recommended for all public libraries.\ —Katherine Litwin\ \ \
