NEW YORK (AP) — Three-time Tony Award-winner Charles Strouse, Broadway's industrious, master melody-maker who composed the music for such classic musical theater hits as "Annie," "Bye Bye Birdie" and "Applause," died Thursday. He was 96.
Strouse died at his home in New York City, his family said through the publicity agency The Press Room.
In a career that spanned more than 50 years, Strouse wrote more than a dozen Broadway musicals, as well as film scores and "Those Were the Days," the theme song for the sitcom "All in the Family."
Strouse turned out such popular — and catchy — show tunes as "Tomorrow," the optimistic anthem from "Annie," and the equally cheerful "Put on a Happy Face" from "Bye Bye Birdie," his first Broadway success.
"I work every day. Activity — it's a life force," the New York-born composer told The Associated Press during an interview on the eve of his 80th birthday in 2008. "When you enjoy doing what you're doing, which I do very much, I have something to get up for."
Deep into his 90s, he visited tours of his shows and met casts. Jenn Thompson, who appeared in the first “Annie” as Pepper and directed a touring version in 2024, recalls Strouse coming to auditions and shedding a tear when a young girl sang “Tomorrow.”
“He was tearing up and he put his hand on mine,” she recalled. “And he leaned in to me and very quietly said, ‘That was you. That used to be you.’ And I thought I would die. I thought my heart would drop out of my shoes.”
She added: “He’s so gorgeously generous and kind. He has always been that way.”
His Broadway career began in 1960 with “Bye Bye Birdie,” which Strouse wrote with lyricist Lee Adams and librettist Michael Stewart. “Birdie,” which starred Dick Van Dyke and Chita Rivera, told the tale of an Elvis Presley-like crooner named Conrad Birdie being drafted into the Army and its effect on one small Ohio town.
Strouse not only wrote the music, but he played piano at auditions while Edward Padula, the show’s neophyte producer, tried to attract financial backers for a production that would cost $185,000.
“We never stopped giving auditions — and people never gave money at all. The idea of using rock ‘n’ roll — everybody was so turned off,” Strouse said.
Finally, Padula found Texas oilman L. Slade Brown. When he heard the score, he said, in a Texas twang, “I like those songs,” pushed Strouse aside and picked out the tune of “Put on a Happy Face” on the piano.
Brown then said, “How much do you fellas need?” and wrote out a check for $75,000 to cover the start of rehearsals. “Suddenly, the world turned Technicolor,” Strouse remembered.
The popularity of “Birdie” spawned a film (with Van Dyke, Janet Leigh and Ann-Margret) in 1963 and a television adaptation with Jason Alexander and Vanessa Williams in 1995.
Strouse and Adams gave several non-musical theater stars, including Sammy Davis Jr. and Lauren Bacall, stage successes.
For “Golden Boy” (1964), based on the Clifford Odets play, Strouse and Adams had to get Davis' OK for everything. “His agents would not let him sign the contract until he approved every word and note that Lee and I wrote,” the composer told the AP. “Which meant that we had to, at great expense to the producer, follow Sammy all over the world. ... We spent three years of our lives, a week or so each month, out in Las Vegas, playing songs for him.”
“Applause” (1970) was adapted from the Mary Orr short story that became the cinema classic “All About Eve.” It was Bacall’s musical-theater debut, and the actress won a Tony for her performance, as did Strouse and Adams for their score.
But it was “Annie” (1977) that proved to be Strouse’s most durable — and long-running — Broadway hit (over 2,300 performances). Chronicling the Depression-era adventures of the celebrated comic strip character Little Orphan Annie, the musical featured lyrics by Martin Charnin and a book by Thomas Meehan.
It starred Andrea McArdle as the red-haired moppet and Dorothy Loudon, who won a Tony for her riotous portrayal of mean Miss Hannigan, who ran the orphanage. The musical contained gems such as “You’re Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile” and “It’s the Hard Knock Life.”
The 1982 film version, which featured Carol Burnett in Loudon’s role, was not nearly as popular or well-received. A stage sequel called “Annie Warbucks” ran off-Broadway in 1993. The show was revived on Broadway in 2012 and made into a film starring Quvenzhané Wallis in 2014. NBC put a version on network TV in 2021 called “Annie Live!”
Strouse and Charnin, who both won Grammy Awards for the “Annie” cast album, found shards of their work included in Jay-Z’s 1998 Grammy-winning album “Vol. 2... Hard Knock Life.”
“Tomorrow” has been heard on soundtracks from “Shrek 2″ to “Dave” to “You’ve Got Mail.” In 2016, Lukas Graham used parts of the chorus from “Annie” for his “Mama Said” hit.
Strouse had his share of flops, too, including two shows — “A Broadway Musical” (1978) and “Dance a Little Closer,” a 1983 musical written with Alan Jay Lerner, that closed after one performance. Among his other less-than-successful musicals were “All-American” (1962), starring Ray Bolger, “It’s a Bird... It’s a Plane... It’s Superman” (1966), directed by Harold Prince, and “Bring Back Birdie” (1981), a sequel to “Bye Bye Birdie.”
Yet even his flops contained impressive music, particularly “Rags” (1986), with lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, and “I and Albert” (1972), a musical about Queen Victoria that had a three-month run in London and was one of Strouse’s personal favorites. “All-American” also had a memorable ballad, “Once Upon a Time.”
Among Strouse’s film scores were the music for “Bonnie and Clyde” (1967) and “The Night They Raided Minsky’s” (1968).
One of Strouse last musicals was “Minsky’s.” A love story set against the backdrop of the fabled burlesque empire, it was the brainchild of English director Mike Ockrent, who died of leukemia in 1999 before the project was completed. By then, Strouse and lyricist Susan Birkenhead had written some dozen songs.
“Minsky’s” languished until Birkenhead ran into director-choreographer Casey Nicholaw, who asked Bob Martin, star and one of the authors of “The Drowsy Chaperone,” to write a new book. It opened in Los Angeles in 2009 but never made it to Broadway.
Strouse always wanted to be a composer and studied very seriously — first in the late 1940s at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, with composer Aaron Copland at the Tanglewood Music Center in Massachusetts and with composer, conductor and music professor Nadia Boulanger in Paris.
Theater beckoned when he and Adams got a chance in the early 1950s to write songs for weekly revues at an Adirondacks summer camp called Green Mansions. Such camps were the training ground for dozens of performers and writers.
“I would write a song and I would orchestrate it and copy the parts,” he said in the AP interview. “And rehearsal was the next day at nine, so at four in the morning, I am crossing the lake with the parts still wet. I just loved it. I never was happier.”
His wife, Barbara, died in 2023. He is survived by four children, Ben, Nick, Victoria and William.
FILE - Composer Charles Strouse is interviewed in his apartment, June 3, 2008, in New York. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Keionte Scott peeked over at the Miami sideline to see the reaction of his teammates as he sprinted 72 yards untouched for a touchdown returning an interception against defending national champion Ohio State.
They certainly were excited, as were a Pro Football Hall of Fame receiver and a former coach who won national championships with the Hurricanes.
Scott picked off a screen pass by Heisman Trophy finalist Julian Sayin, Carson Beck threw a touchdown pass and 10th-ranked Miami shocked the Buckeyes 24-14 on Wednesday night at the Cotton Bowl in the first College Football Playoff quarterfinal.
“I was full of emotions. ... That was a pretty cool moment,” said Scott, who has TD returns on both of his interceptions this season. “Just having fun. ... That’s what this team relies on, man, just going out there playing free and just having fun.”
The Hurricanes (12-2, CFP No. 10 seed) have won two playoff games to get into football’s final four after needing an at-large berth to make the 12-team field, after not even playing in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game. One more win and they will get to play for a national championship in their home stadium.
Next for Miami in coach Mario Cristobal’s fourth season is a CFP semifinal at the Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 8 against No. 3 seed Georgia or No. 6 seed Ole Miss, the SEC teams in the Sugar Bowl on Thursday night.
There hasn’t been a national title for “The U” since 2001, which was their fifth; Cristobal was a standout offensive tackle for the Hurricanes in their 1989 and 1991 championship seasons. The Hurricanes were denied a repeat championship in 2002 with a double-overtime loss in the Fiesta Bowl to Ohio State, the only other time the teams met in a bowl — and the last Miami played in that game.
“It is 100% not about me. I’m part of their team, I’m a part of that family,” Cristobal said. “It is my obligation as a former Miami Hurricane player and all the things that Miami did for my brother and I to do my best to try to provide these guys with even better opportunities so they can fulfill all the great things they are destined for.”
Before receiver Michael Irvin and coach Jimmy Johnson were Super Bowl champions with the Dallas Cowboys, they were part of the Hurricanes' 1987 national championship. Irvin excitedly ran down the sideline while Scott was scoring for a 14-0 lead, and Johnson was nearby when acknowledged by Cristobal during the on-field trophy presentation.
Now it's third-ranked Ohio State (12-2, CFP No. 2 seed), which went into the game as a 9 1/2-point favorite according to BetMGM Sportsbook, that can't win back-to-back national titles for the first time in program history.
The Buckeyes hadn't played since a 13-10 loss to now-No. 1 Indiana in a Big Ten championship game matchup of undefeated teams on Dec. 6. They still got a first-round bye, then lost just like all four teams that went directly to the quarterfinal round in the inaugural 12-team playoff last season.
“We worked really hard during the last three weeks leading up to this game to come out of the gates and win the first quarter, win the first half, be ready to go,” Buckeyes coach Ryan Day said. “I think the guys bought into it. But at the end of the day, we didn’t get it done.”
Scott's interception return came only 1:42 after Beck's quick pass to Mark Fletcher Jr. out of the backfield for a 9-yard score.
Beck, who was part of Georgia's national titles in 2021 and 2022 when Stetson Bennett was the starter, completed 19 of 26 passes for 138 yards.
When asked what stood out to him about these Hurricanes, Beck said, “Just the way that this team has responded to adversity. We knew coming into today that it wasn’t going to be easy.”
The TD throw to Fletcher, who also ran 19 times for 90 yards and was the game's offensive MVP, was the seventh of 13 consecutive completions for Beck. That set a record in the Cotton Bowl, which was played for the 90th time.
Sayin, a freshman backup behind Will Howard for Ohio State's championship run last season, was 22 of 35 for 287 yards with two interceptions and a TD to Jeremiah Smith. Sayin was sacked five times.
AP All-America receiver Smith, the Miami native, caught seven of those passes for 157 yards, including a 14-yard TD on a fourth down in the fourth quarter.
Carter Davis added a 49-yard field goal in the third quarter and ChaMar Brown ran for a 5-yard TD in the game's final minute for the Hurricanes, whose 24 points were the most Ohio State gave up this season.
Miami: The Hurricanes have won six games in a row since an overtime loss Nov. 1 at SMU, less than 25 miles from AT&T Stadium, where the Cotton Bowl is played. They also made their CFP debut in the Lone Star State, winning 10-3 at No. 7 Texas A&M in the first round on Dec. 20.
Ohio State: All-America safety Caleb Downs, who started in the CFP for the third season in a row, became the first player to force two fumbles in a CFP game. ... The Buckeyes had gone four consecutive quarters — the equivalent of a full game — until Bo Jackson’s 1-yard TD run to cap its opening drive of the second half.
Miami waits to see who it will play in the Fiesta Bowl. Ohio State is scheduled to open the the 2026 season at home against Ball State on Sept. 5.
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Former NFL football players Ray Lewis, left, and Michael Irvin react after Miami running back Charmar Brown, not visible, scored a rushing touchdown during the second half of the Cotton Bowl College Football Playoff quarterfinal game against Ohio State Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Miami head coach Mario Cristobal, right, hugs defensive lineman Ahmad Moten Sr. following the Cotton Bowl College Football Playoff quarterfinal game against Ohio State Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Ohio State quarterback Julian Sayin, center, is sacked by Miami defensive lineman Rueben Bain Jr., left, and defensive lineman Akheem Mesidor during the first half of the Cotton Bowl College Football Playoff quarterfinal game Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Miami quarterback Carson Beck, right, prepares to hand off to running back Mark Fletcher Jr. during the first half of the Cotton Bowl College Football Playoff quarterfinal game against Ohio State Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Ohio State kicker Jayden Fielding, with Joe McGuire holding, misses a field goal against Miami during the first half of the Cotton Bowl College Football Playoff quarterfinal game Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Ohio State head coach Ryan Day looks o during the first half of the Cotton Bowl College Football Playoff quarterfinal game against Miami Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Gareth Patterson)
Miami defensive back Jakobe Thomas, right, makes a tackle on Ohio State tight end Will Kacmarek during the second half of the Cotton Bowl College Football Playoff quarterfinal game Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Gareth Patterson)
