Put on a Happy Face: A Broadway Memoir »

Charles Strouse is the Emmy, Grammy and Tony Award-winning composer of, among other works, Bye Bye Birdie (1960, with long-time collaborator Lee Adams), All-American (1962, with Mel Brooks), Golden Boy (1962, starring Sammy Davis Jr.) Applause (1970, starring Lauren Bacall) and Annie (1977). He has won three Tonys® (and been nominated an additional four times), two Grammys® and one Emmy®. In addition, he is a three-time Drama Desk nominee; recipient of the Richard Rodgers, the Oscar Hammerstein and the Frederick Lowe Awards, and has been elected to both the Theater Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

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)

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Overture     1
A Lot of Living     3
A Healthy, Normal American Boy     8
The Hard-Knock Life     18
Those Were the Days     26
Nice to See Ya     40
Coming Attractions     55
We Love You, Conrad     71
Everything's Easy When You Know How     91
Fight Song     105
Before the Parade Passes By     124
There's Music in That Boy     134
You've Got Possibilities     167
Fasten Your Seat Belts     181
It Would Have Been Wonderful     200
I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here     208
Tomorrow     229
Dance a Little Closer     245
Cheer Up, Hamlet     260
As Long As You're Happy     270
Exit Music: Coming Attractions     287
Shows and Awards     297
Acknowledgments     313
Index     315