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ABOUT THE CREATORS

Charles Strouse (COMPOSER) is one of America's most successful
musical theatre composers. His first Broadway musical, Bye Bye Bird-
ie (1960), written with his long-time collaborator Lee Adams, won him a Tony
Award and the London Critics Best Foreign Musical Award. In 1970, Ap-
plause, starring Lauren Bacall, achieved the same honors, and his smash
hit, Annie (1977), also won Tonys for Best Score and Best Musical, as well
as two Grammy Awards.
Strouse's film scores include Bonnie & Clyde, The Night They Raided
Minsky's and All Dogs Go to Heaven. The Strouse and Adams song "Those
Were The Days," the theme song for TV's All in the Family, is one of the most
popular television themes of all time.
Strouse's musical talents also include chamber, orchestral works and
opera. In 1999, ASCAP presented Charles Strouse with their coveted Richard
Rodgers Award for his achievement in musical theatre. Other awards include
an Oscar Hammerstein Award for Achievement in the Theatre from the York
Theater and the Frederick Loewe Award from The Dramatists Guild. Mr.
Strouse is also a long-standing member of the Songwriters' Hall of Fame and
the Theatre Hall of Fame. In 1977, in just one of many ways in which he has
sought to pass on his experience to others, Mr. Strouse founded the ASCAP
Musical Theatre Workshop in New York, through which countless young com-
posers and lyricists have found a forum for their work.

Lee Adams (LYRICS) began his professional career as a journalist but
his life took a sudden turn when his “hobby” of lyric writing led to Bye Bye
Birdie in 1960. This unheralded little Broadway musical was a smash hit and
went on to become a classic. Birdie remains one of the most performed musi-
cals for schools and amateur theatres. Adams received the first of his two Tony
Awards for Birdie, followed on Broadway by All American (1962); Golden
Boy with Sammy Davis (1964); It’s a Bird…It’s A Plane…It’s Super-
man! (1966); and Applause with Lauren Bacall (1970), for which he won his
second Tony Award. Among his other accomplishments, Adams wrote the lyr-
ics for TV’s long-running All In The Family theme, “Those Were The Days.”
Adams’ awards also include an Emmy for “Let’s Settle Down” from the TV
version of Birdie, the ASCAP Richard Rodgers Award for outstanding contri-
butions to the American Musical Theatre, and his induction into the Songwrit-
ers Hall of Fame.

Michael Stewart (BOOK) (1924-1987) scored on Broadway the first
time when he won a Tony Award for his Bye Bye Bird-
ie libretto. He was also the librettist for Carnival (Drama Crit-
ics Circle Award) and Hello, Dolly!, which earned him both a
Tony and Drama Critics prize.

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