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    The Broadway Best of Charles Strouse

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    The composer’s musicals, including “Annie” and “Bye Bye Birdie,” captured essential elements of American culture. Here are five of his most memorable songs.“Bye Bye Birdie” and “Annie,” the composer Charles Strouse’s most popular musicals, were not just big hits that are regularly revived on professional and amateur stages. They captured essential elements of American culture, including a yearning for escape from an older generation’s shackles and a can-do spirit to overcome adversity.Strouse, who died Thursday at 96, wrote jingles, pop songs and movie scores, but he remains famous for his Broadway shows. In addition to those two blockbusters, three others help make up his career peaks.Here are five numbers that illustrate Strouse’s suppleness as a composer and his knack for instantly hummable melodies.1960‘Bye Bye Birdie’Few musicals showcase as many great numbers as this hit about the Elvis Presley-like star Conrad Birdie, who, as a publicity stunt, visits a Midwest family before shipping off to the Army. The movie version, from 1963, is one of Hollywood’s best musicals of that decade, even though it made big changes to the show. The most egregious was casting Janet Leigh in the role of Rose Alvarez, played by Chita Rivera on Broadway. But it is hard to nitpick with the focus being shifted to Kim, a teenager discovering her sultry side, because she was played by Ann-Margret in an explosive performance that made her a star — she was particularly electric in the number “A Lot of Livin’ to Do.”Bonus video: In 2024, Vanessa Williams performed that song at the annual Miscast event, keeping the pronouns originally sung by Conrad Birdie intact.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ‘Is Betty Buckley Still Alive?’ Trump Asked. She Certainly Is.

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      “What’s happening these days,” the singer said at the start of a Joe’s Pub residency, “is weird, and not cool.”An hour into Betty Buckley’s first set at Joe’s Pub, she began the aching ballad from “Cats” that has won her legions of fans. Among them, she now knows, is President Trump.Ms. Buckley, 77, who regularly reposts social media content critical of the Trump Administration, did not mention the president when she tore into “Memory,” which brought the reverent Thursday evening crowd to its feet, whistling and whooping. She didn’t mention him when she finished the number, either.But then she pivoted to Paul Simon’s “American Tune” — with lyrics like “I don’t have a friend who feels at ease” and “I wonder what’s gone wrong” — and called it “particularly perfect for what’s happening these days, which is weird, and not cool.”This has been an odd few months for Ms. Buckley, who has known for years that Mr. Trump loved “Memory,” but did not know her version, from the 1982 Broadway production, made her his favorite Grizabella, the once glamorous but now shunned feline whose plea for connection is the musical’s emotional high point.“I didn’t know he knew my name,” Ms. Buckley said of Mr. Trump. “It left me really gobsmacked that my name actually resides in his consciousness.”Graham Dickie/The New York TimesHow does she know now? Well, in March, Mr. Trump reminisced about seeing Ms. Buckley in that Andrew Lloyd Webber show while addressing the board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, where his handpicked trustees had appointed him chairman. “The place went crazy,” he recalled of the “Cats” performance, before musing, “Is Betty Buckley still alive?” He continued: “Of all the great voices and stars, bigger stars than her, she had the best voice.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Darren Criss Does the Robot

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      Darren Criss stood up, fast asleep, his head heavy. When he awoke, he reverse body rolled, slowly turned his head from side to side, then brushed his teeth, mechanically moving his toothbrush — left, right, left — like a cartoon character.But this was no cartoon come to life (that would be “Boop!,” playing a block away). This was a scene from the Broadway musical “Maybe Happy Ending” in which Criss and Helen J Shen play Oliver and Claire, android attendant robots called Helperbots.Playing a character onstage comes with its own process of world building. But playing a nonhuman character requires a different — or additional — calculation. Where is a robot’s center of gravity?As Claire, a Helperbot 5 with a defective battery (and heavy dose of sarcasm), Shen moves as a human would. As Oliver, a Helperbot 3, an earlier model, Criss moves stiffly, his reflexes stilted. He’s all elbows and knees and sharp lines. Her limbs move in bell curves. The challenge of playing an aging robot has been a field day for Criss, an opportunity to draw upon his formal training in physical theater.“In many ways I joke that Oliver is my excuse to overact for two hours,” Criss said, adding, “the joke being how beep boop bop are we going here without it feeling too, frankly, ridiculous.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Tonys 2025 Predictions: Who Will Win? And Who Should?

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      Our chief theater critic looks at this year’s nominees and weighs in on the plays, musicals and artists he thinks will — and should — take home trophies on June 8.Tony voters do not have it easy. As the quality of (some) shows on Broadway improves, so does the difficulty and futility of ranking them. Yet not fully futile, at least for me in my fictional Tonys: A long look back at the 2024-25 season, during which I saw all 42 eligible Broadway productions, offered a chance to recall, reorganize and enjoy in memory the work of thousands of very talented artists.Thus, below, my take on the likely winners (marked with a ✓) and my personal “shouldas” (marked with a ★) in 17 of the 26 competitive categories. I hope your own Tonys, no doubt different from mine, prove as rewarding.Best PlayCole Escola, left, and James Scully in “Oh, Mary!”Sara Krulwich/The New York Times“English”“The Hills of California”“John Proctor Is the Villain”✓ ★ “Oh, Mary!”“Purpose”It’s a strong season when five new plays (with options to spare) all deserve their nominations — and one of them, “Purpose,” won this year’s Pulitzer Prize for drama, while another, “English,” won in 2023. But though both, like the other nominees, are startling in some way, Cole Escola’s “Oh, Mary!,” in which Mary Todd Lincoln’s dreams of becoming a cabaret star are nearly foiled by her very Gaybraham husband, is almost freakishly so, barely containing its demented story in the very disciplined frame of a super-tight production. As good as the other nominees are, this comedy trumps them by ripping open the notion of what camp — and Broadway — can be.Best MusicalDarren Criss and Helen J Shen in “Maybe Happy Ending.”Jeenah Moon for The New York Times“Buena Vista Social Club”“Dead Outlaw”✓ “Death Becomes Her”★ “Maybe Happy Ending”“Operation Mincemeat”Despite its brand-extension birth, “Death Becomes Her” is a classic Broadway musical in at least this sense: It brings home the laughs. That’s no mean feat, but my vote usually goes to shows that advance Broadway instead of compromising with it. In their intimacy, their delicacy, their seriousness and faith in themselves, “Maybe Happy Ending” and “Dead Outlaw” both do that. For me, “Maybe Happy Ending,” by Will Aronson and Hue Park, has the slight edge because, on top of all that, it’s shattering (in the quietest way possible).Best Play RevivalFrom left, Amber Gray, Bill Irwin, Chelsea Yakura-Kurtz and Jessica Hecht in “Eureka Day.”Sara Krulwich/The New York Times★ “Eureka Day”“Romeo + Juliet”“Our Town”✓ “Yellow Face”In this season’s death match between “Our Town,” the quintessential American drama, and “Romeo + Juliet,” the everlasting English tragedy, the Thornton Wilder revival won by a knockout. (Nobody really seemed to die in the Shakespeare.) But “Yellow Face,” by David Henry Hwang, complicating its story about colorblind casting with piquant ironies, will likely defeat them both. Still, I’d go for Jonathan Spector’s “Eureka Day,” a satire of vaccination politics that skewers both sides: anti-science know-nothings and trip-on-your-tongue progressives. It lets every kind of American cringe.Best Musical RevivalFrom left, Charlie Franklin, Jeremy Davis and Dwayne Cooper in “Floyd Collins.”Richard Termine for The New York Times★ “Floyd Collins”“Gypsy”“Pirates! The Penzance Musical”✓ “Sunset Boulevard”So sue me, I disliked “Sunset Boulevard,” which did everything in its considerable power to bury the property’s many shortcomings. That doesn’t seem to me to be a worthy goal in reviving a show. But you know what is? Getting to see our era’s biggest musical theater star (Audra McDonald) play one of the canon’s greatest roles (Rose in “Gypsy”). And though I’m loath to vote against a stage mother and a gaggle of strippers, for me, “Floyd Collins,” by Adam Guettel and Tina Landau, is the necessary revelation. It’s like “Our Town” in a cave: cosmic, brutal. (Since I worked with Guettel’s mother, Mary Rodgers, on her memoirs, I refrained from reviewing the show, but I do think it should win.)We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      CNN to Livestream George Clooney’s ‘Good Night, and Good Luck’

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      In June, the news organization is planning a live broadcast of one of the final Broadway performances of “Good Night, and Good Luck.”George Clooney’s Broadway debut, “Good Night, and Good Luck,” has been one of the sensations of the 2024-25 theater season, breaking box office records and drawing packed houses of audiences eager to see the popular movie star in a timely drama about the importance of an independent press.Now the play will become much more widely available: CNN is planning a live broadcast of the penultimate performance, on June 7 at 7 p.m. Eastern. The performance will be preceded and followed by coverage of, and discussion about, the show and the state of journalism.“We were looking at taking the play on the road, and taking it to London, and taking it to Paris,” Clooney said in an interview on Thursday, adding, “but we also thought it never is going to be exactly what it is right now, with the same cast, and we thought it would be nice to have a record of it.“And then we thought, because the newscasts are all done live, it is the perfect thing to try to create on live television, which is always exciting — there no safety net, and it’s a fun thing to do.”Clooney said that he expects the play will be available to stream after the live broadcast, but that he does not yet know where. “That’s what we’re still working on right now,” he said. “The question is, where does it go from here, and we’ve had three different offers and we’re negotiating to find out what the best position is.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Charles Strouse, Composer of ‘Annie’ and ‘Bye Bye Birdie,’ Dies at 96

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      He wrote some of the most enduring musical theater numbers of his era and earned three Tony Awards, a Grammy and an Emmy.Charles Strouse, an accidental Broadway composer whose work — including hits like “Annie” and “Bye Bye Birdie” — earned him three Tony Awards, a Grammy and an Emmy, died on Thursday at his home in Manhattan. He was 96. His death was confirmed by Jim Byk, a spokesman for the family.Mr. Strouse had more than a dozen Broadway shows to his credit and composed some of the most enduring musical theater numbers of his era: “Put On a Happy Face” and “Kids (What’s the Matter With Kids Today?)” from “Bye Bye Birdie,” which opened in 1960 and featured lyrics by his frequent collaborator Lee Adams; “But Alive” from “Applause” (1970), a musical adaptation of the movie “All About Eve” starring Lauren Bacall, with lyrics by Mr. Adams; and “Tomorrow” and “It’s the Hard-Knock Life” from “Annie” (1977), with lyrics by Martin Charnin.All three shows earned Tonys for Mr. Strouse — “Birdie” and “Applause” for best musical and “Annie” for best original score. Both “Birdie” and “Annie” were made into hit movies.Andrea McArdle, in the title role, with Sandy Faison (left) and Reid Shelton (second from left) in “Annie.” Mr. Strouse’s biggest hit, it opened on Broadway in 1977 and ran for almost six years.PhotofestLauren Bacall starred in “Applause” (1970), which, like “Bye Bye Birdie,” won Mr. Strouse and Mr. Adams the Tony for best musical.PhotofestMr. Strouse’s music has been recorded by Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Duke Ellington and Jay-Z, who sampled the corresponding number from Broadway’s “Annie” on his 1998 rap single “Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem).”Some of Mr. Strouse’s numbers became so ubiquitous that they seemed revered and reviled by the public in equal measure. Each response in its own way was a badge of honor.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Backstage With ‘Sunset Boulevard’ and 3 Other Broadway Shows

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      Broadway stars make it look easy — hitting a high C, crying on demand, landing a complex turn with taps, doing all that as many as eight times a week. But behind the curtain, before a show, the groundwork is laid: the vocal cord steaming, the fight calls to ensure violent scenes can be staged safely, the visits and hugs and affirmations that put actors in the right frames of mind. We watched the preparations for four Tony-nominated shows — “Buena Vista Social Club,” “Sunset Boulevard,” “John Proctor Is the Villain” and “Oh, Mary!” — as their performers got ready to go onstage.‘Buena Vista Social Club’Photographed by More

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      In ‘Sunset Boulevard,’ Tom Francis Writes His Own Story

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      Tom Francis asked to meet on a rugged corner of the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn. It was a bright April day, and in some ways Francis, 25, in a vintage sweater and slacks, looked like any other member of the creative class with a matcha habit. Still, I had picked him out a block away.Onstage, in Jamie Lloyd’s coruscating Broadway production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Sunset Boulevard,” his brooding features projected onto a 23-foot-tall screen, Francis looms large. But even here on Roebling Street, the actor, who stands 6-foot-2, with shoulders that would not demean a musk ox, was not exactly small. Francis is nominated for a Tony Award, and to see him pictured alongside his fellow nominees in the leading actor in a musical category is to believe that he could take any of them in a bar fight, maybe more than one at once.His “Sunset Boulevard” co-star Nicole Scherzinger described him succinctly. “He is a man,” she said in a phone interview. But, she was quick to emphasize, Francis is also a sweetheart, “a 25-year-old teddy bear.”In “Sunset Boulevard,” Francis stars as Joe Gillis, a dead-behind-the-eyes screenwriter who becomes entangled, in an asphyxiating way, with an aging queen of the silents. Here is the New York Times critic Jesse Green’s take: “Francis, as Joe, does shutdown-cynical-corpse very well.” Yet in person, Francis, who wields those shoulders lightly, is boyish, candid, eager, almost unable to believe his good fortune.Tom Francis last month in Manhattan. “I just knew in an instant that was Joe Gillis,” Jamie Lloyd, the director of “Sunset Boulevard,” said. “He wasn’t in any way glossy.”Ariel Fisher for The New York TimesAnd yes, that good fortune requires him to remain onstage for nearly every moment of a two-and-a-half-hour mega musical, except when he is leading the cast — in wind, in rain, amid tourists — through a portion of the Theater District as he sings the title number outdoors. He ends the show in his underwear, sunken-eyed and covered in blood.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      George Clooney and Denzel Washington Power Broadway to Prepandemic Heights

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      Broadway’s box office has finally surpassed its prepandemic peak, fueled by three starry dramas and one green witch.The Broadway League, a trade organization representing producers and theater owners, released data on Tuesday showing that grosses for the current theater season, which ends later this month, have now reached $1.801 billion. That’s higher than the $1.793 billion grossed at the same point in the record-setting 2018-2019 season, which was the last full season before the coronavirus pandemic shut down Broadway in March 2020.CLOONEY HAS FIRST$4 MILLION PLAY WEEK!“Good Night, and Good Luck” grossed $4,003,482 the week ending May 4. That number, for eight performances, was the highest amount ever grossed in a week by a play on Broadway.There are caveats. This season is not quite over. The numbers are not adjusted for inflation. Attendance is still down about 3 percent from its prepandemic peak. And, because the costs of producing shows on Broadway have skyrocketed, the financial failure rate is up and profitability is down.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More