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 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 the song “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 said 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 was visiting tours of his shows and meeting casts. Jenn Thompson, who appeared in the first “Annie” as Pepper and directed a touring version of “Annie” 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.”
The musical was based on the popular syndicated newspaper comic strip “Little Orphan Annie,” drawn by the late Harold Gray of Kankakee, Illinois. It debuted in 1924 and was distributed by Tribune Media Services.
Along with Strouse and the lyricist Martin Charnin, the comic was transformed into a musical by book writer Thomas Meehan, who died in 2017. “Annie” had its Broadway debut in 1977.
‘Applause’ is well-earned for composer and ‘Annie’ creator Charles Strouse
In an interview with the Tribune in 2011, Strouse was asked if he had any idea at the time that the show would be such a hit.
“No,” he said. “This was a piece about the Depression. It was dark. The girl was alone. Dickens flavored our writing of that show very much. In fact, I thought we were going to get hung in London for being too much like ‘Oliver Twist.’”
He added that the song “Tomorrow” was written at the 11th hour, to add a few more seconds to facilitate a big scenic transition. That explains why the number is so short.
“I well remember the first night ‘Tomorrow’ was in the show,” Strouse said. “It got all this applause. I thought everybody was clapping for the set change.”
A touring production of “Annie” played in Chicago for the holidays last November, as it has so many times before, and as it surely will again.
The Chicago Tribune contributed to this report.