Put on a Happy Face: A Broadway Memoir [Hardcover]

Charles Strouse (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2008

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!

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Strouse is best-known for having written the music for the Broadway hits Bye Bye Birdie and Annie, both somewhat lightweight shows—the first, a lighthearted look at teen life, circa 1960; the other, a singing-dancing version of the classic comic strip Little Orphan Annie. Yet both have grace and power that haven’t diminished over the years. The same may come to be said of this lively, highly readable memoir. Strouse touches on the darker themes in his life—his mother’s mental illness, his own battles with self-esteem—but lightly. He spends much more time recounting, in a gentle, amusing tone, the episodes of his life: Depression-era childhood, years of struggle working for summer camps and playing dance rehearsals, and myriad triumphs and bombs on Broadway and off. What is truly remarkable is how free of ego and bitterness this autobiography is. Even Strouse’s two much-publicized Broadway flops, Nick and Nora and Dance a Little Closer (speciously aka Close a Little Faster), are handled with aplomb. One finishes the book utterly charmed by the man and his wit. --Jack Helbig

About the Author

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.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Union Square Press; 1 edition (July 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1402758898
• ISBN-13: 978-1402758898
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #943,839 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #52 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Arts & Literature > Theatre

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating, impossible to put down, July 9, 2008

By 

Charles Grippo - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Put on a Happy Face: A Broadway Memoir (Hardcover)

Well written, funny as hell, and eminently readable "Put On a Happy Face" is as entertaining as any of Charles Strouse's best shows. In this book, whose title is taken from one of his many standards, Strouse takes us on a journey through the Broadway musical theater of the last fifty years. Along the way we meet the legends with whom he has worked (and with whom he has occasionally battled): David Merrick, Mel Brooks, Lauren Bacall, Dick Van Dyke, Gower Champion, Joshua Logan, Mike Nichols, Arthur Laurents, Alan Jay Lerner. He demonstrates how tough it is to write a musical and how much tougher it is to get it produced, only to have the critics break your heart. But he also shows the exhilaration and thrills when the show is a smash hit, like Bye Bye Birdie, Applause, or Annie.He clears up the confusion regarding his (and Lee Adams') contributions to Hello, Dolly!, especially laying to rest once and for all (one hopes) the rumors concerning the true authorship of "Before the Parade Passes By."
Strouse has had a fabulous career. Besides the hit shows, so many of his songs have become standards: "Tomorrow," "You've Got Possibilities," "Once Upon a Time," "Kids," "A Lot of Livin' To Do," and others. Buffs worship his score for Rags. His title song for Dance a Little Closer is gorgeous. His theme song for All in the Family --- "Those Were the Days" is one of the best known tv themes ever. If you analyze "The Telephone Hour" measure by measure, you will be astonished by the musicianship. In person, Charles Strouse is warm, gracious, and, to borrow the title of one of his songs, a "perfect gentleman." All that talent and honest personality come through in the pages of this book.
Don't miss it.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must For Musical Theatre Fans!, July 3, 2008

By 

Musicalboy (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Put on a Happy Face: A Broadway Memoir (Hardcover)

Charles Strouse is one of the last of a generation of great tune smiths. Broadway composers who could, as Richard Rodgers said, "piss good melodies." No matter what the show, Strouse could be counted upon to come up with great singable, hummable and even memorable tunes. He didn't always have hit shows, but when he did they were shows like Bye Bye Birde and Annie. This book tells a lot about the hits and also offers some wonderful anecdotes and insights into the various flops. Strouse isn't afraid to say what is one his mind and ruffle some feathers. The sections on Golden Boy and Sammy Davis Jr. and especially the Nick and Nora chapter that tells us more than we knew about Arthur Laurents are especially tasty. Unlike many memoirs, Charles personal life is handled very well and I was not bored for a second at the part I usually like to skip: the childhood. Charles ties it all in to his career and how the music was made and where it came from. One of the best memoirs to come down the pike in a while. Highly recommended to anyone interested in theatre, music or film.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A candid entertaining and heartwarming autobiography, July 12, 2008

By 

Coco Pazzo (Long Beach, CA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Put on a Happy Face: A Broadway Memoir (Hardcover)

A must-read for all fans of musical theatre, this heart-warming candid and funny autobiography provides a fascinating look into the world of showbusiness. Charles Strouse writes candidly about his ups-and-downs in showbusiness, the nagging insecurities that have followed him throughout his career and of course provides juicy tidbits about Teresa Stratas, Arthur Laurents, Leondard Bernstein and more.