Free Seth's Broadway Diary, Volume 1: Part 2 by Seth Rudetsky Page A

stand at the window with her death mask on and, when a bus would go by, she'd stare blank-faced, hold out her index finger and slowly do the "come with me" motion. Can you imagine how terrifying it was to be on a fun sightseeing tour and suddenly see a specter beckoning you to the netherworld? Wearing a head mic?
     
    This week on Sirius radio I interviewed Broadway composer Charles Strouse. As he described his childhood, I kept piping up and saying it was exactly like mine, but upon further reflection, realized they were polar opposites. He's from the cool Upper West Side, I'm from a town on Long Island I couldn't wait to get the hell out of. As a child, he went to PS 87 with Mike Nichols (although they didn't know each other… but ironically, Mike wound up being the big producer of Annie years later). I went to Hewlett High School with a theatre teacher who banned me from doing plays my senior year and said to my face that I'd never make it in theatre. Charles graduated high school early and went to the Eastman School of Music when he was just 15. I also graduated early, but only by one year (not impressive), and yes, I also went to a prestigious music conservatory (Oberlin) but while he was spending his time composing serious music (à la Hindemith, Bartok), I was having unrequited crushes and failing my music history midterm. Hence, his many Tony Awards, and hence my many nights watching the Tonys from home.
     
    After he graduated, he made money by accompanying singers and dance classes. Eventually he got a gig playing rehearsals for a show called Saratoga , and the stage manager said that he had an idea for a musical. The idea was about a new phenomenon called… teenagers and the show became Bye Bye Birdie . They went through five bookwriters (!) and eventually came up with the Elvis Presley character. The first song Charles wrote was one of my favorites, "An English Teacher." I asked him about the phrase at the beginning: "Albert, Albert, A-a-a-albert!" He said that phrase stems from his classical training. He feels a straight-up pop composer wouldn't necessarily think to put four notes on the same syllable (see "The Glory of the Lord" from The Messiah … which has thirty notes on the first syllable of the word, "glory"). I love Chita Rivera on that song, though it turns out the role was not written for her. Rose was not supposed to be Hispanic. All of the jokes originally were about her being Polish because the role was written for Carol Haney! If you don't know, she's the original Gladys from Broadway’s The Pajama Game and the film as well as the star who broke her leg allowing Shirley MacLaine to go on.
     
    Unfortunately, Carol started having vocal problems before Bye Bye Birdie and couldn't play the role, so Charles recommended Chita, whom he had worked with on Shoestring Revue . They kept all the songs they wrote for Carol and added one for Chita, "Spanish Rose" (which you can see her do on the Ed Sullivan Show if you go to Bluegobo.com ).
     
    I asked Charles about something that's always driven me crazy. Now, you all should know that I think Hair is a brilliant show and every song in it is phenomenal. But… I get annoyed when people say Hair was the first rock musical. Bye Bye Birdie was the first rock musical! It was the first show to have used actual rock music ("One Last Kiss," "Sincere") and an electric guitar. Charles thinks that, because the show satirizes rock music, people don't credit it with being groundbreaking (my word). What's funny is that he said they couldn't get any backers for it because of the new-fangled score. The music was just too modern. Think about it, they started writing it in the mid-‘50s when rock literally first began. It's like writing a musical in the style of (insert latest music trend here… I faded out on pop radio so long ago the last trend I know about is a young upstart named Tiffany).
     
    Dick Van Dyke was not originally thought of for the lead role of Albert