Charles Strouse, the Tony, Grammy, and Emmy-winning composer of Annie, Bye Bye Birdie, Rags, and more, has passed away. He was one of the great composers of our time. Strouse's remarkable knack for crafting a catchy, memorable tune left a mark on stage, film, and television.

Charles Strouse at the piano with Andrea McArdle and cast members from the original production of Annie

Born in 1928 in New York City, Charles Strouse was raised in a musical household where his mother, Ethel Strouse played the piano. He studied at the University of Rochester's Eastman School of Music under the tutelage of Aaron Copland, David Diamond, and other musical greats.

Winning Best Musical in 1960, Bye Bye Birdie was Strouse's first Broadway musical, a major milestone in his longterm creative partnership with lyricist Lee Adams. Their many musical collaborations include Applause, All American, Golden Boy, and It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman.

In 1977, Annie took Broadway by storm and has enjoyed success across the globe ever since. Among Annie's seven Tony Award wins (including Best Musical), Strouse took home the Tony for Best Original Score with Martin Charnin. "Tomorrow" remains a musical theatre standard that has uplifted countless spirits. Among other accolades, Annie won the Grammy Award for Best Cast Show Album. Decades later, Annie became the first title released as a Broadway Junior show, Annie JR.

"Annie is an intensely likable musical..." wrote Clive Barnes for The New York Times. "The music by Charles Strouse is tuneful and supportive...distinctly pleasing."

Strouse joined forces with fellow musical theatre masterminds Stephen Schwartz (Godspell, Pippin) and Joseph Stein (Fiddler on the Roof) to create Rags, which opened on Broadway in 1986 and starred Larry Kert, Judy Kuhn, Terrence Mann, and Lonny Price. Although it only ran for 18 previews and 4 performances, Rags received five Tony Award nominations, including Best Musical and Best Original Score for Strouse and Schwartz. In 2019, a revised version of the show had its UK premiere at the Hope Mill Theatre in Manchester. Time Out London called it an "entertaining and surprisingly topical."

Among other career highlights, Strouse composed songs for the animated film All Dogs Go to Heaven and the theme song "Those Were the Days" for the sitcom All in the Family.

"The amount of rich memories that I recall at the mere thought of him is mind boggling!" reflected Andrea McArdle, Broadway's original Annie, on Instagram. "The experiences we shared on the road to Broadway and way beyond are so etched in my memory, they feel as fresh and wonderful as they did almost 50 years ago... there was no one more joyous and downright happy as Charles sitting behind the piano plunking out one of his amazing songs!"

"Charles was not only Broadway royalty, he was MTI Family and his family was ours as well," stated MTI president Drew Cohen. "Charles was the last of a generation of authors whose great work spanned many decades starting in the 1950s. We will miss him but his beautiful music will continue to enrich the lives of people around the world."

"If you were looking to build an ideal Golden Age Broadway Composer, someone who could write funny, write heartbreaking, write toe-tapping, write ferocious, and make each score its own perfectly integrated universe, your model would be Charles Strouse," wrote Jason Robert Brown in American Theatre.

May Strouse's music play on for generations to come.⁠