Bye Bye Birdie
by Claire J Rottenberg
Keeping with the theme of my last post before the
holidays ("Buddy"),
this week I'll be focusing on the early rock and roll
musicals of Broadway and the movies. The three plays
and films I'll be looking at are "Bye Bye Birdie,"
"Grease" and "Hair." All three were extremely
successful Broadway musicals, but from the three
films, only "Grease" has retained its initial
popularity. Although there have been other rock and
roll musicals, these three plays impacted the genre
of the musical more than any of their
successors.
"Bye Bye Birdie" was the original rock and roll
musical, although in an interview from the American
Theatre Wing, Charles Strouse, the composer for the
musical, said that the original idea for the play was
not based on Elvis or any other individual performer.
During the creation of the play and music, Lee Adams,
the lyricist, suggested the rock and roll
theme.
I saw "Bye Bye Birdie" shortly after it opened on
Broadway in 1960 and, as a young teen theater lover,
especially of musicals, I was enchanted with it. I
was still too young for Elvis, but the music, dancing
and wonderful performances of the superb cast
impressed me, as it did the theater critics and the
audiences. Even though it is almost 50 years since I
first saw "Bye Bye Birdie," I can still remember most
of the songs and dance numbers. The film, released in
1963, was, in my opinion, terrible, because it was a
poor representation of the Tony-winning play.
The original Broadway version of "Bye Bye Birdie" ran
for 607 performances and it won Tony awards for Best
Musical, Best Featured Actor in a Musical (Dick van
Dyke), Best Direction of a Musical (Gower Champion),
and Best Choreography (again, Gower Champion). It was
nominated for 4 other Tony awards, including
nominations for Chita Rivera and Dick Gautier.
The Broadway play helped launch TV and movie careers
for Dick van Dyke, who had been a TV success before
"Bye Bye Birdie" and received a movie contract from
Disney after the play, Dick Gautier and Paul Lynde,
both of whom later became regulars on TV game shows.
The musical also launched the successful composing
careers of Charles Strouse and Lee Adams.
"Bye Bye Birdie" opened in London in 1961 but it was
not very successful on the West End, playing only 268
performances. After the film version, the musical
became a forgotten Broadway musical until a
television revival in 1995. Nine years later, it was
revived for the acclaimed Encore series and, in 2008,
a condensed version was performed at the Kennedy
Center.
The film version of "Bye Bye Birdie" had plot changes
and, unfortunately, song changes from the original
play. Some of the best songs from the play, including
two that were sung by Chita Rivera, were eliminated
from the film. I was particularly disappointed to
find that "An English Teacher" and "Spanish Rose"
were not in the film. The casting of Janet Leigh, an
actress and not a singer, was probably the reason
that the solo numbers for her character, Rosie, were
eliminated.
The original Broadway version of "Bye Bye Birdie" had
a delightful score, with several good rock and roll
tunes, such as "One Last Kiss" and "A Lot of Livin'
to Do." The major hit song from "Bye Bye Birdie" was
"Put on a Happy Face," a more traditional-sounding
Broadway song.
Information Sources
Wikipedia - Bye Bye
Birdie
Interview with Charles Strouse
(ATW)