Musicals Blog

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)