Bye Bye Birdie
Shows · Bye Bye Birdie
Bye Bye Birdie provided the launching pad for the Broadway careers of songwriters Charles Strouse and Lee Adams, librettist Michael Stewart, and director-choreographer Gower Champion (his first of nine book musicals). It was also the earliest musical about the rock and roll phenomenon and the effect of its idols on impressionable teenagers. The attitude, however, was generally sympathetic toward adolescent emotions,…
- Opened
- 1960
- Performances
- 607
- Type
- Musical
- Era
- Golden Age
Won the Tony Award for Best Musical, 1961.
Productions2 on Broadway
| 1960 | Martin Beck Theatre Original. April 14, 1960 · Gower Champion | 607 performances · 1 Tony wins |
| 2009 | Henry Millers Theatre Revival. October 15, 2009 · Robert Longbottom | 117 performances |
Every Broadway staging held in broadway-data, sourced to IBDB. West End runs are not yet held.
Recordings 10 albums held
Licensing 2 entries
| US | Concord Theatricals Tams-Witmark | available |
| UK | Concord Theatricals Tams-Witmark | available |
Read from the licensor's own pages and catalogues. Rights move, and an empty row means we have not confirmed a publisher, not that the show cannot be licensed.
56 passages naming Bye Bye Birdie, found by keyword across 178 books. It's where this show turns up in the literature, not curated trivia about it.
The incidental music was by Charles Strouse, whose first Broadway score was Bye Bye Birdie (1960). book:complete-book-of-1950s-broadway-musicals-the-dan-dietz#p889
another hit, Bye Bye Birdie, also ended its run there. book:broadway-its-history-people-and-places-an-encyclopedia-bloom-ken-1949-2nd-ed-new#p207
Their first effort, Bye Bye Birdie (4/14/60; 607 performances), was a true sleeper and an immediate smash. book:broadway-its-history-people-and-places-an-encyclopedia-bloom-ken-1949-2nd-ed-new#p528
At the high points of his career, Strouse has shown .a rare ability to time the subjects of his projects to popular taste. Annie and Bye Bye Birdie both profited by their perfect convergence with what the public was. book:broadway-its-history-people-and-places-an-encyclopedia-bloom-ken-1949-2nd-ed-new#p530
Chita Rivera dances for joy in Gower Champion’s Bye Bye Birdie. book:broadway-musicals-the-101-greatest-shows-of-all-time-bloom-ken-1949-vlastnik-fra#p15
She was catapulted to stardom with West Side Story, finally achieving leading lady status in 1960’s Bye Bye Birdie. book:broadway-musicals-the-101-greatest-shows-of-all-time-bloom-ken-1949-vlastnik-fra#p182
Something wrong here? Correct a field or report the problem. Every change is recorded in public under the contributor licence.