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, offering something of a fresh-air antidote to the picture of modern youth conveyed by West Side Story. The singing idol in this case is Conrad Birdie (suggesting Elvis Presley), and the young people he is shown affecting are the clean-cut kids of Sweet Apple, Ohio. Birdie is managed by Albert Peterson (Dick Van Dyke) who, with his secretary Rose Grant (Chita Rivera), contrives a publicity stunt involving Kim McAfee (Susan Watson) kissing Birdie on Ed Sullivan’s television show just before he is drafted into the Army. Complications involve Kim’s jealous boyfriend (Michael J. Pollard) and her exasperated father (Paul Lynde), as well as Albert’s querulous mother (Kay Medford) and his relationship with Rose, who wants him to get out of the music business and become an English teacher. During the run, Dick Van Dyke was succeeded by Gene Rayburn, Chita Rivera by Gretchen Wyler. Van Dyke repeated his role in the 1963 film version (also starring Ann-Margret), and Miss Rivera repeated her role in the short-lived 1981 sequel, Bring Back Birdie (also with Donald O’Connor). The Fantasticks. Jerry Orbach, Rita Gardner, and Kenneth Nelson. (Friedman-Abeles))

Music

Charles Strouse

Lyrics

Lee Adams

Book

Michael Stewart