Book on Charles Strouse for the Oxford Broadway Legacies Series

FAIN: FT-58277-10

James S. Leve
Northern Arizona University (Flagstaff, AZ 86011-0001)

I am writing the first scholarly study of the Broadway composer Charles Strouse. Strouse is a fascinating figure in American popular culture, and his musicals Bye Bye Birdie and Annie are among the biggest hits in musical theater history. This book has been solicited by and is under review at Oxford University Press. I have already conducted interviews with Strouse and consulted some of his papers. I will use the NEH Summer Stipend in order to travel to New York to access Strouse materials in various collections at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts: the Billy Rose; the Theatre on Film and Tape; and the Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound. Strouse has agreed to additional one-on-one interviews and has graciously given me permission to digitally photograph the manuscripts still in his possession.