Bye Bye Birdie
The Oxford Companion to American Theatre
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2004
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© The Oxford Companion to American Theatre 2004, originally published by Oxford University Press 2004. (Hide copyright information)
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Bye Bye Birdie (1960), a musical comedy by Michael
Stewart (book), Charles
Strouse (music), Lee Adams (lyrics). [Martin Beck Theatre, 607 perf.; Tony Award.] When the popular rock star Conrad Birdie ( Dick Gautier) is about to be drafted, his agent Albert Peterson ( Dick Van Dyke), arranges a coup he hopes will keep revenues coming in during Birdie's army stint, allow him to escape from his possessive mother, Mae ( Kay Medford), and free him to marry Rosie Grant ( Chita
Rivera). Birdie will go to a small American town, and, televised to the nation, sing his latest song to a typical American teenager. The group arrives in Sweet Apple, Ohio, where they have selected Kim McAfee ( Susan Watson) as the girl Conrad will sing to, and complications set in with Kim's beau ( Michael J. Pollard) and her frustrated father ( Paul Lynde). After Conrad takes Kim for a wild night on the town and tries to seduce her, she goes back to her boyfriend just as Albert finally wins Rosie back.
Notable songs: Put on a Happy Face; A Lot of Livin' to Do; Baby, Talk to Me; Kids. The first musical to pay real attention to the new rock 'n' roll craze, it was suggested by the induction into military service of singing star Elvis Presley. Gower
Champion imaginatively staged the production, and Kenneth Tynan of
The New Yorker found it “filled with a kind of affectionate freshness that we have seldom encountered.” It remains very popular in schools and summer stock, though a 1980 sequel,
Bring Back Birdie, utilized many of the talents from the original but quickly closed on Broadway.
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whippet
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