Happy summer! I know it really begins at the end of June, but I consider Memorial Day the unofficial beginning of summer and, at this point, I refuse to change! I’m very Jessica Walter on Arrested Development in terms of my firmness.
This week, I was very honored to be invited to Charles Strouse’s memorial where there were wonderful speakers and performers. Carolyn Rossi Copeland spoke about how, back in the 1970s, she was studying to pursue law and politics in D.C. On a night off from studying, she went to a new musical that was playing at the Kennedy Center while on its way to Broadway. That was all it took! Annie made her immediately quit pursuing her initial career and, instead, become a theatre person. She now oversees Charles Strouse’s song and show catalogue. Brava!
I mean, how can anyone resist this amazingness?
Speaking of Annie, I wound up sitting next to Kathryn Zaremba, who played the title role Off-Broadway in Annie Warbucks. Right in front of me were the wonderful Allison Smith, who was the third Annie on Broadway, Sasha Charnin Morrison (director/lyricist Martin Charnin’s daughter), and Annie herself, Andrea McArdle. Every time someone said something funny, McArdle would turn around and laugh with me. If I knew as an Annie-obsessed kid that I would one day sit with these ladies, I would have passed out!
Charles� children all spoke as well. Ben, the oldest, talked about accompanying his dad to a rehearsal for Applause when he was around four. He told us that Lauren (Betty) Bacall finished a number, and immediately after the button, Ben intoned, “Listen, Betty…� and was about to give a note. His dad shushed him, but Ms. Bacall wanted to hear what he had to say! Ben told her that at the end of her number, she needed to raise her arms. After telling us the story, he stopped for a moment, shrugged and said, “And then…Tony Award.� I guess his amazing advice landed her that coveted statue?!
P.S. If you don’t know, Applause is the musical version of All About Eve, which won Best Picture in 1951. Charles wrote the music, Lee Adams wrote the lyrics while Betty Comden and Adolph Green wrote the book. The title song always brought down the house! Bonnie Franklin performed it originally on Broadway and when I interviewed her, she told me that had it been a Merman show, the number would have been cut. Seriously! She told me that the Merm didn’t like anyone else in the show having the best number, but Lauren Bacall knew that Bonnie’s performance made Applause that much better and it stayed in, making Bonnie a star! Here is the whole thing on the Tony Awards.
Interesting side note: In the male ensemble is Sammy Williams who, six years later, created the role of Paul in A Chorus Line. Also in the ensemble of Applause was Nicholas Dante. It was Nicholas� story about performing drag as a teenager that was captured in one of the famous recording sessions that later became the script for A Chorus Line. And Sammy, as Paul, delivered it beautifully, winning him a Tony Award.
Back to Charles� son, Ben, a great looking guy with a thick coiffure. Ben told us that near the end of his life, his dad wasn’t talking very much. One day, however, Charles looked at his son and suddenly intoned, “Why!.....Why? Why did God give you that much hair?� Hilar!
Mel Brooks made a wonderful video where he talked about working with Charles on the early 1960s musical All American. Even though the show wasn’t a hit, it led to one of the greatest moments of Mel’s life. He had planned to meet Charles for lunch, and Charles asked him to meet him where he was working on a television show. Mel showed up and discovered the show was centered around Anne Bancroft. Mel flipped out over her beauty and talent. After Anne finished her number, Mel yelled out, “Anne Bancroft! You don’t know me, but I love you!� She responded, “I know you. You made the album about the two old guys with Carl Reiner. I bought it.� That initial meeting led to a long, loving marriage and it’s all because of Charles!
Mel told the story via video, but Lee Adams, Charles� lyricist on shows like Bye Bye Birdie, It’s a Bird� It’s a Plane� It’s Superman!, and Applause was actually there! He spoke beautifully about Charles and how they’d been creative partners for 70 years. I just checked…Lee is 100 years old! Talk about #StillGotIt. Together they also wrote Golden Boy (Liz Callaway sang a beautiful version of “Night Song� accompanied by Alex Rybeck) as well as one of the most famous TV theme songs ever!
I was so happy that so many people talked about Rags� amazing score. And I was so pleased to see Rags stars Lonny Price and Judy Kuhn there. Rags has lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Joe Stein and it’s sort of the second part of Fiddler on the Roof. It’s about the difficulties and poverty of Jews arriving in America in the early 1900s. Judy told me she felt it was Charles deepest-felt score because it was about him and Jewishness. Charles� son told us that Charles was almost burned to death when he was young in a horrific antisemitic attack. Samantha Massell sang a stunning version of “Children of The Wind,� which is about how the Jewish people have always had to move homes and countries. Here is the original version sung by opera (and Broadway) star Teresa Stratas.
The whole memorial ended with a video of Charles himself singing the hit song from All American, the beautiful and melancholy “Once Upon a Time.�
Besides the moving tribute to Charles, I was brought to tears at another theatrical event. Back in 2012, the show I co-wrote, Disaster!, was running one day a week at The Triad on West 72nd Street. This was before we eventually moved Off-Broadway and then to Broadway. We cast Zak Resnick as the romantic lead, and he was fantastic. My good friend Eric Woodall was working as a casting bigwig at Tara Rubin Casting and came to see the show. The next thing I knew, Zak had his very first Broadway gig playing Sky in Mamma Mia!, cast by Tara Rubin.
Annoyingly, after that, Zak moved to L.A. (No!) and basically stopped doing theatre (infuriating). He finally moved back to NYC with his wife and baby and, for years, I’ve been begging him to come back to theatre. He finally went in for the Lincoln Center production of Floyd Collins and my friend (and co-producer of Floyd) Mark Cortale, loved Zak’s audition. Mark championed for him both to be in the show and Jeremy Jordan’s understudy. Zak got the gig and went on for Floyd for the first time last Sunday. James and I went, and Zak was so amazing! I was crying tears of joy at the curtain call because I was so happy for him! He nailed the entire role: the singing, the charm, and the pain. ±á±ð°ù±ð’s a little video I put together showing how fantastic Zak is and how he based one of my favorite sung notes on the incredible Gavin Creel.
In other news, our Alaska cruise this summer is sold out, but, as I mentioned in a previous column, we have Terrence Mann, David Bedella, and Charlotte d’Amboise coming on our cruise to Spain, Portugal, and the Canary Islands. We also just confirmed SethsBwayCruise is going to the Caribbean in February 2026! I just started booking the stars, but you can book a cabin now!
You can or send me an email to book.
Since the Tony Awards are coming up and Terry Mann is doing my Canary Islands cruise, here he is as Javert in the original Broadway production of Les Misérables on the Tony Awards
Oh! Before I forget, I’m hosting a Tony Award Watch party which is sold out, but you can join the livestream. There’ll be prizes for the livestream watchers as well. Click to join the party!
±á±ð°ù±ð’s Les Miz with Terry. Watch, then peace out!
