Applause to Charles Strouse, A Musical Genius

It's not often you meet someone of Charles Strouse's caliber. He's a true genius and I so admire genius. And a really, really nice man. If you're wondering who he is. Well, I'm sure you've heard his music. Have you seen Annie, or Bye Bye Birdie or Applause? They all won Tony Awards for Best Score? And he was nominated for four other scores. Then there are the scores he wrote for movies such as "Bonnie and Clyde", "The Night They Raided Minsky's", "All Dogs Go to Heaven" and "Ishtar" (okay that one bombed but not because of the music). Well I had the good fortune to spend an hour in his company a couple of weeks ago and I can't stop thinking about what a wonderful hour that was. He was so personable and very humble and very real. (I could go for a guy like him even if he is 80 years old. Not that he'd have me, and I'm already taken anyway. And so is he. In fact his wife of many years was there and she was lovely.) The adorable and brilliant Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator, composer, lyricist, and star of this year's Tony Award winner for Best Musical, sat with him in the front of the room asking him questions about his childhood, his first girlfriend, his first song, and his first break. Mr. Strouse shared anecdotes about the shows and movies he worked on and the people he worked with, both the actors and the creative teams. There was a piano in the room so he was able to play some of his songs including "It's A Hard Knock Life" from Annie and "I Got a Lot of Living to Do" from Bye Bye Birdie. Ironically, Lin-Manuel Miranda had played Conrad Birdie in his first school play in sixth grade, and he sang the song complete with the Birdie snarl. Charles Strouse introduced us to lyricist Susan Birkenhead with whom he is writing a new musical adaptation of the movie "The Night They Raided Minski's" (this is inside information guys). Afterwards we were able to chat and take pictures with both Charles Strouse and Lin-Manuel Miranda. I was even able to chat a bit with Lin-Manuel Miranda's parents. It's easy to see where he gets his adorableness from. They were both lovely. And Charles Strouse, Buddy to his friends, was so open and sweet to both me and my daughter Jade who he seemed to be very taken with. It was a glorious night, one I won't soon forget.