Bring Back Birdie
musical
Bring Back Birdie is a 1981 musical with music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Lee Adams, and a book by Michael Stewart. It is a sequel to the 1960 musical Bye Bye Birdie, which was written by the same team.
Taking place twenty years after Bye Bye Birdie, it focuses on a scheme for rock 'n' roller Conrad Birdie, who had disappeared after being discharged from the U. S. Army, to make a comeback on a Grammy Awards broadcast.
Background
In 1980, according to Charles Strouse, Bye Bye Birdie was "still the most produced musical in America and a top moneymaker for the company [Tams-Witmark] that licensed the amateur rights[.]" The idea of a sequel originated with Tams-Witmark; the writers agreed, under the plan that it would only be available for amateur licensing. However, when Broadway producers Lee Guber and Shelly Gross read the sequel's script, they decided to produce it for Broadway. During Broadway previews, two songs, "Shape Up" and "Don't Say F-A-T in Front of Conrad", were cut.
Synopsis
Act 1
A story teller begins: "Once upon a time, so long ago that New York City hadn't even been bankrupt once, there lived a young man in the music business named Albert Peterson, who loved his secretary, Rose. His only client, a rock-n-roll idol known as Conrad Birdie, was being drafted into the army, and Rose wanted Albert to give up the music business, marry her, and become...an English teacher! Alas, Albert's mother--a frail and gentle old lady with many of the same endearing qualities as Snow White's stepmother--opposed the match. But love triumphed, Conrad vanished, the mother was banished, Albert married his Rose and became an English teacher and they all lived happily ever after.
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