Bring Back Birdie

Bring Back Birdie
Original Cast Album
Music	Charles Strouse
Lyrics	Lee Adams
Book	Michael Stewart
Basis	Sequel to Bye Bye Birdie
Productions	1981 Broadway

Bring Back Birdie is a musical with a book by Michael Stewart, lyrics by Lee Adams, and music by Charles Strouse.

A sequel to Bye Bye Birdie, it focuses on a scheme for rock 'n' roller Conrad Birdie, who disappeared after being discharged from the U. S. Army twenty years ago, to make a comeback on a Grammy Awards broadcast. The musical ran on Broadway for four performances in 1981.

An original cast album was released on the Original Cast label as an LP, and subsequently re-issued on CD by Varèse Sarabande.

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. (Ominous chord.) Till now."

Albert and Rose are burglarizing their old office, looking for the contract that will put them on the trail of Conrad Birdie. Birdie disappeared 18 years ago, and Albert has been offered $20,000 dollars if he can get him to perform on a TV Grammy Award special, along with other giant recording stars of yesterday. Albert is eager to return to the music business, but Rose is unhappy about it ("Twenty Happy Years"). Albert is almost convinced to give up. Then Mtobe, the fly-by-night detective appears, and to Rose's disgust finds the old contract. Albert notes that Birdie is at the El Coyote Club, Bent River Junction, Arizona, and tells Rosie that they will head for Arizona immediately.