The run closed March 7, 1981
- Opened
- March 5, 1981
- Closed
- March 7, 1981
- Performances
- 4
- Previews
- —
- Theatre
- Al Hirschfeld Theatre
Of the 465 productions we hold that opened in the 1980s and record a performance count, this is the 416th longest. That is a rank within what we hold, not within everything that was staged.
Who was in it27 named
Cleve Asbury
Bill Bateman
Vanessa Bell
Michael Blevins
Julie Cohen
Frank Desal
Leon Evans
Lynnda Ferguson
Marcel Forestieri
Mark Frawley
Betsy Friday
Larry Hyman
Donna Monroe
Robin Morse
Peter Oliver Norman
Howard Parker
Kevin Petitt
Rebecca Renfroe
Evan Seplow
Barbara Dare Thomas
Janet Wong
6 of these 27 names have a person record behind them and link to one. The other 21 are set from the identifier in the cast list, which is a slug of the name — so hyphens and full stops are lost and a few come out wrong. We hold nothing else about them. Nobody here is matched to a character: the cast list records who was in the company and not what they played.
Characters11 roles recorded
Donald O'Connor Albert Peterson
Chita Rivera Rosie Alvarez
Maria Karnilova Mae Peterson
Maurice Hines Mtobe
Lynnda Ferguson Rosie II
Marcel Forestieri C.B. Townsend
Robin Morse Jenny
Evan Seplow Albert Jr.
Jeb Brown Gary
Betsy Friday Sunnie
Zoya Leporska Effie
Only 512 of 13,459 productions carry role names, and these came out of a wiki table — the names arrived with the table's own cell markup on them and have been stripped back. They are not linked to person records because the identifiers in that table do not resolve to ours.
Creative team
- Director
- Joe Layton
- Choreographer
- Joe Layton
A producer is one string on this record, however many people or companies it names. Directors and choreographers are held both as text and as identifiers; where an identifier exists the name links to a page.
Around this production
Rivera received her customary Tony nomination.
Bring Back Birdie (March 5, 1981). Layton’s subsequent shows were all unsuccessful: the multimedia Rock N? Roll! The First 5,000 Years (1982); the 1983 touring version of Woman of the Year (starring Lauren Bacall); Harrigan ’N Hart (1985); Pieces. of Eight, a 1985 Jule Styne musicalization of Treasure Island, which closed after a regional theatre tryout; and the 1988 London extravaganza Ziegfeld. More Opening Nights On Broadway Steven Suskin, p. 1098
- short-lived 1981 sequel, Bring Back Birdie (also with Donald O’Connor). Broadway Musicals Show By Show Seventh Edition Stanley Green Cary Ginell, p. 183
- Strouse and Adams’s last Broadway collaboration was a sequel to their first show, Bye Bye Birdie. Its name was Bring Back Birdie (3/5/81; 4 performances), and again Michael Stewart contributed the book and Chita Rivera starred. Broadway Its History People and Places An Encyclopedia Bloom Ken 1949 2nd Ed New, p. 529
- Thereafter, it was all downhill for Layton, with the quick failure of Bring Back Birdie, a show that seemed like a mistake to everyone in New York save the producers, Rock and Roll: the First 5,000 Years (a show ahead of its time), The Three Musketeers, and Harrigan and Hart. Broadway Musicals the 101 Greatest Shows of All Time Bloom Ken 1949 Vlastnik Fra, p. 305
- She went into semiretirement after the stage version of Gigi and Goa’s Favorite, coming out only to play the Kay Medford role in the ill-fated sequel Bring Back Birdie, and the Queen opposite her beloved husband in the New York City Opera production of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein’s Cinderella. Broadway Musicals the 101 Greatest Shows of All Time Bloom Ken 1949 Vlastnik Fra, p. 336
- Bring Back Birdie (1981), an ill-fated sequel to Bye Bye Birdie. Historical Dictionary of the Broadway Musical Volume 22 William A Everett Paul R, p. 44
Passages naming this production, found by keyword across 178 books. Where it turns up in the literature, not curated notes about it.
What this page does not know
- No photograph of this staging. 48 of 13,459 productions hold one.
- No recording is held for Bring Back Birdie at all.
- Reviews, box office, running order, understudies and designers: none of it is held for any production.