Jerry Herman | |
|---|---|
 Herman at theWhite House for the 2010 Kennedy Center Honors | |
| Born | (1931-07-10)July 10, 1931[1] New York City, U.S. |
| Died | December 26, 2019(2019-12-26) (aged 88) Miami, Florida, U.S. |
| Monuments | Jerry Herman Ring Theatre,University of Miami,Coral Gables, Florida, U.S. |
| Alma mater | University of Miami (BA) |
| Partner(s) | Martin Finkelstein (d. 1990)[2][3] Terry Marler (?–2019)[4] |
| Musical career | |
| Genres | Musical theatre |
| Occupation(s) | Composer, Lyricist |
| Instrument | Piano |
| Years active | 1954–2019 |
Musical artist | |
| Website | jerryherman |
| Notes | |
Gerald Sheldon Herman (July 10, 1931 – December 26, 2019) was an American composer and lyricist, known for his work in Broadway theatre.
One of the most commercially successful Broadway songwriters of his time, Herman was the composer and lyricist for a number of hit musicals, starting in the 1960s, that were characterized by an upbeat and optimistic outlook and what Herman called "the simple, hummable showtune". His shows includeHello, Dolly! (1964), at one time the longest-running musical in Broadway history, which also producedthe hit title song for Louis Armstrong;Mame (1966), a vehicle forAngela Lansbury; andLa Cage aux Folles (1983), the first hit Broadway musical about a gay couple.
In 2009, Herman received theTony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre. He was a recipient of the 2010Kennedy Center Honors.
Herman was born inManhattan and raised inJersey City, New Jersey, the only child of musically inclined, middle-classJewish parents.[10][11] He learned to play piano at an early age, and he frequently attendedBroadway musicals.
Herman's father Harry was a gym teacher and in the summer worked in theCatskill Mountains hotels. His mother Ruth (née Sachs) also worked in the hotels as a singer,[12] pianist, and children's teacher, and eventually became an English teacher. Herman toldPeople Magazine in 1986 that his mother, who died in 1954, long before his success on Broadway, "was glamorous like Mame and witty like Dolly."[12]
After marrying, his parents lived in Jersey City and continued to work in the summers in various camps until they became head counselors and finally ran Stissing Lake Camp in the small town ofPine Plains, New York, in theTaconic Mountains. Herman spent all of his summers there, from age 6 to 23. It was at camp that he first became involved in theatrical productions, as director ofOklahoma!,Finian's Rainbow andA Tree Grows in Brooklyn.[5] Herman graduated from Jersey City'sHenry Snyder High School.[13]
At age 17, Herman was introduced toFrank Loesser who, after hearing material he had written, urged him to continue composing. He left theParsons School of Design to attend theUniversity of Miami,[14] which has one of the nation's mostavant garde theater departments.[citation needed] While an undergraduate student at the University of Miami, Herman produced, wrote and directed a college musical calledSketchbook. It was scheduled to run for three performances, but the show was so popular it ran for an additional 17 performances.[15]Herman belonged to theZeta Beta Tau fraternity.[16]
Herman graduated from the University of Miami in 1953 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in drama and received aDoctor of Fine Arts degree in 1980.[17][clarification needed]
Following his graduation from theUniversity of Miami in 1953, Herman moved to New York City, where he produced theOff-BroadwayrevueI Feel Wonderful, which was made up of material he had written at the university. It opened at theTheatre de Lys inGreenwich Village on October 18, 1954, and ran for 48 performances.[18] It was his only show his mother saw; she died of cancer at the age of forty-four in December 1954.[19] Herman said "I went into serious grieving."[20]
In 1957, Herman approached the owner of a West Fourth Street jazz club called the Showplace and asked to put on a revue. As well as supplying the music, Herman wrote the book and directed the one-hour revue, calledNightcap. He asked his friend,Phyllis Newman, to do movement and dance and it featuredCharles Nelson Reilly (who later co-starred inHello, Dolly!). The show opened in May 1958 and ran for two years.[21]
Herman next collected enough original material to put together anOff-Broadway revue calledParade in 1960. Herman directed with choreography by Richard Tone. The cast includedCharles Nelson Reilly andDody Goodman. It first opened at the Showplace and, expanded, moved to the Players Theatre in January 1960.[22][23]
In 1960, Herman made his Broadway debut with the revueFrom A to Z, which featured contributions from newcomersWoody Allen andFred Ebb as well.[24] That same year producer Gerard Oestreicher approached him after seeing a performance of"Parade", and asked if he would be interested in composing the score for a show about the founding of the state of Israel. The result was his first full-fledged Broadway musical,Milk and Honeyin 1961. The show, about American tourists in Israel, starredRobert Weede,Mimi Benzell andMolly Picon. It received respectable reviews, was nominated for a Tony award, and ran for 543 performances.[12][25]
Herman met playwrightTad Mosel in 1960 and they collaborated on an Off-Broadway musical adaptation of Mosel's 1953 television play,Madame Aphrodite. Themusical of the same name, which starredNancy Andrews in the title role, opened at theOrpheum Theatre in December 1961 but closed after 13 performances.[26] The show has never been performed since. The failure of the musical hurt Herman, who felt that the direction and casting had not worked, but described his decision to make it as a "very brave thing for me to do...It was a dark piece, something more suited to early Sondheim than me".[26]
In 1964, producerDavid Merrick united Herman with musical actressCarol Channing andlibrettistMichael Stewart for a project that was to become one of his more successful,Hello, Dolly!.[12] The original production ran for 2,844 performances, the longest running musical for its time, and was later revived three times.[27] Although facing stiff competition fromFunny Girl,Hello, Dolly! swept theTony Awards that season, winning 10, a record that remained unbroken for 37 years, untilThe Producers won 12 Tonys in 2001.[27]
In 1966, Herman's next musical was the hitMame starringAngela Lansbury, which introduced a string of Herman standards, most notably the ballad "If He Walked Into My Life", the holiday favorite "We Need a Little Christmas", and the title tune.[28][29]
Although not commercial successes,Dear World (1969) starringAngela Lansbury,Mack & Mabel (1974) starringRobert Preston andBernadette Peters, andThe Grand Tour (1979) starringJoel Grey are noted for their interesting concepts and their melodic, memorable scores. Herman considersMack & Mabel, also written in collaboration withMichael Stewart, his personal favorite score[30] with later compositionLa Cage aux Folles in a close second. BothDear World andMack & Mabel have developed a cult following among Broadway aficionados.[31][32]
In 1983, Herman had his third hit withLa Cage aux Folles starringGeorge Hearn andGene Barry, a show that was notable for being one of the first hit Broadway musicals centered around a gay couple. The musical was tried out in Boston, where Herman worried:[33]
A man singing a love song to another man--I don't think that's ever been done in a Broadway musical before. And, I mean, this was Boston,Katherine Cornell country. Frankly, I didn't know whether or not they'd throw stones. The audience gave it an ovation. That's when I started to think, 'We've done something right. They've bought the characters.' "
— Jerry Herman
Ticket sales were strong for its Boston tryout; a two-week extension required the box office to remain open for 36 hours straight to handle the demand.[33] Advance sales for its Broadway debut at thePalace Theatre were described as "something approximating outright pandemonium."[33]La Cage aux Folles won the Tony Award for Best Musical (1983), later became the first musical to win theTony Award for Best Revival of a Musical twice (2005 and 2010).[27]
Arevue of Herman's work ran on Broadway from December 1985 to April 1986:Jerry's Girls featuredDorothy Loudon,Leslie Uggams, andChita Rivera.[34]
Many of Herman'sshow tunes have become pop standards. "Hello, Dolly!" was a No. 1 hit in the United States forLouis Armstrong, knockingThe Beatles from No. 1 in 1964 after a 14-week run at the top ("I Want to Hold Your Hand", "She Loves You", and "Can't Buy Me Love.").[35][36] A French recording byPetula Clark[37] charted in the Top Ten in both Canada and France.[38]
"If He Walked into My Life" fromMame was recorded byEydie Gormé, winning her aGrammy Award for Best Vocal Performance, Female in 1967.[39] "I Am What I Am" fromLa Cage aux Folles was recorded byGloria Gaynor.[40]
Other well known Herman showtunes include "Shalom" fromMilk and Honey; "Before the Parade Passes By", "Put On Your Sunday Clothes", and "It Only Takes a Moment" fromHello, Dolly!; "It's Today!", "Open a New Window", "We Need a Little Christmas," and "Bosom Buddies" fromMame; and "Tap Your Troubles Away", "I Won't Send Roses" and "Time Heals Everything" fromMack & Mabel.[41][42] His "I Am What I Am," written forLa Cage aux Folles, became agay pride anthem.[12][33]
According toThe Washington Post, Herman's 1983La Cage aux Folles, which centered on a gay couple whose son is about to marry the daughter of a conservative family, "arrived during the height of the AIDS epidemic and helped put gay life into the cultural mainstream at a time when many gay men were being stigmatized."[12]
Herman is the only composer/lyricist to have had three original productions open on Broadway at the same time, from February to May 1969:Hello, Dolly!,Mame, andDear World.[27] He was the first (of two) composers/lyricists to have three musicals run more than 1500 consecutive performances on Broadway (the other beingStephen Schwartz):Hello, Dolly! (2,844 performances),Mame (1,508), andLa Cage aux Folles (1,761).[27] Herman is honored by a star on theHollywood Walk of Fame, at the 7000 block ofHollywood Boulevard.[43]
TheJerry Herman Ring Theatre, the campus theater at theUniversity of Miami, his alma mater, is named in his honor.[44] He was inducted into theSongwriters Hall of Fame in 1982.[45]
Herman's work has been the subject of two popular musical revues,Jerry's Girls conceived by Larry Alford,[46] andShowtune (2003) conceived byPaul Gilger.[47]
A 90-minute documentary about his life and career,Words and Music by Jerry Herman, by filmmaker Amber Edwards, was screened in 2007 and then broadcast onPBS.[48][49] In the 2008animated filmWALL-E, Herman's music fromHello, Dolly! is a theme for the character WALL-E.[50]
In 1989, American-playwrightNatalie Gaupp wrote a short play titledThe Jerry Herman Center.[27] The play is a comedy which portrays the lives of several patients in "The Jerry Herman Center for Musical Theatre Addiction."[27] In 2012,Jason Graae andFaith Prince collaborated onThe Prince and the Showboy, a show which pays tribute to Herman; Graae worked extensively with Herman and described him as "a survivor of the highest degree [who] lives his life as an eternal optimist."[51]
In 2010, he received aKennedy Center Honor. Introduced byAngela Lansbury, there were performances byCarol Channing,Matthew Morrison,Christine Baranski andChristine Ebersole,Laura Benanti,Sutton Foster,Matthew Bomer andKelli O' Hara, 2002 Kennedy Center HonoreeChita Rivera, an unknown choir that included the Gay Mens Chorus of Washington, and Lansbury. Also honored were talk show host/actressOprah Winfrey, dancer/choreographerBill T. Jones, country singer-songwriterMerle Haggard, and singer-songwriter/musicianPaul McCartney.
Having a flair for decorating in the 1970s, Herman took a break from composition after the failure ofMack and Mabel.Architectural Digest wrote about the firehouse he renovated and he also redecorated other houses and sold them. According toThe Washington Post, Herman decorated three dozen homes.[12] Herman reportedly listed his 4,088-square-foot (379.8 m2)West Hollywood condominium apartment for sale early in 2013.[2][52][53]
Herman was openly gay, and at the time of his death was partnered with Terry Marler, a real estate broker.[4]
Herman was diagnosed HIV-positive in 1985.[54] As noted in theWords and Music PBS documentary, "He is one of the fortunate ones who survived to see experimental drug therapies take hold and was still, as one of his lyrics proclaims, 'alive and well and thriving' over a quarter of a century later."[55]
Herman's memoir,Showtune, was published in 1996.[56]
He died at a hospital in Miami on December 26, 2019, at age 88.[57][11]
Source: TCM[63]
University of Miami (Bachelor of Arts) and the Parsons School of Design
...Herman, 82, of Miami Beach...
The financial success of Dolly allowed Herman to buy an old firehouse and renovate it. The magazineHouse Beautiful ran an article on it, and Herman's second career was born. During the 1970s, he turned to decorating houses and reselling them. Herman could have lived well just off the profits of his hits, but he found decorating to be therapeutic.Biography in Context.(subscription required)
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