The American composer and lyricist sadly passed away on Boxing Day, aged 88
Born in Manhattan in 1931 and raised in New Jersey, Jerry Herman's relationship with the stage began at an early age. His parents regularly took him to Broadway musicals and his mum, a music teacher, singer and pianist, who also entertained in the Catskills, made sure he too mastered the keys. From the late 1930s, Herman's family ran their own summer camp, where he spent his summers right up to his early 20s. There he directed musicals (including Oklahoma!) and started to compose himself. Frank Loesser of Guys and Dolls fame was an early mentor, impressed by 17-year-old Herman’s compositions.
After attending university in Miami, he moved to New York and eventually came to musicals via revue. His first Broadway show, Milk and Honey (1961), a tale of American tourists in Israel and starring the legendary Yiddish theatre and film performer Molly Picon, was nominated for a Tony Award. Opening in 1964, initially with Carol Channing, Hello Dolly! ran for 2,844 performances and won 10 Tony Awards.
Tony Award-winners Pearl Bailey (left) and Carol Channing with Jerry Herman, 1968 © Shevett Studios/Tony Awards
Herman boasts an impressive hit list of Broadway legends in the title roles of his shows. In 1966 Angela Lansbury stole the show as Mame in the eponymous musical about an eccentric aunt and her nephew, while in the odd couple comedy The Grand Tour (1979), Joel Grey of Cabaret fame played Jacobowsky, a Jewish intellectual, alongside Ron Holgate's antisemitic Colonel on the run in Nazi-occupied France. And Bernadette Peters starred alongside Robert Preston in Mack and Mabel (1974) – Herman’s favourite composition and this Herman is inclined to agree – the story of the stormy relationship between silent film director Mack Sennett and his protegée Mabel Normand.
La Cage aux Folles, based on the 1978 French film and one of the first Broadway hits with a gay couple at its heart, premiered in 1983 at the height of the AIDS epidemic. Gay himself, Herman nursed his partner Marty Finkelstein through his final illness and was diagnosed HIV-positive in 1985, living on medication for the virus for the rest of his life.
With such a stellar, multi-award-winning back catalogue, it's unsurprising that Herman's legacy continues to thrive. Only last month I interviewed theatre producer Katy Lipson, who so successfully revived Mame at Hope Mill Theatre in Manchester – the first revival in the UK since 1969 – that the production will be heading out on the road from Tuesday 7 January. With Tracie Bennett (Coronation Street) in the title role, this tour provides a rare and sadly timely opportunity to see a life-affirming show from a great man who will be deeply missed.
By Judi Herman