Jerry Herman

Gerald Sheldon Herman, born in Manhattan on July 10, 1931, and raised in Jersey City, New Jersey, was an American composer, lyricist, and Broadway performer who died on December 26, 2019. The only child of Harry and Ruth Herman, both of whom worked summers at Catskill Mountains hotels, he grew up in a musically inclined household. His father was a gym teacher, and his mother worked as a singer, pianist, and children's teacher before becoming an English teacher. Herman told People Magazine in 1986 that his mother "was glamorous like Mame and witty like Dolly." The family eventually ran Stissing Lake Camp in Pine Plains, New York, where Herman spent summers from age six to twenty-three and first directed theatrical productions, including Oklahoma!, Finian's Rainbow, and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.

Herman graduated from Henry Snyder High School in Jersey City and, after briefly attending the Parsons School of Design, enrolled at the University of Miami, which he credited for its avant-garde theater department. At seventeen, he had been introduced to Frank Loesser, who encouraged him to continue composing after hearing his early material. As an undergraduate, Herman produced, wrote, and directed a college musical called Sketchbook, which was scheduled for three performances but ran for twenty in total due to its popularity. He graduated from the University of Miami in 1953 with a Bachelor of Arts in drama and later received a Doctor of Fine Arts degree from the institution in 1980. Herman was a member of the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity during his time there.

After graduating, Herman relocated to New York City and produced the Off-Broadway revue I Feel Wonderful, drawn from material he had written at university. It opened at the Theatre de Lys in Greenwich Village on October 18, 1954, and ran for 48 performances. His mother, who died of cancer in December 1954 at age forty-four, saw only that production. In 1957, Herman approached the owner of a West Fourth Street jazz club called the Showplace to stage a one-hour revue titled Nightcap, for which he wrote the book, composed the music, and served as director. The production featured Charles Nelson Reilly and ran for two years beginning in May 1958. Herman subsequently assembled an Off-Broadway revue called Parade in 1960, again featuring Reilly alongside Dody Goodman, which moved from the Showplace to the Players Theatre.

Herman made his Broadway debut in 1960 with the revue From A to Z, which also featured contributions from Woody Allen and Fred Ebb. That same year, producer Gerard Oestreicher commissioned him to write the score for a musical about the founding of Israel. The resulting show, Milk and Honey, opened in 1961, starred Robert Weede, Mimi Benzell, and Molly Picon, received a Tony nomination, and ran for 543 performances. Herman also collaborated with playwright Tad Mosel on an Off-Broadway musical adaptation of Mosel's 1953 television play, Madame Aphrodite, which opened at the Orpheum Theatre in December 1961 but closed after 13 performances.

In 1964, producer David Merrick brought Herman together with Carol Channing and librettist Michael Stewart for Hello, Dolly!, which became one of the longest-running musicals in Broadway history, with 2,844 performances in its original production. The show swept the Tony Awards that season, winning ten — a record that stood for 37 years until The Producers won twelve in 2001. Herman received the Tony Award for Best Composer and Lyricist and the Tony Award for Best Musical in 1964 for the production. The title song became a number-one hit for Louis Armstrong in the United States. Hello, Dolly! was subsequently revived three times on Broadway, and Herman appeared in the production among his Broadway credits. Two years later, Herman's musical Mame opened in 1966, starring Angela Lansbury, and introduced songs including "If He Walked Into My Life," "We Need a Little Christmas," and the title number.

Three subsequent productions — Dear World (1969) with Angela Lansbury, Mack & Mabel (1974) with Robert Preston and Bernadette Peters, and The Grand Tour (1979) with Joel Grey — were not commercial successes, though Herman identified Mack & Mabel, written again with Michael Stewart, as his personal favorite score. Both Dear World and Mack & Mabel developed cult followings among Broadway audiences. Herman's Broadway credits include an appearance in Dear World. In 1983, La Cage aux Folles, starring George Hearn and Gene Barry, became Herman's third major hit and was notable as one of the first Broadway musicals centered on a gay couple. The show won the Tony Award for Best Original Score in 1984, and Herman received that award. La Cage aux Folles later became the first musical to win the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical twice, in 2005 and 2010. A revue of Herman's work, Jerry's Girls, featuring Dorothy Loudon, Leslie Uggams, and Chita Rivera, ran on Broadway from December 1985 to April 1986.

Herman appeared on Broadway in 1998 in An Evening with Jerry Herman and also in Candles, Snow & Mistletoe. In 2009, he received the Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, and in 2010 he was a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors. Originally from New York, New York, Herman built a body of work defined by what he described as "the simple, hummable showtune."