If music is no longer lovely

"There is never an evening when, somewhere in the world, the music and lyrics of Jerry Herman are not being sung by a lady in a red headdress, or a lady with a bugle, or a middle-aged man in a wig and a boa."



As producer and playwright Bill Rosenfield put it:

Whether it is sentimental (Song On the Sand) or triumphant (Before the Parade Passes By), Jerry Herman’s music is about optimism. And that is as it should be, given the fact that the first Broadway show he saw, and the one that changed his life, was Irving Berlin’s Annie Get Your Gun starring Ethel Merman. Seeing that show with its unparalleled parade of great songs and featuring a larger-than-life musical comedy heroine (and star), Jerry discovered a passion for the theatre and for “showtunes.”

The clarity and joy that is the hallmark of an Irving Berlin song is clearly Jerry’s greatest influence. Songs such as It Only Takes a Moment or If He Walked Into My Life are remarkable for the directness of their emotions, and have lyrics and melodies that are at once dramatic and musical. That musical thrust of a clean, pure melody is what Jerry Herman does best...

...for his work in the musical theatre he has won Tonys, Grammys, Gold records, the Outer Critics Circle Award, the Drama Desk Award, three Variety Critics Awards, and the Johnny Mercer Award. Louis Armstrong’s recording of Hello, Dolly! is the most popular number ever to come out of a show. Jerry was also elected into the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame and the Theatre Hall of Fame.

His first Broadway show was Milk and Honey in 1961, followed by Hello, Dolly!, Mame, Dear World, Mack & Mabel, The Grand Tour, La Cage Aux Folles and Jerry's Girls), as well as a Christmas television spectacular (Mrs Santa Claus) featuring Angela Lansbury, and, notoriously (as I featured way back in 2008), the Vegas-extravaganza-that-never-was Miss Spectacular.

Madam Arcati and I went to a BBC gala in his honour in 2007, and en masse "our gang" saw the Menier Chocolate Factory production of La Cage Aux Folles not once but twice in 2007-8, and the Open Air Theatre production of Hello, Dolly! in 2009. We're still waiting for someone to revive Mack & Mabel or Mame in London.

Mr Herman has always been "up there" in the pantheon of our house favourite musical theatre maestros alongside the likes of Mr Sondheim, Mr Cy Coleman or Messrs Kander & Ebb, and his is a very sad loss - who's left now to create the magical world of razzmatazz and va-va-voom we so adore?!

Like this...

Angela Lansbury, Chita Rivera, Carol Channing, Christine Ebersole, Christine Baranski, Kelsey Grammer and company - I Don't Want to Know/The Best of Times is Now (Jerry Herman's Kennedy Center Honors tribute, part 2)

If music is no longer lovely,
If laughter is no longer lilting,
If lovers are no longer loving,
Then I don't want to know.

If summer is no longer carefree,
If children are no longer singing,
If people are no longer happy,
Then I don't want to know.

Let me hide ev'ry truth from my eyes with the back of my hand,
Let me live in a world full of lies with my head in the sand.
For my memories all are exciting.
My memories all are enchanted,
My memories burn in my mead with a steady glow;
So if, my friends, if love is dead,
I don't want to know.



RIP, Gerald Sheldon "Jerry" Herman (10th July 1931 – 26th December 2019)