Six time Tony Award winner songwriter-composer JERRY HERMAN died here in Miami Beach yesterday aged 88 years old. This legendary Broadway figure who created such camp hot musicals such as Hello Dolly, Mame and the first ever ‘gay’ musical La Cage Aux Folles (the latter he wrote with Harvey Fierstein)
In his long career Herman created many ‘firsts’. In 1969 he became the only composer/lyricist to have had 3 original productions open on Broadway at the same time. Also he He was the first (of two) composers/lyricists to have three musicals run more than 1500 consecutive performances on Broadway.
However back in the 1970’s when he had his first Broadway flop with Mack & Mabel, he tried his hand at interior decorating and he designed at least thirty-eight different residences in LA. Fortunately for the world, he soon turned back to the stage where he belonged.
Also something of a rarity in the theater in his heyday, Herman was openly gay, and he leaves behind his partner Terry Marler, a real estate broker. In 1985 in a PBS documentary, Words and Music , Herman acknowledged that he had been diagnosed HIV+ and that “I am 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 quarter of a century later.”
Herman’s work has been the subject of two popular musical revues, Jerry’s Girls conceived by Larry Alford, and Showtune conceived by Paul Gilger. In 1982 Herman was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. and also the University of Miami named The Jerry Herman Ring Theater after him.
His larger than life joyous music may seem to originate in a genre and age long past, but despite that Herman’s musicals are still being regularly revived enjoying enormous successes and a whole clutch of new awards for its stars.
His legacy of this incredible body of work means he will always be one our very favorite gay icons.
R.I.P. Jerry Herman July 10, 1931 - December 26, 2019
Labels: 2019, Jerry Herman, obituary
