"It's Today!" would be the correct response if asked when is the 76th birthday of Broadway's most beloved master of the simple, catchy melody, Jerry Herman. He's the only composer/lyricist to have three musicals run for over 1,500 performances in their original Broadway productions and it's often said that not a day goes by when somewhere in the world Dolly isn't being welcomed backed by the boys at the Harmonia Gardens, Mame isn't encouraging her young nephew to devour life's banquet or Albin isn't demanding to be accepted as he is.
But while the tune-and-wordsmith of Hello, Dolly!, Mame, La Cage Aux Folles and other defiantly optimistic musicals is blowing out his candles, showtune lovers can look forward to a grand and glorious gift, courtesy of filmmaker Amber Edwards. Her documentary, Words and Music by Jerry Herman is scheduled to be televised by PBS in January '08, but meanwhile the 90-minute parade of rare film clips and expert analysis has been dazzling and delighting audiences at festivals and private screening throughout the country.
Though Jerry Herman's songs are most associated with the words "hummable tunes," one of the more fascinating aspects of the film is how it reveals his work to be far more musically involved and dramatically complex than it may seem on first hearing. Michael Feinstein demonstrates with a detailed analysis of "A Penny In My Pocket," a perfectly charming character song introduced by David Burns during out of town tryouts of Hello, Dolly!, but cut when the creators discovered that, as good as the song was, it wasn't right for the way the production was evolving. Carol Channing discusses the show's theme of a widow hesitantly creeping out of her mourning as she tries to "rejoin the human race," and how the title song, when matched with Gower Champion's staging, is an emotionally powerful scene where the audience can see her "coming back to life."
And what a joy it is to see a film clip of Channing performing Dolly's title song at the musical's command performance for President Johnson at the White House. Or Mary Martin doing the same while entertaining American troops in Vietnam.
Most of the documentary's film clips of performances are silent, as they were captured as private souvenirs with hand-held cameras. Thank goodness for the member of the original Mack and Mabel company who not only filmed a rehearsal of Lisa Kirk and the chorus working on "Tap Your Troubles Away," but was waiting in the wings with his camera during a performance while Robert Preston sang "Hundreds of Girls"; a number that featured the Sennett bathing beauties gliding down a spiral slide.
Although there is beautiful footage of Angela Lansbury in full Madwoman of Chaillot makeup from Dear World, there are also stories of Herman's frustration in seeing what was intended to be an intimate musical being inflated into an awkwardly large production in an attempt to give audiences what they expected from a Jerry Herman show. Like so many artists who find resistance to their attempts to try new things, the composer says he was pressured to write a Dolly and Mame-like title song for Dear World against his better judgment.
There is performance footage of Joel Grey in The Grand Tour and rehearsal footage of the songwriter and Jason Graae preparing for a revised version of the short-lived flop. One of Herman's goals in the later stages of his life is to try and fix his less successful efforts.
Jerry Herman never meant to be a political activist when he wrote "I Am What I Am" for La Cage Aux Folles. He explains it was simply a song for a character specified for a situation. But Arthur Laurents explains how not being political is what turned out to be the show's strongest asset. It got people to listen. But the success of the first Broadway musical about a gay romantic couple was tinged with sadness as Americans became more and more aware of the horrors of AIDS. "When the cast began dying off…," Laurents recalls, unable to complete the thought.
Herman himself has been living as HIV positive for many years, and with sadness he admits that it has kept him from writing as much as he should have. But like a Jerry Herman title song that begins simply and builds to a life-affirming finish, he prefers to focus on what can still be accomplished.
"I'm a builder," he says with a grin. "I can't help it."
