 Daren Pope speaks with Broadway legend Jerry Herman.
IMAGE: Broadway composer Jerry Herman (seen here in a 1996 press shot) is “absolutely thrilled” at the longevity of his musicals.
Queens celebrating the lives of glamorous women is a bit of a cliché. But like most clichés, it’s based in truth.
For a generation of gay men, the adoration of singing stars like Judy Garland and Shirley Bassey was an expression of their camp identity, and there’s plenty of evidence to suggest such women played up to this gay fan base.
The logical extension of the camp sensibility is musical theatre. Gay men created some of the most popular Broadway shows of the 20th century. Lyricist and composer Jerry Herman was at the forefront of this cultural movement, and his musicals - Mame, Hello Dolly and Mack and Mabel - have become a staple for musical theatre queens the world over. The eccentric character of Mame (based on Patrick Dennis’s 1955 novel, Auntie Mame) is especially adored by gay men. The original 1966 Broadway production featured Angela Lansbury, while for the 1970 film, Lucille Ball trotted out of retirement for the role.
Here in Melbourne, the equally indomitable Rhonda Burchmore reprises the titular role for the Production Company’s tenth anniversary season.
News of the Melbourne production has reached the show’s creator, Jerry Herman, who tells MCV he’s “absolutely thrilled” at the longevity of his musicals.
“There’s nothing that a composer/lyrist can wish for any more than [that] his work will go on,” he says from his home in Palm Springs, USA.
It’s a credit to Herman’s catchy song writing that his tunes still find currency today. Two such numbers from Hello Dolly (‘Put on Your Sunday Clothes’ and ‘It Only Takes a Moment’) are at the heart of the new Pixar film, WALL.E, entertaining a whole new generation.
Like Mame, Hello Dolly revolves around a strong-willed woman. Such characters are the hallmark of Herman’s upbeat shows, their scores inspired by his own mother.
“In fact, the opening number [of Mame], ‘It’s Today’ came from my mother,” he says, telling the story. “I’d come home from school one day as a young boy and I found her in the kitchen surrounded by hors d’oeuvres and I asked. ‘what’s the occasion?’” She looked at me, smiled and said, “it’s today”. I didn’t know at the time that I would be able to use that sentiment in the opening number of Mame.”
Herman was also responsible for the music and lyrics of La Cage aux Folles, the theme song of which, ‘I Am What I Am’, has become a gay anthem.
La Cage aux Folles is based on the play by Jean Poiret, and revolves around the family life of two men. Its overt gay theme, albeit timid by Queer as Folk standards, made it one of the most radical musicals of its time.
But Herman, who is quite open about his own sexuality, resists the notion that it’s based on his own life.
“I never sat down and thought, ‘Oh, this is part of my life’ because I treat musicals as wonderful stories,” he says.
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“There’s part of my life is in all of them – certainly I know a little more about the La Cage situation because of my own sexuality, but it really would have come out the same way whatever life was like, because I write for the character; and what really excited me about La Cage was that it was a man who only turned into a butterfly when he put on the spangles and the trappings.
“I found the storyline not unlike Mame. In La Cage there’s a son who doesn’t really understand that his own mother, the woman who brought him up, was being ignored. That story is very much like what happens to Mame’s nephew. As different as they are, they have this same character that needs to be straightened out and shown the way.”
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Long live Aunty Mame
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