Remembering Jerry Herman

 I was a little surprised to learn that Broadway songwriter Jerry Herman passed away at the age of 88.  Not surprised that he died, but that it took me almost a week to know about it, and that only by accident.  I've since learned that it got well-covered in the New York Times (as it should) and in the trade papers (as it should), but it rally went under the wire everywhere else it seems.  I didn't see it even mentioned on MSNBC, and I had the station on for hours a day every day.  

The thing is, whether one was a big fan of his work or thought he was slight, that's beside the point.  He wrote three Broadway musicals that were massive hits.  (The first-ever to write three musicals that each ran over 1,500 performances.)  Two of them were significant.  One was critically important to popular culture. In fact, its title song knocked The Beatles out of #1 on the charts.

The three were Hello, Dolly! that ran for 2,844 performances (that's around seven years), which at the time made it the longest-running musical in Broadway history.  Mame had 1,508  performances, and La Cage aux Folles ran for 1,761 performances.  He also had a big hit with his first book musical, Milk & Honey.  In addition, the Broadway revue Jerry's Girls with his songs had a successful run, and he wrote the enjoyable score to the CBS movie, Mrs. Santa Claus, as well as several other Broadway shows, none which were successful, though most had very nice scores.  He won two Tony Awards and received a Lifetime Achievement Tony.
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I was trying to figure out which of his songs to post here -- and which version of them -- and then I figured that the best thing to do was post two videos -- the first from his Kennedy Center Honor (there are two videos of this, but the first part doesn't seem to be accessible. Happily this is the entertainment portion), and the second from a tribute celebration at the Hollywood Bowl.  

This begins with Kelsey Grammar who starred in the revival of La Cage aux Folles.

​And here's about 25 minutes from a wonderful tribute to Jerry Herman at the Hollywood Bowl in 1993, which ends with a rousing performance by Herman himself at the piano singing his song, "The Best of Times" from La Cage aux Folles, joined by the entire cast.