Jerry Herman passed away yesterday. I think of him as being among the pantheon of
great contemporary composers / lyricists, excelling as both song writer and
wordsmith. While Hello Dolly! and Mame might
immediately spring to mind when talking about Jerry Herman, to me, La Cage aux Folles, the first Broadway
musical to deal openly with the gay community, is the perfect Jerry Herman
creation of musical numbers, ranging from the big Broadway tunes one would
expect such as ''I Am What I Am'' and ''The Best of Times'' to more subtle,
sweet ballads such as ''Song on the Sand'' and ''Look Over There.'' This musical is chock full of memorable
pieces.
However, I truly love two musical pieces from his earlier,
short-lived musical Mack and Mabel. Serendipity led me to them. When we first moved to Florida, Hershey
Felder (an actor, pianist, playwright and arranger), was staging one of his
first one-man shows, George Gershwin
Alone at The Cuillo Centre for the Arts in West Palm Beach (which later coincidentally
became the home of Dramaworks). That was
sometime around 2005 before I began writing this blog so I never reviewed
it, but it was a unique work which only a great pianist such as Felder could
have created and performed. It ultimately
made its way to Broadway. But getting
back to the connection to Jerry Herman, Felder, after the performance, said a
friend of his was in the audience, a well-known upcoming Broadway singer, a
young man about Felder’s age, who he invited up to the stage to sing, Felder
acting as an accompanist. Here’s the problem
about not writing this blog at the time: I have no recollection of who this
singer was. He said he would sing two of
his favorite Broadway pieces, "I Won't Send Roses" and "Time
Heals Everything" were from a relatively unknown Jerry Herman musical, Mack and Mabel, and oh did he sing! The audience was totally moved, captivated,
and I immediately made them staples of my own piano work.
When learning Jerry Herman had died, I listened to my own
recording of "I Won't Send Roses" and said to myself, yes, this is
how I would like to remember this great artist.
In the original production, it is sung by a movie director “Mack” (played
by Robert Preston) to his upcoming star “Mabel” warning her that she shouldn’t
expect any of the niceties of romance from him. It is a brutally honest yet tender song, the
words in perfect symmetry with the melody.
It is later reprised in the show by Mabel (played by none other than
Bernadette Peters) where she accepts Mack without the roses.
And so, I’ll think of Jerry Herman any time I play this
piece, this recording from about ten years ago .
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| RIP Jerry Herman |
