It’s been a demanding twelve months for Jerry Herman, the 79-year-old composer and lyricist of the musical gems Mame; Hello, Dolly!; and La Cage aux Folles. The Jersey City native fought off a bronchial infection in the fall, then traveled from his West Coast home to bless the opening of the current Broadway revival of La Cage. In December, he’ll head east again, this time as a recipient of the 2010 Kennedy Center Honors in Washington, D.C.
Herman will be honored on December 5 for his life’s work (with a CBS telecast following on December 28), along with fellow icons Merle Haggard, Bill T. Jones, Paul McCartney, and Oprah Winfrey. (Last year, another son of New Jersey—Bruce Springsteen—took home the prize.)
“I’m quite overwhelmed by the whole thing,” Herman says. “Because of Paul McCartney and Oprah, I think it’ll have a very large audience since they’re the superstars of the group. And that’s wonderful for the rest of us.”
Herman’s musicals—with their heart-thumping tunes, grandiose staging, and spunky characters—never seem to go out of fashion. Indeed, the tenderness and can-do optimism that perfume Herman’s lyrics resonate even more when times are tough, as evidenced by the recent flurry of stagings at regional theaters of some of Herman’s lesser-known works. Hold the sequins and feathers—he’s all for downsizing.
“Mack & Mabel is being done all over the country,” Herman says happily. “[They’re] doing The Grand Tour, and the fact that people are interested in doing Dear World hit me all at once this year—that there’s life in all those shows of mine.”