Broadway’s Golden Voice

Gerald Sheldon Herman — known the world over as Jerry Herman — was one of the most commercially successful Broadway songwriters of the 20th century. Born in Manhattan and raised in Jersey City, New Jersey, he was the only child of musically inclined, middle-class Jewish parents who instilled in him a deep love for the stage.

As composer and lyricist, Herman created a string of hit musicals from the 1960s onward, each defined by an upbeat, optimistic outlook and what he famously called “the simple, hummable showtune.” His shows did not merely entertain — they became cultural touchstones, their songs woven into the fabric of American popular music.

A Legacy in Performances

From Camp to Broadway

Herman’s father Harry was a gym teacher who worked summers in the Catskill Mountains hotels. His mother Ruth (née Sachs) was a singer, pianist, and children’s teacher who became an English teacher — and who Herman later described to People Magazine as “glamorous like Mame and witty like Dolly.” She died of cancer at 44 in December 1954, before she ever witnessed her son’s Broadway success.

His parents eventually ran Stissing Lake Camp in Pine Plains, New York, in the Taconic Mountains. Herman spent every summer there from age 6 to 23, directing productions of Oklahoma!, Finian’s Rainbow, and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn — his earliest theatrical training ground.

At 17, Herman was introduced to legendary composer Frank Loesser, who heard his compositions and urged him to continue. Herman left the Parsons School of Design to enroll at the University of Miami, home to one of the country’s most avant-garde theater departments. There, he produced, wrote, and directed a college musical called Sketchbook — scheduled for three performances, it was so popular it ran for twenty.

He graduated in 1953 with a Bachelor of Arts in Drama and would later receive an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts in 1980. He was a member of the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity.

A Complete Production History

Off-Broadway

Broadway

Songs That Became Standards

Many of Herman’s showtunes transcended Broadway to become beloved pop standards, recorded by artists the world over. Below is a selection of his most celebrated compositions.

Louis Armstrong’s recording of “Hello, Dolly!” reached No. 1 in the United States in 1964, famously knocking The Beatles from the top spot after a 14-week run. A French recording by Petula Clark charted in the top ten in both Canada and France. Eydie Gormé’s recording of “If He Walked Into My Life” from Mame won the Grammy Award for Best Vocal Performance, Female in 1967. Gloria Gaynor recorded “I Am What I Am” from La Cage aux Folles, which has since become an internationally recognised gay pride anthem.

Awards & Recognition

Herman is the only composer/lyricist to have had three original productions running on Broadway simultaneously (Hello, Dolly!, Mame, and Dear World, February–May 1969). He was the first of only two composers/lyricists (the other being Stephen Schwartz) to have three musicals each run more than 1,500 consecutive performances on Broadway.

The Man Behind the Music

Herman was openly gay, and at the time of his death was partnered with Terry Marler, a real estate broker. He was diagnosed HIV-positive in 1985, during the height of the AIDS crisis. As noted in the Words and Music PBS documentary, he was “one of the fortunate ones who survived to see experimental drug therapies take hold” — and remained, as one of his own lyrics declares, “alive and well and thriving” more than a quarter century after his diagnosis.

Herman’s landmark musical La Cage aux Folles, according to The Washington Post, “arrived during the height of the AIDS epidemic and helped put gay life into the cultural mainstream at a time when many gay men were being stigmatized.”

Having a flair for interior design, Herman took a break from composition in the 1970s after the disappointment of Mack and Mabel. His renovated firehouse was featured in Architectural Digest, and he reportedly decorated over three dozen homes. He later listed his 4,088-square-foot West Hollywood condominium for sale in 2013.

Herman published his memoir, Showtune, in 1996. A 90-minute documentary about his life, Words and Music by Jerry Herman, directed by filmmaker Amber Edwards, was screened in 2007 and broadcast on PBS.

In the 2008 Pixar animated film WALL-E, Herman’s music from Hello, Dolly! serves as the emotional theme for the film’s titular robot character — a testament to the timeless power of his melodies.

Jerry Herman died at a hospital in Miami on December 26, 2019, at the age of 88.