Wednesday, October 15, 2003

By Christopher Rawson, Post-Gazette Drama Editor

As an undergraduate at University of Miami (Florida), composer-lyricist Jerry Herman wrote and directed a musical revue, "I Feel Wonderful." It was the perfect title for Herman, now 72, whose talk is still peppered with cheery adjectives like "wonderful" and "lovely."

That revue went right on to a 1952 Off-Broadway run, starting the effusive Herman on a career that resulted in two perennial standards, "Hello, Dolly!" (1964) and "Mame" (1966), along with "Milk and Honey" (1961), "Dear World" (1969), "Mack and Mabel"(1974), "The Grand Tour" (1979), "La Cage aux Folles" (1983) and TV's "Mrs. Santa Claus" (1996).

	"Hello, Jerry!" Where: Chosky Theater, Carnegie Mellon, Oakland. When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Tickets: $100 (includes post-show reception) or $60, to benefit CLO/CMU New Works Project; 412-281-3973.

But the current frosting on Herman's cake of good cheer is something called "The Jerry Herman Legacy Series," which brings him to Pittsburgh on Thursday for three days at Carnegie Mellon, culminating in a public concert Saturday night, "Hello, Jerry!" A retrospective of Herman's career, sponsored by CMU and Pittsburgh CLO, the concert benefits their joint project to develop new musicals.

Herman will perform himself, of course -- he loves to perform his own songs -- but he will be surrounded by four veterans of Broadway and CLO: Karen Morrow (six Broadway shows, five CLO), Paige O'Hara (three Broadway, seven CLO), Jason Graae (four Broadway, 11 CLO) and Herman's regular musical director, Don Pippin (23 Broadway). All have plenty of other credits -- Graae plays Dennis on HBO's "Six Feet Under," for example, and Pippin has been musical director at Radio City Music Hall for many years.

The three-day CMU residency begins Thursday with a symposium in which all five share their knowledge of the Broadway musical. Herman calls it "a dialogue with the students."

That lays the base for the second day, when they offer master classes -- Morrow's on how to develop a song and audition, Pippin's on how to interpret a lyric. On Saturday, they rehearse, "and then we do this lovely evening, and they get to hear what it all sounds like."

In addition, three master class students will win $1,000 Jerry Herman Legacy Series scholarships, funded by Herman and the ASCAP Foundation, to continue their educations.

The well-developed "Legacy" package came about almost by accident. A college in Utah asked ASCAP, a trade organization of composers and lyricists, if it could send a Broadway composer and a lyricist to talk with their musical theater students. Herman says they probably expected two people. But in him, they got a twofer, and he invited Morrow, Pippin and company to come along.

"They treated us like rock stars," Herman effuses. "It was very eye-opening. They had had no contact with Broadway, they had probably never even seen a Broadway show, but there was a hunger out there about Broadway musicals. It was exhilarating, one of the most rewarding things in my life."

Herman clearly feels he's a missionary for the Great White Way.

"These kids would never have a chance to work with people who have been through what we've been through," he says.

Informed that students at CMU do work with Broadway professionals and that Pittsburgh audiences have been to Broadway, Herman is unfazed.

"When the kids are sophisticated or quick, it's better for us," he says. "It challenges us. That's the most interesting part of it for me: They ask the most probing questions, [uncovering] aspects of writing a song or the creative process I may never have verbalized."

The "Hello, Jerry!" show has now been to about a dozen cities, with four scheduled for the season ahead.

"It's kind of a wonderful thing in my life, at my age," Herman says. "It's the right thing for me to be doing now."

Not that he's slowing down. Yesterday, he had his first meeting at the Nederlander office to prepare a new version of "La Cage" for Broadway next season. He's not changing the book or the score, but it will have a new look:

"Grittier is the word. The truth is, those drag clubs in St. Tropez would not have white chiffon curtains but more crowded dressing rooms, more outrageous costuming. It will be much more 2004."

"Mame" may be revived the year after that. A perennial project is "Mack and Mabel," about early filmmakers Mack Sennett and Mabel Normand, which has never achieved the success that its creator and fans of its score believe it deserves.

"It will have yet another shot," says Herman, who is determined to keep it alive "as long as I'm alive."

Its latest hopeful revival will be at Connecticut's Goodspeed Opera House and will downplay the glitter to focus "on what that show is about, the relationship between two people. I can't tell you how I'm looking forward to that."

And his newest work is a Las Vegas show, "Miss Spectacular," a 90-minute collection of songs held together by brief connective dialogue. Tommy Tune will direct.

There's also a book just out, "Jerry Herman: The Lyrics," co-edited by Ken Bloom, with just about all his lyrics including some never before published. While here, Herman will do a book-signing at 2 p.m. Friday, at Jay's Book Stall, 3604 Fifth Ave., Oakland -- giving any Pittsburgher a chance to say, "Hello, Jerry!"

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