杰瑞·哈尔曼

Gerald Sheldon Herman (July 10, 1931 – December 26, 2019) was an American composer and lyricist, known for his work in Broadway theatre.

One of the most commercially successful Broadway songwriters of his time, Herman was the composer and lyricist for a number of hit musicals, starting in the 1960s, that were characterized by an upbeat and optimistic outlook and what Herman called "the simple, hummable showtune". His shows include Hello, Dolly! (1964), at one time the longest-running musical in Broadway history, which also produced the hit title song for Louis Armstrong; Mame (1966), a vehicle for Angela Lansbury; and La Cage aux Folles (1983), the first hit Broadway musical about a gay couple.

In 2009, Herman received the Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre. He was a recipient of the 2010 Kennedy Center Honors.

Early life

Herman was born in Manhattan and raised in Jersey City, New Jersey, the only child of musically inclined, middle-class Jewish parents. He learned to play piano at an early age, and he frequently attended Broadway musicals.

Herman's father Harry was a gym teacher and in the summer worked in the Catskill Mountains hotels. His mother Ruth (née Sachs) also worked in the hotels as a singer, pianist, and children's teacher, and eventually became an English teacher. Herman told People Magazine in 1986 that his mother, who died in 1954, long before his success on Broadway, "was glamorous like Mame and witty like Dolly."

After marrying, his parents lived in Jersey City and continued to work in the summers in various camps until they became head counselors and finally ran Stissing Lake Camp in the small town of Pine Plains, New York, in the Taconic Mountains. Herman spent all of his summers there, from age 6 to 23. It was at camp that he first became involved in theatrical productions, as director of Oklahoma!, Finian's Rainbow and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Herman graduated from Jersey City's Henry Snyder High School.

At age 17, Herman was introduced to Frank Loesser who, after hearing material he had written, urged him to continue composing. He left the Parsons School of Design to attend the University of Miami, which has one of the nation's most avant garde theater departments. While an undergraduate student at the University of Miami, Herman produced, wrote and directed a college musical called Sketchbook. It was scheduled to run for three performances, but the show was so popular it ran for an additional 17 performances.

Herman belonged to the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity.

Herman graduated from the University of Miami in 1953 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in drama and received a Doctor of Fine Arts degree in 1980.

Early career

Following his graduation from the University of Miami in 1953, Herman moved to New York City, where he produced the Off-Broadway revue I Feel Wonderful, which was made up of material he had written at the university. It opened at the Theatre de Lys in Greenwich Village on October 18, 1954, and ran for 48 performances. It was his only show his mother saw; she died of cancer at the age of forty-four in December 1954. Herman said "I went into serious grieving."