Since I didn't know Jerry Herman, I thought it would be nice to have something on this blog from someone who did. My pal Christine Pedi is an accomplished stage performer, a host on the Broadway channel at Sirius XM radio and the best Liza Minnelli impersonator in the business. After I read this on Facebook the other day, I called her up and got her permission to post it here…
I met Jerry Herman at a press event when I was a teenager. I asked if I could interview him for my school radio station and he gave me his home phone number without hesitation. When I called to make the appointment, he said we could either do the interview at his house or at the rehearsal for La Cage Au Folles which was about to open at the Palace. He was fitting me in after a meeting with the costume designer. I opted for the rehearsal space.
There in the room where he held his meetings were sketches on the walls of Theoni Aldredge's dazzling concoctions. Jerry was impeccably dressed…casual sweater and slacks but I was willing to bet everything was made of cashmere. He was a delightful, vivacious, darling who treated me and my Swingline cassette recorder as if I were someone from the New York Times. He was exactly the life force that I had hoped he would be. He was like his songs…life affirming.
Let's not put him in a box. though. He could give voice to complex, dark, deep internal feelings just as successfully and did often…but those anthems to the "live" mantra of Auntie Mame or Dolly Levi or Zaza were scene stealers. We're all fine with that because we know that this sparkly spring of enthusiasm and joy also ran deep when he had to.
I honestly can't recall much more from the interview (which is on a cassette tape somewhere in my Mother's attic) except that at some point an assistant came in with the most civilized lunch I'd ever seen…and come to think of it, now that I've been in more rehearsal rooms than I can count, it remains the most civilized lunch I've ever seen. A piece of roasted chicken, golden brown with some healthy greens (there might have been carrots…I suspect there were, they would have balanced the color) served on an actual china plate with silverware and a cloth napkin! That's how you dine when you're in head to toe cashmere.
Christine Pedi
A few years later, I got my first lead in a community theatre show. I was Mabel in Mack & Mabel. I can't recall exactly what it was but I called him with a question we had about the show. It was licensed for the "provinces" with a different ending than on Broadway. When he picked up the phone and I told him I was doing Mack & Mabel, his voice leapt up. "Oh, Christine! You're doing Mack & Mabel! How wonderful. Who's playing Mack?"
I paused. "Well…Jeff Schlotman?" (Did he expect to know him?) With no dip in energy, he said "Oh, please tell Jeff…" and then he went on to tell me about the B'way production and how they "loved her, hated him" and it was so dark. (The real Mabel came to a very sad and pathetic end.) But the licensed production had Mack fantasizing about how their lives would end if he could turn it into a silent film comedy complete with Bathing Beauty bridesmaids and Keystone Kops as groomsmen. Jerry was, again, investing as much importance in what I was doing in a high school auditorium as he would if he were talking to…Bernadette Peters? Well, it sure felt like that to me. Just total authentic interest and support and passion for what we were doing.
When it came to writing for the theatre, Jerry Herman could really do it all. He did indeed paint with many colors but his brights were so masterful, so convincing, we tend to want to follow that light. Of course we do. It's instinct to respond positively when encouraged to fan our inner flame. His anthems ignite that in us. He led with joy. He led with heart. He led with hope. That's the first thing we remember…no. it's the first thing we feel when we think of Jerry Herman.
So as we turn into a new year and decade, we make our plans and create our expectations. But really, "the best of times is now. This very minute has history in it. It's today!"
