Born On This Day- July 10th.... Jerry Herman

As a little 10 year old musical comedy queen, I would practice kick stepping my way down the staircase at our house as my imaginary chorus sang my character’s name (I think sometimes they were actually just singing-Steve!). My parents had just been presented me with the Original Broadway Cast album Hello, Dolly! & I was having a difficult time recovering from the excitement of such infectious tunes. These hummable songs personified the “show tune”. They were tuneful, optimistic, & deceptively simple songs. I had been raised on Lerner & Lowe & Rodgers & Hammerstein, but this new guy was really getting to me. I didn’t know it in 1964, but Jerry Herman would be providing me with a musical number for descending a staircase for the next 4 decades.

Jerry Herman, who writes the music & lyrics, produced super successful & contagious tunes for the musicals: Hello, Dolly!, Mame, Dear World, Mack & Mable, & La Cage Aux Folles.

In these musicals our misunderstood leading lady would introduce a song early in the first act that stated her life philosophy: I Put My Hand In There, It’s Today, Each Tomorrow Morning, Look What Happened To Mabel, & A Little More Mascara.

The first act would end in her big soliloquy, where our heroine lifts her own spirits: Before The Parade Passes By, If He Walked Into My Life Today, I Don’t Want To Know, or I Am What I Am.

That brings us to the big “staircase” number, when the chorus celebrates how their lives have been changed by the mere presence of this woman with the title songs from Dolly & Mame, When Mabel Comes In The Room, One Person, & The Best Of Times. The song- One from A Chorus Line is a parody & homage to these songs.

Despite the formula, these shows & their wonderful & skillful songs make for superior theatre experiences. Some were super hits & others became cult favorites. Herman is the only songwriter to have 3 musical on Broadway at the same time. Many of his compositions have become pop standards. Louis Armstrong’s version of Hello, Dolly! outsold The Beatles in 1964. The movie versions of Hello, Dolly!& Mame are considered, by most fan of musical theatre, to be duds, but as a very young man I was thrilled by the film of Hello, Dolly!& saw it about 20 times. I still love Barbra (decades too young for the role) as Mae West as Dolly Levi. I was very touched that Wall-E discovered emotions from a dilapidated 20th century tape containing a loop of Put On Your Sunday Clothes.

Herman has stated that he will no longer be writing for the theatre:

“I think my style of musical has come and was very, very good to me, but is gone now. I think it's better to know when to leave than to end up with two or three shows that didn't make it. I left at my height."

Herman has long been openly gay, & was diagnosed as HIV-positive in 1985.  He is one of the fortunate ones who survived to see experimental drug therapies take hold & is still, as he turns 81 years old today, as one of his lyrics proclaims, “alive & well & thriving.”

Herman’s 1983 musical- La Cage Aux Folles was a critical & commercial smash, & also a political & social turning point.  Never before had a pair men held hands in a musical, or sung a love ballad to one another.

George Hearn’s star turn as Za Za, belting out what is probably the most dramatic Act One closer of all time- I Am What I Am, is a forceful call for dignity & acceptance, a surpassingly stalwart statement in the first days of HIV from a composer/lyricist who declared all along that he wanted only to entertain people.

I had the good fortunate to play Horace Vandergelder in Hello, Dolly! at Seattle Civic Light Opera in the late 1980s & during performances, of course I would close my eyes as the male chorus was singing the title number, & what I was hearing was “Hello, Horace!” or better yet- “Hello, Stephen!”& I was step kick-stepping down that large staircase.

Born On This Day- April 17th... The Very Gay Thornton Wilder

One of the very favorite roles that I ever had the privilege & joy of performing was Horace Vandergelder in Hello, Dolly! at Seattle Civic Light Opera. I also used a wonderfully funny & grouchy monologue by the same character from the source material- The Matchmaker for auditions for several years. It was a part that I was born to play: crusty, irascible, testy, vinegary, bearish, & unable to suffer fools gladly.

The Hello, Dolly! history is long, picturesque, & quite gay. John Oxenford's 1835 short farce A Day Well Spent had been made into a full length play entitled Einen Jux Will Er Sich Machen by Austrian playwright Johann Nestroy in 1842. Both writers were homosexual. In 1938, Thornton Wilder Americanized the Nestroy's version into The Merchant of Yonkers. The Broadway production was a dismal failure, running for just 39 performances. 17 years later, director Tyrone Guthrie (not gay) commisioned a new version of the play for my muse- Ruth Gordan. Wilder extensively rewrote the piece & made the minor character of Dolly Gallagher Levi, a widow who brokers marriages & other transactions, the leading role. Wilder named this play- The Matchmaker. Ruth Gordon would win the Tony Award for playing the title role.



The 1958 film version, starred Shirley Booth, Anthony Perkins (gay), Shirley MacLaine (loves by gays), Paul Ford, & Robert Morse.

In 1964, The Matchmaker became the Tony Award (what is gayer than a Tony Award?) winning musical - Hello, Dolly!, with a score by the very gay Jerry Herman & starring gay icon- Carol Channing. A film version of Hello Dolly! was released in 1969 starring Barbra Streisand (gays seem to really like her) in the lead role. The 1981 Tom Stoppard (not gay, but very talented & smart) farce On the Razzle is based on the same story.

Wilder won 3 Pulitzer Prizes: for the novel- The Bridge of San Luis Rey, the classic high school favorite- Our Town, & his satire- The Skin of Our Teeth, in which I once played a dinosaur (really). Wilder never addressed being gay publicly, but his homosexuality was a well known secret in theatre circles, His long time lover was Samuel Steward who wrote very famous & well received, for the time, gay erotica under the moniker- Phil Andros. Wilder was introduced to Steward by his friend Gertrude Stein. He also hung out with the Dorothy Parker, Willa Cather, Tullulah Bankhead, & Montgomery Clift. Wilder died in 1975, age 78.

Born On This Day- January 31st... Gay Icon Carol Channing

It was one of my most favorite musicals growing up. I had the Original Broadway Cast album of Hello, Dolly!, & I augmented my collection with Hello, Dolly! cast recordings with Pearl Bailey, Ethel Merman, & the Japanese & Finnish casts, plus the London cast featuring Mary Martin as Dolly Levi. But none of them was better than the original with Carol Channing.

January 31st 1921: Albert Einstein was explaining his new Theory of Relativity, Charlie Chaplin's movie The Kid was released, Babe Ruth became the home run champ, President Harding dedicated the Tomb Of The Unknown Soldier in Arlington Cemetery, Eugene O'Neill's Anna Christie received its premiere on Broadway, & in Seattle, living legend Carol Channing was born.

Channing is a singing, dancing, acting force of nature, one of Broadway's major stars, a true Gay Icon, but even with her fabulous talent, it is difficult to pinpoint exactly what Channing’s appeal is. Her face & voice are instantly recognizable, yet in her long career, she has worked in only 5 films including the LSD comedy Skidoo (1968), often cited as one of the worst movie ever. Channing made one good movie, & was rewarded with a nomination for an Oscar & the win of a Golden Globe for her work in 1967's Thoroughly Modern Millie. Her true triumphs have always been on the Broadway stage.

Channing is a true original. She was never a bombshell, & she is rather demented without being risqué or grotesque. She's a belter in the manner of Ethel Merman, but without being brassy. She has been often cast as a gold digger while there is nothing seductive about her persona. I shouldn't "get" her, but I do, although I am not quite sure she makes sense in a Post-Gay world.

Channing’s contradictions made a little more sense when I read her engaging autobiography- Just Lucky I Guess: A Memoir of Sorts. In the book Cahnning is candid about her messy break up with her husband of 41 years- Charles Lowe. Carol disclosed that she & Lowe had only ever had sex "once or twice in our 41-year marriage & that was 41 years ago.” She stuck to her wedding vows the whole time & didn't have sex with anyone else. What opportunities did she pass up? Can you imagine? Channing might have slept with Jack Kennedy,Frank Sinatra or Warren Beatty.

Lowe had spent most of her hard earned fortune, & to make matters more bizarre, the scandal reached its anti-climax when Channing broke the news that the husband was a homo. A camp icon with a gay husband is shocking, but isn’t as shocking as the 41 year dry spell. After 32 years, even the Husband & I manage to knock one out twice a year. The memoir also reveals that her grandfather was African-American.

Even with her resilient image, Channing has had her hardships. She triumphed on Broadway as fortune hunting Lorelei Lee in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, but Hollywood cast Marilyn Monroe in the film version. Monroe saw the show over & over, & borrowed Channing’s best bits. Channing really owned the role of Dolly Levi in Hello, Dolly!, she was the first & most famous star in the role. But director Gene Kelly thought casting her was too risky & gave the role to Barbra Streisand who was decades too young for the role (Streisand would be perfect now).

I love her so much in Thoroughly Modern Millie, playing a rich, madcap matron Muzzy Van Hossmere, who makes her entrance flying in a biplane, quaffing champagne. She blew my little13 year old gay mind with her 2 big musical numbers- Jazz Baby where she tap dances on a xylophone, & Do It Again which begins with Channing being shot out of a cannon. Channing taught me Camp. I saw her live only once, in a tawdry mess of a musical- Lorelei, a sort of sequal to Gentlemen Prefer Blonds.

Channing has played Dolly Levi over 4,000 times to packed-houses around the globe without ever missing a performance. Hello, Dolly! was the first Broadway musical to play China. I did 15 performances of Hello, Dolly! at Seattle Civic Light Opera in 1989... but as Hoarce Vandergelder, not Dolly, but I could play her.

In May 2003, she married her 4th husband, Harry Kullijian, her junior high school sweetheart, who reunited with her after she mentioned him fondly in her memoir. They renamed the school's auditorium The Carol Channing Theatre in her honor. The city of San Francisco proclaimed a Carol Channing Day, for her advocacy of gay rights & her appearances as the host of the Gay Pride events around the country. Harry Kullijian passed away at the end of 2011.

Channing: "The gay community is responsible for so much of my success, & I love them. It's a mutual love affair, really. They make the better audiences too, because they laugh often & loudly. Applause is obligatory, but laughter is a reward, & gay audiences reward me often. Years ago, I was made their Queen in San Francisco, which is so much better than legend or icon. I was told that on that day, there wasn't a blonde wig to be found in stores. Isn't that wonderful. I don't like to think of myself as a gay icon. “The moment you do, then you're not. There are so many talented people that have been called a 'gay icon' that have no similarities at all.”

A new documentry- Carol Channing: Larger Than Life opens this month. Carol Channing is 91 years old today.

Born On This Day- July 10th... Songwriter Jerry Herman

As a little 10 year old musical comedy queen, I would practice kick stepping my way down the staircase at our house as my imaginary chorus sang my character’s name (I think sometimes they were actually singing-Steve). I had just been presented the Original Broadway Cast album Hello, Dolly! & I was having a difficult time recovering from the excitement of such infectious tunes. I had been raised on Lerner & Lowe & Rodgers & Hammerstein, but this new guy was really getting to me. I didn’t know then, but Mr. Jerry Herman would be providing me with a musical number for descending a staircase for the next 4 decades.

Jerry Herman, who writes music & lyrics, produced super successful & contagious tunes for the musicals: Hello, Dolly!, Mame, Dear World, Mack & Mable, & La Cage aux Folles. In these musicals our misunderstood leading lady would introduce a song early in the first act that stated her life philosophy: I Put My Hand In There, It’s Today, Each Tomorrow Morning, Look What Happened To Mabel, & A Little More Mascara. The first act would end in her big soliloquy, where our heroine lifts her own spirits: Before The Parade Passes By, If He Walked Into My Life Today, I Don’t Want To Know, or I Am What I Am. That brings us to the big “staircase” number, when the chorus celebrates how their lives have been changed by the mere presence of this woman with the title songs from Dolly & Mame, When Mabel Comes In The Room, One Person, & The Best Of Times. The song One from A Chorus Line is a parody & an homage to these songs.

Despite the formula, these shows & these wonderful & skillful songs make for superior theatre experiences. Some were super hits & others became cult favorites. He is the only songwriter to have 3 musical on Broadway at the same time. Many of his compositions have become pop standards. Louis Armstrong’s version of Hello, Dolly! outsold The Beatles in 1964. The movie versions of Hello, Dolly! & Mame are considered, by most, to be duds, but as a very young man I was thrilled by the film of Hello, Dolly! & saw it about 20 times. I still love Barbra (decades too young for the role) as Mae West as Dolly Levi. I was very touched that Wall-E discovered emotions from a dilapidated 20th century tape containing a loop of Put on Your Sunday Clothes.

Mr Herman has stated that he will no longer be writing for the theatre:
“I think my style of musical has come and was very, very good to me, but is gone now. I think it's better to know when to leave than to end up with two or three shows that didn't make it. I left at my height."



I was fortunate enough to play Horace Vandergelder in Hello, Dolly! at Seattle Civic Light Opera in the late 1980s & during performances, of course I would close my eyes as the male chorus was singing the title number, & what I was hearing was “Hello, Horace!” or better- “Hello, Stephen!” & I was step kicking down that staircase.

Jerry Herman turns 80 on this day.