The Jerry Herman No-Show

[Dollypop]

Posted: 10/1/04 at 9:46pm

Many of us were excited to learn that Jerry Herman would be appearing at a book signing at the Drama Book Shop on W. 40th Street on Thursday evening. I was among the first to phone in a reservation and circled the night on my calendar. This was to be in conjunction with the release of Stephen Citron's book "Jerry Herman: the Poet of the Showtune". The original announcement even suggested that there would be a piano in place and a sing-along was very possible.

Imagine my disappointment when my friend and I got to the Drama Book Shop to find that only Mr. Citron would be appearing. Mr. Herman was attending the last dress rehearsal of MACK AND MABEL at Goodspeed. Now, didn't he know this was taking place when he agreed to do the book signing? Or did the Drama Book Shop pull a fast one and advertise something that was only vaguely agreed upon?

Anyhow, we were stuck with Mr. Citron, who is getting on in his years and has a faulty memory. Mr. Citron began by reading the lyric to a song that was cut from LA CAGE AUX FOLLES. It was a compendium of racial slurs that was supposed to be sung by Ann's father. I found it offensive and was glad to know had been cut from the musical. Why was this chosen to start a discussion about Mr. Herman, who has the reputation for writing wholesome lyrics for upbeat music? It baffled me and several people up and left at that point.

Mr. Citron proved to have a faulty memory and liked to speak in generalities without providing concrete examples of the theories he was propounding about Mr. Herman's music. He got several facts wrong. (Mr. Herman was sued over the lyric of a song called "Sunflower" not "Sunshine"!) and he couldn't remember the title of the love song in MACK AND MABEL ("I Won't Send Roses"). All of this was done in a haulting and uncertain manner that made life difficult for the moderator, who kept trying to get Mr. Citron to offer up specifics instead of vague comments.

My friend and I didn't stay for the actual book signing.

On the train ride home I skimmed through the book and found three inaccuracties. First, Michael Kidd choreographed the so-called movie version of HELLO, DOLLY!, not Gene Kelly. (Gene Kelly directed the film). Ginger Rogers played Dolly for almost two years on Broadway and then toured with the show for another year, but Mr. Citron claims the star didn't even last a year on Broadway. Miss Rogers had a fairly good attendance record. She missed only a handful of performances when she came down with bronchitis (I got this information from her understudy, Bibi Osterwald), yet Mr. Citron claims her attendance record was poor. No wonder his editors spent a year working on the text before it was published! If they'd spent a little more time, they might have caught these errors.

I'll post more when I've had the time to sit down and read the book carefully.

Updated On: 10/1/04 at 09:46 PM

[alterego]

Posted: 10/2/04 at 12:08am

Perhaps Jerry Herman was aware of the mistakes that seem so evident in the book and decided to cancel.

The song you refer to that was cut from La Cage is Have A Nice Day. To hear it sung (as it was in Jerry's Girls)it is really very funny. In Jerry's Girls it is sung by a bible basher which adds to the humour.

[Albin]

Posted: 10/2/04 at 12:25am

Boo-freaking-hoo!

All is not lost. At least we've been treated to more of your name-dropping!

[cathywellerstein]

Posted: 10/2/04 at 12:28am

i absolutely love the Jerry Herman song, "where in the world is my prince" its from Miss Spectactular and it's on Susan egan's new cd its so good!!

[Dollypop]

Posted: 10/2/04 at 10:06am

Albin, I mentioned Bibi Osterwald only to re-inforce the source of my information concerning Ginger Rogers. Mr. Citron should be that meticulous in his writing.

[NuggetMonkeys]

Posted: 10/2/04 at 10:48am

Well, dolly...I am glad I decided not to schlepp up there for it, or I would have killed someone.
-d.b.j-

[kjklo]

Posted: 10/2/04 at 11:05am

That's too bad about Jerry Herman; it probably was deceptive advertising.

I do remember reading Stephen Citron's book about Noel Coward and Cole Porter a number of years ago, and thinking it was pretty substandard.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 10/2/04 at 2:48pm

Believe me, I schlepped! I took a subway from work (in Queens) and on the way home had to drive from the subway station in Queens to Suffolk County. All this for a disappointing talk by Mr. Citron....and I missed "Will and Grace" for that?

Updated On: 10/3/04 at 02:48 PM

[Dollypop]

Posted: 10/3/04 at 4:40pm

More errors in Mr. Citron's book:

He refers to the lovely Celeste Holm as Mame's "understudy". A woman of Miss Holm's calibre would never "understudy" a star like Angela Lansbury or Janis Page. Instead, Miss Holm REPLACED Janis Page in the title role. In actuality, it was Sheila Smith who understudied Mame--and Vera.

He also claims that Mame's banker nemesis was named Willard Babcock. The character's name was actually Dwight Babcock, but was played in the original production by Willard Waterman.

In his talk on Thursday night, Mr. Citron claimed that Jerry Herman was given a copy of this book to read and fact check. I wonder if that was a reality. Is it possible that when Mr. Herman finally read the book he stayed away from the appearance on Thursday because he didn't approve of it?