My Musical Theater Voyage of Discovery; The Jerry Herman Files -- Jerry's Girls, La Cage Aux Folles
This is silly, I admit it, but I just love JERRY’S GIRLS and I have from the moment I first bought the record album and played it for the first time. I mean, really, how can you NOT love this musical revue (especially if you are a gay man) ? It’s Carol Channing (one of the great Broadway legendary divas), Leslie Uggams (one of the great Broadway diva voices) and Andrea McArdle (it’s ANNIE, dudes, and one of the, The, THE voices) singing Jerry Herman? It’s a great romp, full of delicious performances and great, fun arrangements (not to mention songs I hadn’t heard before – when I got the record in the 80s). Showtune? What fun. Two a Day? Fabulous. And there are, of course, those wonderful Jerry Herman songs we all know (those of us who listen to musical theater) and love so much. Yeah. I admit it: I am into Jerry’s Girls.
As a side note: I picked up an audio bootleg of the show when it was done on Broadway with Chita Rivera and Dorothy Loudon taking over for Misses Channing and McArdle and THAT is a fun listen, too! I have some of the tracks from that bootleg in my Ipod, most notably the wonderfully biting and satirical song HAVE A NICE DAY in which Dorothy Loudon (I hear she was dressed as a Salvation Army worker in the show) sings a list of racial epithets while preaching we should all have a nice day. It is one of my favourite songs and I wish more people knew it (I hear it was cut from La Cage Aux Folles – written for the father of the girl marrying Albin and Georges’ son).
Mwhavelous!
I was in a hospital bed. I had been there for days, recovering from a suicide attempt. The year was 1983 and it was the stretch of time between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Friends had brought me a tiny Christmas tree to decorate my room. I had a nightstand that was loaded down with books and magazines and a medium sized boom box. Next to the boom box were stacks of cassettes. I was to be confined to that hospital bed for at least two weeks while the doctors figured out the best course of action to help me deal with the depression and despair that lead me to swallow 36 sleeping pills, washed down by a Texas Tea sized glass of Ronrico and green Kool Aid. The stacks of books and magazines and cassettes would come in handy during that 2 week period. I do not remember the names of all the cassettes that were there for me to listen to. Only one stays in my memory: LA CAGE AUX FOLLES.
The musical had opened on Broadway and was a huge hit. I had bought the cassette and was listening to it all the time. The mere fact of the show was of great importance, it is true; but the score was a complete perfection – the upbeat happy numbers (complete with taps on the cast album!), the witty comedy numbers, the touching ballads and, of course, the anthems. From I AM WHAT I AM to THE BEST OF TIMES, Jerry Herman was there, telling this 19 year old that there was no reason to be hurting myself, no reason to be spending my holidays in a hospital bed trying to overcome the unhappinesses I was feeling. I had the opportunity to be myself and to be that, proudly. I had a second chance to turn the bad times into the best times. I could overcome this moment in my history and have the kind of life I dreamed about.
Yes. In my hospital bed I listened to La Cage Aux Folles a LOT.
George Hearn has remained one of my favourite performers on Broadway, one of my favourite boy voices in the entire history of musical theater; and the song SONG ON THE SAND would (in the not too distant future) become the song that my husband and I called ‘our song’.
As a side note: I picked up an audio bootleg of the show when it was done on Broadway with Chita Rivera and Dorothy Loudon taking over for Misses Channing and McArdle and THAT is a fun listen, too! I have some of the tracks from that bootleg in my Ipod, most notably the wonderfully biting and satirical song HAVE A NICE DAY in which Dorothy Loudon (I hear she was dressed as a Salvation Army worker in the show) sings a list of racial epithets while preaching we should all have a nice day. It is one of my favourite songs and I wish more people knew it (I hear it was cut from La Cage Aux Folles – written for the father of the girl marrying Albin and Georges’ son).
Mwhavelous!
I was in a hospital bed. I had been there for days, recovering from a suicide attempt. The year was 1983 and it was the stretch of time between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Friends had brought me a tiny Christmas tree to decorate my room. I had a nightstand that was loaded down with books and magazines and a medium sized boom box. Next to the boom box were stacks of cassettes. I was to be confined to that hospital bed for at least two weeks while the doctors figured out the best course of action to help me deal with the depression and despair that lead me to swallow 36 sleeping pills, washed down by a Texas Tea sized glass of Ronrico and green Kool Aid. The stacks of books and magazines and cassettes would come in handy during that 2 week period. I do not remember the names of all the cassettes that were there for me to listen to. Only one stays in my memory: LA CAGE AUX FOLLES.
The musical had opened on Broadway and was a huge hit. I had bought the cassette and was listening to it all the time. The mere fact of the show was of great importance, it is true; but the score was a complete perfection – the upbeat happy numbers (complete with taps on the cast album!), the witty comedy numbers, the touching ballads and, of course, the anthems. From I AM WHAT I AM to THE BEST OF TIMES, Jerry Herman was there, telling this 19 year old that there was no reason to be hurting myself, no reason to be spending my holidays in a hospital bed trying to overcome the unhappinesses I was feeling. I had the opportunity to be myself and to be that, proudly. I had a second chance to turn the bad times into the best times. I could overcome this moment in my history and have the kind of life I dreamed about.
Yes. In my hospital bed I listened to La Cage Aux Folles a LOT.
George Hearn has remained one of my favourite performers on Broadway, one of my favourite boy voices in the entire history of musical theater; and the song SONG ON THE SAND would (in the not too distant future) become the song that my husband and I called ‘our song’.
posted by StephenMosher at 5:18 AM
1 Comments:
I'd love to know where you got that tape of Jerry's Girls or if you could make me a copy! That was my first show I ever saw! How do I get in touch with you? I can't figure it out? Thanks.
David R
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