American composer and lyricist best known for Mame, Hello, Dolly! and La Cage aux FollesThe composite image of a Broadway musical with
music and lyrics by Jerry Herman, who has died aged 88, is of a brassy, glamorous woman bedecked in pearls and feathers sashaying down a staircase to deliver a big take-home number surrounded by a deferential male chorus line of waiters, or valets, or drag queens.
The three big Herman shows that many people know are Hello, Dolly! (1964), starring Carol Channing as the widowed matchmaker Dolly Levi (Barbra Streisand in the 1969 movie directed by Gene Kelly); Mame (1966), starring Angela Lansbury as another widowed matchmaker with a nephew in tow (Lucille Ball in the 1974 film directed by Gene Saks); and La Cage aux Folles (1983), starring George Hearn as a nightclub entertainer, Zsa Zsa, declaring himself vindictively “out” as he throws off his wig and melodically bellows I Am What I Am.