Jerry Herman, the lyricist-composer of such legendary Broadway hits as "Hello, Dolly!" "Mame" and "La Cage Aux Folles," is being honored in LA tonight at The Actors Fund's annual Tony Awards bash and did an interview with LA's INMagazine to mark the ocassion.
The best parts are when he dishes about the widely criticized castings of Lucille Ball in "Mame" and Barbra Streisand in "Hello, Dolly!" when big-screen movies were made of the hit stage musicals.
Lucy was in her early 60s and ending her 20-plus year run in sitcoms when she took on the plum role of Mame Dennis. Says Herman: "I love Lucille Ball, but that casting was such a mistake. Can you imagine the film if Angela [Lansbury, who played the role on Broadway] had done it? It would have been a remarkable piece of work."
Herman, of course, had wanted "Dolly!" to star Carol Channing who had been the toast of Broadway in the part of Doly Levi that instead went to a red-hot Streisand who had just triumphed in "Funny Girl." Looking back though, Herman said of Streisand in the movie: 'Those songs had never been sung so beautifully...I saw it last year at the Egyptian in a special showing, with all the modern equipment, and I sat with an audience that laughed and laughed and was moved, and really appreciated that film. I think Barbra did an amazing job, knowing in her heart that she was not right for the role, but making it her own. I think time wll be kind to that film."