Legendary Tony-winning Broadway songwriter Jerry Herman—who was behind the iconic musicals Hello, Dolly!, Mame and La Cage aux Folles—passed away at 88 from pulmonary complications, media outlets reported.
Herman told NPR that seeing Irving Berlin’s Annie Get Your Gun while in his 20s propelled him to the theater. Herman’s first big success was an adaptation of the Thornton Wilder play The Matchmaker—and that score became the 1964 musical Hello, Dolly!
On a more personal note, after being diagnosed with HIV in 1984, Herman was one of the first people to receive the drug cocktail that has kept so many patients alive. His partner, Marty Finkelstein, died of AIDS-related complications in the 1980s.
Herman was an awardee at the 2010 Kennedy Center Honors, and received the Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre in 2009.
The full NPR article is at http://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2019/12/27/535371796/broadway-legend-jerrry-herman-is-dead-at-88.