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Hello, WALL•E, Sings Jerry Herman, Who Loves Use of His 44-Year-Old Songs in
the Movie
By FRANK RIZZO
Courant Staff Writer
July 1, 2008
Can a musical comedy save the world? Well, it certainly helps, according to
the new Pixar animated film "WALL•E," which opened nationwide this weekend and
brought in $62.5 million at the box office, making it the No. 1 film in
America.
Two songs from "Hello, Dolly!" — "Put on Your Sunday Clothes"
and "It Only Takes a Moment" — are pivotal in the film's story about a little
robot, the only sign of "life" (not counting a friendly cockroach) left on a
devastated and abandoned Earth 700 years in the future.
What keeps the
resourceful robot going is not just his recharging solar plates but a videotape
from the 1969 film "Hello, Dolly." The songs feature Michael Crawford, Marianne
MacAndrew and — if you look closely in the chorus — Tommy Tune. ( Barbra
Streisand, who starred in the film, is not featured in the "WALL•E"
clips.)
The feel-good song "Sunday Clothes" lifts the robot's spirits as
he goes on his programmed daily drudgery. The romantic ballad "It Only Tales a
Moment" reminds him of contact with another entity, which is missing from his
lonely life.
When Jerry Herman, composer of the Broadway musical, saw
"WALL•E" Sunday night in Los Angeles, he was stunned.
"It really blew me
away," Herman said in a telephone interview Monday. "You're talking to someone
still in a haze. I couldn't believe how beautifully the songs expressed the
entire intent of the film."
Herman, who turns 77 next week, said he was
not aware of how the songs were going to be used and expected them to be
featured briefly as background music.
Instead, the film opens with a shot
of the universe and the voice of Crawford singing the opening lines, "Out there,
there's a world outside of Yonkers ...," followed by most of the rest of the
upbeat song as the robot goes on his daily routine
"I'll tell you that
the seat I was in will never be the same," Herman says. "I clutched those two
arm rests. I was so thrilled and moved. What a wonderful use — to show a
desolate world contrasted with the joy of those lyrics.
"The amazing
thing for me is that two songs from a show that certainly was iconic in its day
— or still is — will now have a more permanent place in history because of this
movie, which is probably going to be the film of the year."
Does he feel
vindicated that his songs, sometimes dismissed as too sunny, will live
on?
"It made me doubly pleased to have written songs of optimism and
joy," Herman says. "They call me the eternal optimist. Well, that's what the
world needed after the assassination of Kennedy [before the Broadway show opened
in January 1964] and what the world needs now."
Herman predicts this will
heighten interest in a Broadway revival of "Hello, Dolly!"
"I've been
thinking about it, and there are several ladies — stars — I am already playing
in my head to cast."
"To have 'Dolly!" blooming again now," he says, "is
like having an orchid plant suddenly, unexpectedly coming back to
life."
Herman says that after leaving the cineplex, filled with joy, he
turned to his goddaughter and sang, "Well, well, hello, WALL•E!"
