"Mame",
"Hello Dolly", "La Cage Aux Folles", "Mack and Mabel", "Jerry's Girls"
are just some of the shows that spawned music from the head of Jerry
Herman that is played now and will be played for many futures to come.
He is proud of being 'old school' when it comes to musical theatre and
loves show-tunes with their distinct sounds.

This
book was written in 1996 when he had already been diagnosed being HIV+
for a few years. He talks somewhat about his being gay, a couple of
boyfriends, having a very successful second career decorating,
restoring  and architectural design and his 'comeback' with "La Cage Aux
Folles" with "I Am What I Am" becoming the gay anthem.

Between
"Mame" and "Hello Dolly" he has worked with most of the legends in
Broadway musical history and he loves them all. The only one who seemed
to intimidate him was Barbra Streisand and he feels that was more his
fault then hers.

Jerry
Herman is an optimist, as many of his lyrics prove, and when he is
feeling 'down' he tends to stay by himself. He has very little bad to
say about anyone, except maybe David Merrick, and he didn't always agree
with his collaborators but he was definitely a team player and proud of
it. He doesn't seem to have any animosity towards any people he has
worked with and loves telling stories about the greats that put them in a
good light.

He
writes about his biggest disappointment and that was "Mack and Mabel"
not being the hit it should have been and eventually did become in a
London production when it was scaled smaller than the Broadway
production had been. He also felt there was too much of an age
difference between his stars that worked against teh show from the
moment the curtain opened. Though it hasn't happened yet at the end of
the book he is waiting for a revival of "Anyone Can Whistle" which he
thought was also overproduced in its original showing.

The
only show he sort of bad mouths in "The Grand Tour" as he felt it
shouldn't have been produced to begin with and he regrets having doing
it when he knew he didn't 'feel' it.

Just
reading about his interactions with Carol Channing, Ethel Merman,
Angela Lansbury, Judy Garland, Bernadette Peters, Lisa Kirk, Leslie
Uggams, Harvey Fierstein, Arthur Laurents, George Hearn, Gene Barry and
many more stars will put a smile on your face the whole time you are
reading the book.

Now
at the age of 82, in July, with 2 Tony Awards plus a Lifetime
Achievement Award and recipient of the Kennedy Center honors among many
other recognitions of his life, contributions to theatre and music and a
legacy of songs that will live forever Jerry Herman has deservedly been
called 'the musical man of the moment' and, as the book cover says, 'a
much beloved and uniquely talented man.'

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"I Am What I Am"

Music and Lyrics by Jerry Herman

I am what I am
I am my own special creation.
So come take a look,
Give me the hook or the ovation.
It's my world that I want to take a little pride in,
My world, and it's not a place I have to hide in.
Life's not worth a damn,
'Til you can say, "Hey world, I am what I am."
I am what I am,
I don't want praise, I don't want pity.
I bang my own drum,
Some think it's noise, I think it's pretty.
And so what, if I love each feather and each spangle,
Why not try to see things from a diff'rent angle?
Your life is a sham 'til you can shout out loud
I am what I am!
I am what I am
And what I am needs no excuses.
I deal my own deck
Sometimes the ace, sometimes the deuces.
There's one life, and there's no return and no deposit;
One life, so it's time to open up your closet.
Life's not worth a damn 'til you can say,
"Hey world, I am what I am!"