Jerry's Girls is a musical

Musical theatre

Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...

 revue

Revue

A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century American popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own during its golden years from 1916 to 1932...

 based on the songs of composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

/lyric

Lyrics

Lyrics are a set of words that make up a song. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist or lyrist. The meaning of lyrics can either be explicit or implicit. Some lyrics are abstract, almost unintelligible, and, in such cases, their explication emphasizes form, articulation, meter, and symmetry of...

ist Jerry Herman

Jerry Herman

Jerry Herman is an American composer and lyricist, known for his work in Broadway musical theater. He composed the scores for the hit Broadway musicals Hello, Dolly!, Mame, and La Cage aux Folles. He has been nominated for the Tony Award five times, and won twice, for Hello, Dolly! and La Cage...

.

Production history

Created by Herman and Larry Alford in 1981, the show originated as a modest presentation at Onstage, a nightclub

Nightclub

A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...

 located in the theatre district in midtown-Manhattan

Manhattan

Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...

 (New York City). Writing in The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

, John S. Wilson called it "a brilliantly lively and scintillating evening of cabaret

Cabaret

Cabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...

."

After La Cage aux Folles opened to rave reviews two years later, producer Zev Bufman approached the pair and suggested they mount a full-scale, all-star version. On February 28, 1984, the expanded Jerry's Girls premiered at the Royal Poinciana Playhouse in Palm Beach, Florida

Palm Beach, Florida

The Town of Palm Beach is an incorporated town in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. The Intracoastal Waterway separates it from the neighboring cities of West Palm Beach and Lake Worth...

, with Carol Channing

Carol Channing

Carol Elaine Channing is an American singer, actress, and comedienne. She is the recipient of three Tony Awards , a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination...

, Andrea McArdle

Andrea McArdle

Andrea McArdle is an American singer and actress best known for playing Annie in the Broadway musical Annie, as well as for her alto range and strong vocal belt.-Career:She was born in Philadelphia...

, and Leslie Uggams

Leslie Uggams

Leslie Uggams is an American actress and singer, perhaps best known for her work in Hallelujah, Baby! She is a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority.-Singing:...

, backed by an all-female chorus, recreating scenes and songs from Herman's hits, including Hello, Dolly!

Hello, Dolly! (musical)

Hello, Dolly! is a musical with lyrics and music by Jerry Herman and a book by Michael Stewart, based on Thornton Wilder's 1938 farce The Merchant of Yonkers, which Wilder revised and retitled The Matchmaker in 1955....

, Mame, and Mack and Mabel. Jerry's Girls, the show's opening number set to the music of "It's Today" from Mame, enumerated the many actresses who had appeared in Herman productions over the years. An original cast recording was released by Polydor Records

Polydor Records

Polydor is a record label owned by Universal Music Group, headquartered in the United Kingdom.-Beginnings:Polydor was originally an independent branch of the Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft. Its name was first used as an export label in 1924, the British and German branches of the Gramophone...

.

After fourteen previews, the Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

 production, directed by Alford and choreographed by Wayne Cilento

Wayne Cilento

Wayne Louis Cilento is an American dancer and choreographer. He is best known for originating the role of "Mike" in the Broadway show A Chorus Line, and later becoming one of Broadway's most prolific choreographers.-Early life:...

, opened on December 18, 1985 at the St. James Theatre

St. James Theatre

The St. James Theatre is located at 246 W. 44th St. Broadway, New York City, New York. It was built by Abraham L. Erlanger, theatrical producer and a founding member of the Theatrical Syndicate, on the site of the original Sardi's restaurant. It opened in 1927 as The Erlanger...

, where it ran for 141 performances. Uggams was joined by new cast members Dorothy Loudon

Dorothy Loudon

Dorothy Loudon was an American comedy actress and singer. She won the 1977 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical for her portrayal of Miss Hannigan in Annie.-Early life and career:Loudon was born in...

 and Chita Rivera

Chita Rivera

Chita Rivera is an American actress, dancer, and singer best known for her roles in musical theater. She is the first Hispanic woman to receive a Kennedy Center Honors award...

. Frank Rich

Frank Rich

Frank Rich is an American essayist and op-ed columnist who wrote for The New York Times from 1980, when he was appointed its chief theatre critic, until 2011...

 of The New York Times wrote "The only thing that Jerry's Girls has in common with a bona fide Jerry Herman musical is that it occupies the St. James, the theater where Dolly once promised she'd never go away again... Whatever the point of the all-female cast, one must still wonder why the show's particular female stars were chosen. None of them have been associated with Mr. Herman's musicals. Only one (Miss Uggams) is primarily a singer. All three have strident mannerisms that the director, Larry Alford, takes sadistic glee in calling to our attention."

Chita Rivera was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical.

Original cast album song list

Act I

• Jerry's Girls
• It Takes a Woman/Put On Your Sunday Clothes (from Hello, Dolly!)
• It Only Takes a Moment (from Hello, Dolly!)
• Wherever He Ain't (from Mack & Mabel)
• We Need a Little Christmas (from Mame)
• I Won't Send Roses (from Mack & Mabel)
• Tap Your Troubles Away (from Mack & Mabel)
• Two-a-Day (from Parade, A Musical Revue)
• Bosom Buddies (from Mame)
• The Man in the Moon (from Mame)
• So Long Dearie (from Hello, Dolly!)
• Take It All Off
• Two-a-Day (reprise)
• Shalom (from Milk and Honey)
• Milk and Honey (from Milk and Honey)
• Show Tune (from Parade, A Musical Revue)
• If He Walked Into My Life (from Mame)
• Hello Dolly! (from Hello, Dolly!)

Act II

• Entr'acte
• Just Go to the Movies (from A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine)
• Movies Were Movies (from Mack & Mabel)
• Look What Happened to Mabel (from Mack & Mabel)
• Nelson (from A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine)
• Just Go to the Movies (reprise)
• Time Heals Everything (from Mack & Mabel)
• It's Today (from Mame)
• Mame ( from Mame)
• Kiss Her Now (from Dear World)
• That's How Young I Feel (from Mame)
• Open A New Window (from Mame)
• Gooch's Song (from Mame)
• Before the Parade Passes By (from Hello, Dolly!)
• I Don't Want To Know (from Dear World)
• Song On the Sand (from La Cage aux Folles)
• I Am What I Am (from La Cage aux Folles)
• The Best of Times (from La Cage aux Folles)
• Jerry's Turn (Jerry Herman and his Girls)