The late Jerry Herman created the melodies and lyrics to some of America’s most enduring stage musicals, such as “Hello, Dolly!” “Mame” and “La Cage Aux Folles.”
Musical director David Nagy says that’s a good enough reason for the Pompano Players to stage “Jerry’s Girls.” The show runs from Friday, Jan. 10 to Sunday, Jan. 19 at the Pompano Beach Cultural Center.
Just the thought of honoring the legendary composer was enough to pull Nagy back into the work world, he says.
The late Jerry Herman created the melodies and lyrics to some of America’s most enduring stage musicals, such as “Hello, Dolly!” “Mame” and “La Cage Aux Folles.”
Musical director David Nagy says that’s a good enough reason for the Pompano Players to stage “Jerry’s Girls.” The show runs from Friday, Jan. 10 to Sunday, Jan. 19 at the Pompano Beach Cultural Center.
Just the thought of honoring the legendary composer was enough to pull Nagy back into the work world, he says.
“I am semi-retired. But if the show is right I will ‘come out of retirement,’” says Nagy.
The other lure was to be able to partner again with Director Michael Ursua.
“I enjoy working with Michael, he is very organized. He’s also a musical director so we go back and forth. He knows what the tempos should be,” says Nagy. Nagy will play piano with other musicians on trombone, trumpet, clarinet, and drums.
Earlier, Nagy and Ursua successfully teamed up on “Always…Patsy Cline” at the Lauderhill Performing Arts Center and “Most Happy Fella” at the now defunct Broward Stage Door Theatre. The two also collaborated at Delray Beach Playhouse for the revues, “From Broadway with Love” and with the late Randy Del Lago in “Celebrating Stephen Sondheim!” (In the latter, Ursua sang, while Nagy played piano.) Del Lago, well known in south Florida theatrical circles, was artistic director of the Delray Beach Playhouse for 32 years, until he died in July 2024.
Nagy, who lives in Hollywood, knows he has a lot to live up to. The original “Jerry’s Girls” cast featured Carol Channing, Leslie Uggams and Andrea McArdle. They premiered “Jerry’s Girls” at the (now defunct) Royal Poinciana Playhouse in Palm Beach. In late 1985, the show opened on Broadway, with Uggams, Dorothy Loudon and Chita Rivera, who was nominated for a Tony award for her performance.
One of the highlights of Nagy’s career was meeting Jerry Herman in person after graduating in 1975 with a music education degree from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, he says. “I met Jerry one time, at the Coconut Grove Playhouse, after seeing, ‘An Evening with Jerry Herman.’”
Nagy adds, “He autographed my program. I had grown up on “Hello, Dolly!” “Mame” and “La Cage Aux Folles” and had so much to ask him. But he was surrounded by other people.”
Herman’s significance continued throughout Nagy’s career; it was a Herman show that gave Nagy his first crack at being a musical director for “Hello, Dolly!” at McKeesport Little Theater in McKeesport, Pa., near Pittsburgh.
“Not every Jerry Herman show was a hit, but they all had beautiful tunes,” says Nagy.
For instance, in 1961, Herman’s first Broadway score, “Milk and Honey,” the first musical written about Israel, was not a huge success. Yet, the show was nominated for five Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Score.
That’s why “Jerry’s Girls” will include songs from “Milk and Honey” and other Herman creations, such as “Mack and Mabel,” “Dear World,” “Parade” and “A Day in Hollywood,” says Nagy.
The opportunity to be in a Herman revue is also what persuaded veteran actor Lourelene Snedeker to cut her self-imposed sabbatical short by three months, says Snedeker.
After acting in “Bye, Bye Birdie,” at the Wick, Snedeker decided to focus on her grandkids and move to Knoxville to be closer to them. She decided she would not work again until spring 2025, she says.
“Then, Michael Ursua called. I had done ‘Jerry’s Girls’ once before, so it would not be as difficult. I said, ‘Sure!’”
Snedeker had worked with Ursua when he directed her as Mother Abbess in “The Sound of Music,” the Wick’s opening production in 2013, for which she won a Carbonell Award. She’s toured with Loretta Switt and acted with Sally Kellerman at what was then the Jupiter Theatre and with Leslie Uggams at The Wick Theatre in “Mame,” has been nominated for 20 Carbonell Awards and won four. Most recently she won a Silver Palm Award for Outstanding Solo Performance for “Blonde Poison” at Primal Forces, which after the pandemic, re-opened as Boca Stage. In the play, she was an unrepentant Jewish informant for the Gestapo, who turned in 3,000 Jews to certain death under the Nazis, during the Holocaust.
“Florida is an all-round great place for theater. Since 1983, I’ve worked all over Florida and outside the state and have performed at almost every substantial theatre in south Florida,” says Snedeker.
She graduated from Stetson University in DeLand, then performed at the Asolo Repertory Theatre in Sarasota and co-founded Seaside Music Theater in Daytona Beach where she was managing director and performed for six years. Snedeker also performed at Florida Rep for five years in the West Palm Beach space where Palm Beach DramaWorks is currently.
In “Jerry’s Girls,” Snedeker will sing, “Before the Parade Passes By” from “Hello, Dolly!” (Legend has it that Herman, under intense pressure, pounded out the tune quickly in his hotel room to give Carol Channing a showstopper which would show audiences what made her character tick and why she was so determined.) Snedker will also play an older burlesque “artiste” and a five-year old.
Jason King, cultural programming manager for the city of Pompano Beach, anticipates that “Jerry’s Girls,” will build on Pompano’s nascent reputation as a performing arts destination.
“I watched the ‘Jerry’s Girls’ choreography session and had a great time seeing a variety of dancing styles and the singing is amazing,” says King.
He says the quality of the show is strong.
“This is what we needed here in Pompano, performing arts is really helping us build that core audience and create and establish our brand—as a destination,” he says. “Our theater residency is going way better than I had imagined actually,” he says.
According to King, the next six shows are already planned, which will be announced in early March.
IF YOU GO
WHAT :
“Jerry’s Girls”
WHEN:
Opens at 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 10. Performances 7 p.m. Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays; 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Through Sunday, Jan. 19.
WHERE:
Pompano Beach Cultural Center, 50 W Atlantic Blvd, Pompano Beach
TICKETS:
$45, $55 and $65
INFORMATION:
954-545-7800 and
Tickets
