Press release: I Am What I Am

25 April 2025

Newly released documents related to the creation of Broadway classic La Cage aux Folles to illuminate Gresham College lecture on LGBT+ Showstopper ‘I Am What I Am’ 

Professor Dominic Broomfield-McHugh to give free public lecture as part of Gresham College’s Showstoppers series 

Songwriter Jerry Herman's handwritten lyrics and pages from director Arthur Laurents's datebooks will be seen by the public for the first time in a public lecture given by Dominic Broomfield-McHugh, Visiting Professor of Film and Theatre Music at London's historic Gresham College. 

Best known for writing the smash hit Hello, Dolly!, Herman was also the composer and lyricist of the iconic gay musical La Cage aux Folles.  

His papers, which include handwritten lyrics to La Cage aux Folles, have been left to the Library of Congress in Washington DC and arrived earlier in March 2025.  

Broomfield-McHugh, who is also a Professor of Musicology at the University of Sheffield and the co-editor of the forthcoming book The Letters of Frank Loesser due from Yale University Press in July, has been given permission to use the documents in his lecture.  

“These remarkable documents show the creation of a groundbreaking musical with a unique relationship to gay culture,” he said.  

“In particular, Herman's handwritten lyrics to ‘I Am What I Am' reveal the incredible speed at which he produced one of the biggest gay anthems of all time, one that has uniquely defined the community.” 

The lecture will also include images from the datebooks of Arthur Laurents, legendary author of the West Side Story book and director of La Cage au Folles.  

Broomfield-McHugh explained: “Laurents’s diaries show the nail-biting process of bringing a hit musical to the stage.  

“His entry for the first preview of the show in Boston is marked ‘cancelled" and ‘scenic disaster’, a visceral expression of the frustration when the very first performance couldn't go ahead. Ticket sales were low, and the production was financially fragile.  

“Two days later, the entry reads: ‘Sensational hysteria’ followed by ‘Standing ovations at the end of both acts’. 

“I'm so grateful to the estates of Herman and Laurents for allowing me to share these windows into the creation of a musical that remains important to LGBT+ representation on the musical stage.” 

Jerry Herman is one of Broadway's most successful songwriters, penning hits for musicals such as Hello, Dolly! and Mame, as well as La Cage aux Folles which features I Am What I Am.  

He holds the distinction for knocking The Beatles off the top of the Billboard charts back in 1964: after 14 weeks, I Want To Hold Your Hand gave way to Louis Armstrong's rendition of Hello, Dolly! 

Over his career, Herman won two Grammys, and three Tony awards – one of which was for La Cage aux Folles. 

He was diagnosed with HIV in 1985, and thanks to experimental drug therapies he was 88 when he died in 2019.   

Arthur Laurents was a playwright, theatre director, film producer and screenwriter from New York who wrote hit films and musicals, including Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope, the musical Gypsy, and the 1977 film The Turning Point for which he won two Oscars. 

He died in 2011, at the age of 93.   

Gresham College is London’s oldest higher education institution.  Founded in 1597 under the will of Sir Thomas Gresham, Gresham College has been delivering free public lectures for over 427 years from a lineage of leading professors and experts in their field who have included Christopher Wren, Robert Hooke, Iannis Xenakis and Sir Roger Penrose.  

The lectures will be given at Conway Hall in Central London. 

Starting at 6pm, entry is free, and it is also broadcast live online. They last an hour.  

In-person places can be booked online via Gresham College’s website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/whats-on/lgbt-showstopper-i-am-what-i-am 

ENDS 

Pictures available on request 

Professor Dominic Broomfield-McHugh is happy to take part in radio and podcast interviews and will also give in-depth print interviews.

Images available on request

For more information about this story or to arrange an interview with a Gresham Professor please contact: Phil Creighton press@gresham.ac.uk   

Notes to Editors

About Gresham College  
Gresham College has been providing free, educational lectures - at the university level - since 1597 when Sir Thomas Gresham founded the college to bring Renaissance Learning to Londoners. Our history includes some of the luminaries of the scientific revolution including Robert Hooke and Sir Christopher Wren and connects us to the founding of the Royal Society.  

Today we carry on Sir Thomas's vision. The College aims to stimulate intellectual curiosity and to champion academic rigour, professional expertise and freedom of expression. www.gresham.ac.uk  

Gresham College is a registered charity number 1039962 and relies on donations to help us encourage people's love of learning for many years to come. For more details or to make a gift, visit our website.