Tributes poured in from giants of the London stage, together with theatrical producer Cameron Waterproof coat, singer Elaine Paige and lyricist Tim Rice.
Herbert Kretzmer, the journalist and lyricist greatest recognized for his English-language adaptation of the musical Les Misérables, has died. He was 95.
His household confirmed on October 14 that Kretzmer died after a protracted sickness with Parkinson’s illness on the London house he shared along with his second spouse, Sybil Sever.
Tributes poured in from giants of the London stage, together with theatrical producer Cameron Waterproof coat, singer Elaine Paige and lyricist Tim Rice.
Les Misérables producer Waterproof coat mentioned Kretzmer was instrumental in bringing Victor Hugo’s basic story of defiance and redemption in early nineteenth century France to the stage in English in October 1985, 5 years after it had opened in Paris.
“His great phrases for Les Misérables will stay on in his reminiscence perpetually extra,” he mentioned in a press release.
For Paige, he was a masterful wordsmith whereas Rice described Kretzmer a fantastic lyricist and man of theatre and a large of his commerce. Kretzmer, often called Herbie to his associates, was born in Kroonstad, a small city south of Johannesburg, South Africa, in October 1925. He was one among 4 sons of Jewish-Lithuanian immigrants who ran a grocery store and later a affluent furnishings retailer.
“Although his childhood below the huge expanse of South African sky was blissful,” he wished by the age of 11 to develop into a newspaper man — so he might get nearer to his heroes on display.
From Johannesburg, he moved to Paris in 1953, taking part in the piano by evening in a bar in return for a meal. A 12 months later, he moved to London and fulfilled his dream of being on the coronary heart of the film motion, in an award-winning journalistic profession that included stints on the Each day Specific and Each day Mail.
His catalog of interviews reads like a Who’s Who? of twentieth century leisure, together with Muhammad Ali, Judy Garland, Groucho Marx, David Niven and Frank Sinatra. Some interviewees, like Peter Sellers and Terence Stamp, grew to become shut associates.
The music was by no means distant although. He wrote weekly songs within the Nineteen Sixties for That Was The Week That Was, the BBC’s ground-breaking satirical present that proved the launchpad for the careers of luminaries on the planet of tv over subsequent a long time, comparable to John Cleese and David Frost.
Some songs have been humorous, comparable to Goodness Gracious Me, others extra poignant, notably Within the Summer time of His Years, a tribute to President John F. Kennedy that was written hours after his assassination on Nov. 22, 1963.
There have been additional songs, together with She, which he wrote with French singer Charles Aznavour and which topped the U.Ok. Singles Charts for a month in 1974. He defined a long time later that it was a couple of British lady with whom he had lately damaged up following a year-long affair.
However the actually massive time by no means fairly got here. Till a younger British producer by the title of Cameron Waterproof coat invited Kretzmer to tea in June 1984 and his life modified.
Although the expanded English model of Les Misérables — it was by no means Les Mis for Kretzmer — had combined critiques firstly, it will quickly develop into one of many greatest successes of twentieth century theatre.
Have been it not for the coronavirus pandemic, it’d nonetheless be operating in London, testomony to the enduring reputation of the story in addition to the songs, comparable to “I Dreamed a Dream,” “One Day Extra and Do You Hear the Folks Sing? Add Immediately” to that record, the music he wrote for the 2012 blockbuster model that earned him on the age of 87 an Academy Award nomination.
Kretzmer has been appointed Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters in France and an Officer of the Order of British Empire.
