52 | NOVEMBER 14 • 2019 

‘Still Goin’ Strong’

Actress playing the ingenue role in Hello, Dolly! 
says iconic musical is still full of life.

SUZANNE CHESSLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER
L

aura Sky Herman has 
some priority interests 
in common with Jerry 
Herman, but shared family 
ties do not enter into that. 
Both share a love of the 
musical Hello, 
Dolly! — which 
has his music and 
lyrics, and has her 
taking the role 
of Ermangarde 
in a touring 
production 
being staged 
Nov. 19-Dec. 1 at the Fisher 
Theatre in Detroit.
Both have a commitment 
to visual arts, which he stud-
ied as an architecture student 
and kept as a hobby while 
advancing his musical theater 
projects. She studies as an art 
history major on leave from 
Harvard University.
Both can link to Woodward 
Avenue traffic, which inspired 
his Hello, Dolly! song “Before 
the Parade Passes By,” written 
as the original production was 
having its Detroit tryouts. And 
she will experience the traf-
fic when visiting the Detroit 
Institute of Arts for research 
on her senior thesis about 
American museums.
And both are Jewish, which 
motivated him to write the 
score for the Israel-based play 
Milk and Honey, and which 

she celebrated during her bat 
mitzvah at Miami’
s Temple 
Beth Ahm and is at the heart 
of her thinking the last name 
of the play’
s main character, 
Dolly Gallagher Levi, suggests 
Jewish ties.
“I love so much to be part of 
this amazing production, and 
it’
s an honor to be a namesake 
in this show,” says the actress, 
23, single and on her first 
national tour. 
“Hello, Dolly!, produced 
by Eric Falkenstein, is one of 
the most iconic musicals of 
all time — a quintessential 
manifestation of 
what a musical 
comedy is. It’
s so 
full of life and love 
and so opulent and 
luxurious that it’
s a 
dream to get to be 
in this show.”
Herman, who 
demonstrates sing-
ing and dancing 
talents through 
her ingénue role in 
the play about a matchmaker, 
performs “Put on Your Sunday 
Clothes” and “It Only Takes a 
Moment.” 
“When I’
m backstage watch-
ing the waiters doing their big 
walk because Dolly’
s back at 
the Harmonia Gardens, I can’
t 
help but cheer,” Herman says 
of the number spotlighting the 
show’
s title song.

Numbers she watched in 
a touring production of The 
Sound of Music activated her 
enduring career interest when 
she was 10.
“Right after the perfor-
mance, I looked over at my 
mom and said I wanted to do 
that,” Herman recalls. “I would 
circle local auditions in the 
newspaper, and I got to play 
Gretl in a local production of 
The Sound of Music. I studied 
classical ballet, took voice 
lessons and did shows at my 
school.”
Special studies outside of 
high school 
brought her to 
the University 
of Michigan, 
where she 
participated 
in the MPulse 
Summer 
Performing Arts 
Institutes. She 
recalls going to 
Detroit to watch 
stage produc-
tions and eating at Zingerman’
s.
Other scholarly programs 
took her to Texas State 
University for more musical 
theater training and the Royal 
Academy of Dramatic Art in 
the United Kingdom for coach-
ing in classical acting. 
During summers while 
enrolled at Harvard, she 
appeared in professional 

summer stock productions. 
Her favorite parts included 
Polly Baker in Crazy for You 
at the New London Barn 
Playhouse in New Hampshire 
and Vivian in Oklahoma at the 
North Shore Music Theatre in 
Massachusetts.
At Harvard, Herman was 
among those changing a long-
time theater tradition.
“Hasty Pudding Theatricals 
is America’
s oldest theater 
group,
” Herman explains. “For 
nearly 200 years, the cast has 
been all male. Half of the cast 
would dress in drag as women. 
“It was debated for many 
years if women should join the 
cast or whether Hasty Pudding 
would maintain its signature 
feature of cross-dressing.
“This past year, we’
ve finally 
been able to be cast as women. 
Six other girls and I got to be 
in a show. Some played male 
parts, and some 
played women. 
I played a male pirate, and it 
was such a joy. Hasty Pudding 
has helped me grow and pre-
pare for slapstick and over-the-
top musical comedy.
”
The Tony Award-winning 
revival of Hello, Dolly! has 
Herman working with famed 
director Jerry Zaks.
“Jerry was with us for 
rehearsals in New York, and we 
were still adding little jokes,
” 
Herman says. “The show is 
very much alive.” 

Laura Sky 
Herman 

JUILETA CERVANTES

The touring cast of Hello, Dolly! 
Laura Sky Herman is the young 
woman in the train car. 

details
Hello, Dolly! runs Nov. 
19-Dec. 1 at the Fisher 
Theatre in Detroit. 
Tickets start at $39. 
(313) 872-1000, ext.0. 
broadwayindetroit.com.

Arts&Life

theater

