A Tribute to Broadway Composer : The Pacific Symphony and a few stage stars will perform hits from ‘Hello, Dolly!,’ ‘Mame’ and other Jerry Herman shows.

If not for his mom, Jerry Herman might have ended up composing floor plans for office buildings instead of blueprints for the American musical.

“An architect, that’s the direction I was heading in. That’s what I thought I wanted to be, so I was going to go to a design school. It was all planned out,” said Herman, one of the leading figures on Broadway for three decades, the composer and lyricist for such musicals as “Hello, Dolly!,” “Mame” and “La Cage Aux Folles.”

“But I was one those lucky people who had a mother who thought she had a talented son. I used to write these little songs when I was young, from about 13 on, and she loved them. She decided I had to show them to someone who knew what (songwriting) was all about.”

At his mother’s insistence, Herman, 18 at the time, trudged to “a friend of a friend of a friend” to show him his small sheaf of compositions. That man was Frank Loesser, one of Broadway’s most heralded composers, who wrote the songs for “Guys and Dolls” and “The Most Happy Fella,” among others.

Loesser listened and then came to the point: He told Herman to put his faith in music.

“Needless to say, I went home that night sky-high,” Herman, now 59, recalled. “It was like a door opening; it really started everything moving in my life. Up to that point, music was just fun for me. From then on, I began to see that I could make a living of it.”

The New York native went on to become such a staple of Broadway (the word legend figures prominently in most articles about him) that tributes seem to follow Herman around these days.

The latest arrives at the Orange County Performing Arts Center tonight and Saturday night in the form of “Jerry Herman’s Broadway,” which has the Pacific Symphony and a few stage stars (including Tony Award-winning actor George Hearn and Paige O’Hara, the voice of Belle in Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast”) performing hits from “Hello, Dolly!,” “Mame,” “Milk and Honey” and “La Cage,” among others. Herman himself will appear for a show-closing rendition of “The Best of Times” from “La Cage.”

Speaking by telephone from New York City, Herman recalled how Loesser’s encouragement set in motion his first musical, the off-Broadway production of “Nightcap.” It was the late 1950s, the show starred Charles Nelson Reilly early in his own career, and Herman played most of the numbers on a piano. “Nightcap” ran for two years and put Herman at the on-ramp to the fast lane.

“The important people, those with the connections and money, became aware that there was this kid downtown who wrote hummable songs,” Herman remembered. “It wasn’t too long before I finally made it to Broadway with ‘Milk and Honey.’ ”

When that show opened in 1961, Herman became Broadway’s youngest composer-lyricist. It went on to be nominated for both a Tony and a Grammy.

But the best times came with his next musical, “Hello, Dolly!,” based on Thornton Wilder’s play “The Matchmaker.” With Carol Channing in the lead role of bumptious matchmaker Dolly Levi, the 1964 show became his biggest hit. It’s one of the most, if not the most, frequently produced musicals in America, where it has become a standard for community and dinner theaters, including many in Orange County.

Herman has a special affection for “Hello, Dolly!,” but the musical he may be most proud of is “La Cage.” First produced in 1983, the popular show about two gay men and their love for each other went on to surprise everybody, including Herman.

“ ‘Dolly’ is the show I’m most identified with, because it swept the country, but ‘La Cage’ is probably the most amazing. I was really surprised because I originally thought the subject matter was so limited (and that) it wouldn’t play as well outside of big cities like New York and Los Angeles.

“But it has been everywhere, from Europe to dinner theaters in Omaha. I think that’s because the human values in it are so identifiable, people realize it’s really about family values.”

“La Cage” is also significant to Herman because it reversed a downturn in his career that came after the success of “Mame.” His next three musicals (“Dear World” in 1969, “Mack and Mabel” in ’74 and “Grand Tour” in ‘79) were all commercial failures. But “La Cage” went on to break attendance records at New York’s Palace Theatre and won several awards, including the Tony for best score.

Herman is philosophical about the fickleness of Broadway and looks at his misses with a sort of amusement, trying not to take the past too seriously. He is worried about one thing, though, and that’s the future of Broadway.

Several factors have contributed to its decline, but the main problem is escalating production costs, Herman said. He pointed out that “Milk and Honey” only cost $300,000 to mount, while musicals these days routinely go for as much as $8 million.

“It’s discouraging how shaky Broadway is,” he said. “Still, I don’t think it’s the end. What will happen is that there will be less originality and (new musicals) and more revivals of old favorites, which is what’s going on right now.

“When I’m feeling really optimistic, I think it’s all cyclical and that things will turn around and get back to what they were. That could happen, I guess.”

“Jerry Herman’s Broadway,” a tribute to composer/lyricist Jerry Herman, plays tonight and Saturday at 8 p.m. at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. Tickets: $16 to $47. Information: (714) 740-2000 or (213) 480-3232.