MARY ALICE WILLIAMS, guest anchor: Typically, on this program, we report stories about the problems of the world, and how people of religious faith respond to them.

Today, as 2002 draws to a close, a different kind of story -- about a man who calls himself spiritual, an unapologetic optimist who refuses to despair, in spite of the headlines -- and the fact that he is HIV positive. He is Jerry Herman, composer and lyricist.

Judy Valente visited him in Los Angeles.

JERRY HERMAN: My God, what a life it's been.

JUDY VALENTE: He has been called the Irving Berlin of our time. Jerry Herman, Broadway composer and lyricist, still enjoys the adulation of fans, forty years after his first hit musical.

Mr. HERMAN: "Milk and Honey" -- this beautiful purple poster -- was my first musical. I was really a kid.

VALENTE: He was only 29. But the best was yet to come. And it was to come very quickly.

Mr. HERMAN: David Merrick hired me to do the score for "Hello Dolly." And the rest is history.

VALENTE: In 1966, just two years after "Hello Dolly" became a major Broadway hit, there was "Mame," which would run for more than 1,500 performances. Herman has two Tony awards, two Grammys, and three gold records.

But then came a series of failures. Over the next ten years, he wrote three successive musicals that were flops. He says they were among the best work he's ever done.

In 1992, his longtime companion died of AIDS. Years earlier, Herman had been informed that he himself was HIV positive.

Mr. HERMAN: It was a time when my wonderful, wonderful, almost unbelievable life had come to a place where I knew it was going to change dramatically.

VALENTE: What followed was a period of introspection. Herman stopped writing songs. But he soon regained the positive outlook his music has always tried to communicate.

Jerry Herman says his music is a positive force. His songs were written for optimistic and irrepressible characters. But the songs also reflect his own deeply held beliefs.

Mr. HERMAN (singing): "You give that old mint julep a kick, Mame ..."

The characters I choose to write about are all optimistic, life-affirming people.

VALENTE: For example, the lead character in "Mame."

Mr. HERMAN (singing): Mame teaches her new protégé, her nephew Patrick, "Open a new window. Open a new door. Travel a new highway that's never been tried before, before ... "

I was brought up in a very typical middle-class Jewish home, where I went to temple with my parents on the High Holidays.

I am absolutely a spiritual person. And it is possible to be a spiritual person without being a religious person.

VALENTE: In fact, he drifted away from Judaism. Now, formal religion does not play an important role in his life. Nevertheless:

Mr. HERMAN: Being a good person is the most important thing to me -- being able to say on television, right now, that I have been a good person and I have never tried to hurt another human being.

VALENTE: These days Herman is on a personal mission. He has decided to use whatever time he has left to bring the uplifting message of his songs to a new generation, and to inspire in young people a love for musical theater.

Unidentified Student (in audience): What's the most frightening and horrifying experience that's ever happened to any of you in your careers?

VALENTE: As part of the Jerry Herman legacy project, he and a small group of veteran performers have been holding seminars at schools around the country -- this one in Orange County, California.

Mr. HERMAN: Suddenly a huge piece of scenery came crashing down on the stage -- almost killed a couple of dancers. This was opening night, mind you, with critics in the audience.