{"id":1786,"date":"2012-08-09T22:42:11","date_gmt":"2012-08-09T22:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=1786"},"modified":"2012-08-09T22:42:11","modified_gmt":"2012-08-09T22:42:11","slug":"how-composer-marvin-hamlisch-strutted-his-soul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/how-composer-marvin-hamlisch-strutted-his-soul\/","title":{"rendered":"How Composer Marvin Hamlisch Strutted His Soul"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Marvin Hamlisch, back when<\/p><\/div>\n

EDITOR\u2019S NOTE: Twenty years ago, Woody Weingarten talked with composer Marvin Hamlisch, who just died at age 68. This is a slightly edited version of the tribute he filed shortly after that one-on-one interview.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Marvin Hamlisch dresses as if he\u2019s first in line for a sale on invisibility.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The composer\u2019s gray, gray suit looks like it had been pressed only minutes ago. His crisp pink tie attempts to disappear in the pale same-hue shirt on which it reclines. Although his black slip-ons are perfectly buffed, they somehow don\u2019t reflect the light.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Behind that CPA exterior, however, is a soul that struts like a peacock.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Marvin Hamlisch, who by the age of 31 had won three Oscars and a Pulitzer, talks at first like a mama\u2019s boy.<\/strong><\/p>\n

His eyes twinkle from behind rimless glasses and his thick lips curl into an industrial size grin when he describes Lilly.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI had two wonderful parents,\u201d he begins an interview in a San Francisco hotel suite, but when asked if he has a favorite anecdote, he draws laughter with a quick one-liner: \u201cMy mother was a Jewish anecdote.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cShe was the ultimate Jewish mother,\u201d he continues. \u201cWhen my father came home, she had a meal ready. Eat, eat, eat.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lilly and Marvin\u2019s father, Max, taught their boy prodigy to love his music and his Jewishness. Because both had fled Nazi terrorism in Europe, however, they suggested he downplay his heritage.<\/strong><\/p>\n

But Marvin Hamlisch advertises his ethnicity. Like Barbra Streisand, whom he\u2019s worked with, he has his original nose. Like Sandy Koufax, Hall of Famer who also balanced his background against his career, he won\u2019t work on Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hamlisch has a piano with 88 keys and a mind with 888 opinions. Ask him a simple question and his mouth starts a marathon.<\/strong><\/p>\n

On cultural lines, for instance: \u201cI feel ecumenical. I don\u2019t like thinking of things being Jewish, Moslem, whatever. A piano is a piano \u2014<\/strong> <\/strong>here, in China, in Tibet. Music is universal. I\u2019m writing for everybody.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Regarding his best-known creation, Chorus Line<\/em>, the composer says he particularly enjoys when someone refers to it as \u201cclassic Hamlisch.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

In most other instances, Marvin Hamlisch hates to look back. So the man whose career hit a low when his musical Jean<\/em> bombed in New York not long ago<\/span> has climbed a new rocket, one with dual exhaust.<\/strong><\/p>\n

First, he\u2019s peddling The Way I Was<\/em>, a 234-page autobiography from Scribners written with the aid of Gerald Gardner.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s unlikely to become a smash because there\u2019s no sex or violence, no kiss-and-tell sizzle.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI have no desire to talk about old girlfriends,\u201d Hamlisch says. \u201cWhy would I want to hurt my wife, to hurt myself, with that crap.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Besides, he comments, \u201cI hardly ever dated anybody. I had no high school sweethearts because I was working \u2014 zoom, off to here; whoosh, off to there.\u00a0 My mind was always on one thing: \u2018Get to Broadway.\u2019\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Writing a book is a learning experience, he says. \u201cIt\u2019s very cathartic. You let yourself off the hook for your mistakes.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hamlisch\u2019s other new venture is a $7 million show, a musical adaptation of Neil Simon\u2019s Goodbye Girl<\/em> for Broadway.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t had a musical-comedy<\/em> in a long time,\u201d he says, \u201cand we\u2019ve got comedy up the wazoo.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hamlisch worries, though, about the future of big-time theater. \u201cI pray that Broadway will be here a generation from now. Look how many are not<\/em> going to the theater. It\u2019s too expensive. It\u2019s becoming elitist entertainment. It costs $65 a person, plus dinner, plus parking \u2014 if<\/em> everything goes right, if<\/em> you get your car back, if<\/em> you don\u2019t get mugged.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s becoming tougher and tougher, too, to find backers for shows. \u201cRevivals are great for producers,\u201d he notes. \u201cThey can raise the $5- or $6 million in a second. But for a new show, you have to audition, you have to play music out of context for very rich people. It\u2019s a degrading way of working.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Once things get under way, however, everybody lightens up. \u201cI\u2019m a team player, part of a mosaic. I like it when the whole thing works,\u201d says Hamlisch, who contends that \u201ceverything I write is in pencil. I\u2019ll change anything \u2014until<\/em> we open.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>As for what he wants out of it all, it\u2019s not money, it\u2019s not fame. \u201cMy writing will give me, God willing, a legacy,\u201d he says.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EDITOR\u2019S NOTE: Twenty years ago, Woody Weingarten talked with composer Marvin Hamlisch, who just died at age 68. This is a slightly edited version of the tribute he filed shortly…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1786","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-woody-weingarten"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"