Marvin Hamlisch — Page 2

I have seen him conduct the NSO on multiple occassions, usually on their "Broadway nights"- which sometime include feature soloists, like Kristin, Linda Eder, or Christiane Noll. I would always get extremely irritated because though the shows were advertised as "Broadway", they would invariably include more than one Hollywood movie medley- usually a lengthy one. He came across as being incredibly self-promoting and absorbed in his "between songs banter"- but I do enjoy the NSO broadway series- if only it were about the orchestra and featured soloists, and not him.

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In a recent column Ken Manndelbaum (Broadway.com) suggests that 'Song' is right for revival. One of the best things about the show was the Douglas Schmidt set,revolve, sliding panels and projections. If it was revived I'd like to set an upgrade of his original set.

When I first heard of a musical version of The Goodbye Girl I thought what a great idea. Then when it proved not to be a success I couldn't help thinking 'What went wrong?'. In his autobiography Neil Simon says the problem with The Goodbye Girl is there is no room to 'open' the show up (for other characters).
When the show was done in London they took the They're Playing Our Song approach and had a small chorus of eight.It still didn't work.

It's nice to hear first hand experience with him.

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I really like Marvin Hamlisch's music. A few things occurred to me whilst reading some of the posts in this thread:

1. How many people even know of the Hamlisch/Adler musical "Jean Seberg" that was staged at the Royal National Theatre in London back in the 1980s and then disappeared into obsucity. It had clear flaws but it also had some wonderful songs.

2. Likewise, how many people in the US know about the rewritten West End version of The Goodbye Girl, which included a number of really good songs ny Hamlisch and Don Black, including "The Future's Not What It Used To Be", which replaced "I Can Play This Part".

3. I agree with the point made that A Chorus Line should not be referred to merely as a Michael Bennett show. But it should not be referrred to merely as a Marvin Hamlisch show either. It should be a Marvin Hamlisch/Edward Kleban show - paying due respect to the highly underrated and quite brilliant lyricist, Ed Kleban.

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