Marvin Hamlisch

• Born: June 2, 1944
• Birthplace: New York, New York
• Died: August 7, 2012
• Place of death: Los Angeles, California

American musical-theater songwriter and lyricist and film-score composer

Hamlisch’s compositions for film and musical theater have influenced a new generation of composers in creating dramatically important songs. His work on A Chorus Line ushered in the concept, or frame story, musical.

The Life

Marvin Frederick Hamlisch (HAM-lihsh) was born in 1944 to immigrant Viennese Jewish parents, Max and Lily Schachter Hamlisch, in New York City. His father, an accordionist and bandleader, wanted him to study classical music. A child prodigy, Hamlisch began playing the piano at age five, and by age seven he was accepted into the pre-college division of Juilliard, where he studied for fourteen years. Lured by the excitement of the theater and popular music, however, Hamlisch pursued a career in the entertainment industry. He began working as a rehearsal pianist and songwriter, and he graduated from Queens College with a bachelor of arts in music in 1968. He collaborated with his longtime girlfriend, lyricist Carole Bayer Sager, on many works, but when their relationship ended, he entered a period of introspection in which he recognized the emptiness of his life. In 1989 he married independent television producer Terre Blair, whom he credits with changing his life and his priorities in a positive direction. Hamlisch died at the age of sixty-eight in Los Angeles though he maintained a home with Blair in their hometown, New York City. In the years preceding his death, Hamlisch was an advocate for the performing arts, visiting schools to encourage children to pursue education in drama, music, and dance. His final musical score was for the musical of The Nutty Professor(2012), based on the 1963 Jerry Lewis film The Nutty Professor.

The Music

Hamlisch began his career in show business as a rehearsal pianist for Funny Girl (1964), starring Barbra Streisand, but in 1965 he enjoyed his first big hit at the age of twenty-one with a song, “Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows,” sung by Lesley Gore. He went on to work as vocal arranger for television’s Bell Telephone Hour, and after graduating from college, he moved to Hollywood to work in films. He composed music for several motion pictures, but he made a name for himself by collaborating with Johnny Mercer on the sound track of Kotch (1971), for which he received his first Academy Award nomination. He continued to enjoy a successful career in film music, and later he created memorable shows for Broadway. He also composed a symphony, Anatomy of Peace. He served as arranger and musical director for Barbra Streisand’s concert tour and television special, and he guest-conducted pop concerts for American orchestras, being appointed to the post of pops conductor for the National Symphony in 2000. In 2007 he was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame.

The Sting and The Way We Were.Hamlisch made history in 1974 by winning three Academy Awards in one evening for the motion pictures The Sting and The Way We Were. These two films exhibit the extent of Hamlisch’s range as a composer. The score for The Sting contains instrumental adaptation(and, some argue, exploitation) of the early twentieth century piano rag music by Scott Joplin. The theme, “The Entertainer,” made number three on the Billboard Hot 100 music chart, and it brought modern attention to Joplin’s music. In contrast, Hamlisch’s romantic music and title song for the Streisand-Robert Redford film The Way We Were demonstrates his ability to write memorable songs with a pop sensibility. Although his critics diminish the artistry of his songwriting talent, his music has enjoyed great popular appeal. He has composed original scores for more than forty films, including Sophie’s Choice, Ordinary People, Ice Castles, and Bananas.

A Chorus Line.In 1975 director-choreographer Michael Bennett gathered a group of Broadway gypsies (the nickname given to dancers who move from one show to another), and he asked them to talk about their lives, their experiences, and why they became dancers. He gave the taped recordings of their answers to James Kirkwood and Nicholas Dante to write the book for a new musical, A Chorus Line. With Hamlisch as composer and Edward Kleban as lyricist, the resulting show was the longest-running musical in Broadway history (until Cats surpassed it in 1997), and it was nominated for twelve Tony Awards, winning nine. It also received the 1976 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the London Evening Standard’s Best Musical award, and five L.A. Drama Critics’ Awards.

Two aspects of A Chorus Line made it outstanding: its format and its theme. A Chorus Line was a landmark, a groundbreaking concept, or frame story, musical. Stephen Sondheim’s Company (1970) opened the door, but A Chorus Line brought the form to fruition. The concept musical presents a series of scenes, or episodes, centered around a theme. Although this is a common type of plot for plays (called episodic), it had not been used successfully in musicals. For A Chorus Line, the theme is individuality versus group conformity, explored through, ironically, the dancers who present, in their anonymity, the great chorus numbers of musical theater. The fact that the audience gets to know and care about each dancer as an individual greatly contrasts with the final glitzy number, “One,” in which the dancers become anonymous automatons, dressed alike and moving in unison. Hamlisch and Kleban’s songs received both praise and criticism for their role in moving the drama along and in creating a miniature biography for each character. A Chorus Line’s most popular song, “What I Did for Love,” has been sharply criticized for not belonging in the show, and even Hamlisch concedes it does not fit as well as the other songs. Critic Joseph Swain commented that the song does not fit the musical’s form or premise, explaining that the show is not about dancing but about people who happen to be dancers.

Musical Legacy

Although he has suffered some show-business failures, Hamlisch was one of only two people (the other being Richard Rodgers) who has won all four major entertainment awards (Academy, Grammy, Emmy, and Tony) as well as the Pulitzer Prize. Hamlisch’s work has earned him three Academy Awards, four Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Tony Award, three Golden Globes, and numerous other awards, including the Pulitzer Prize. In 2006 the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) awarded him the Richard Rodgers Award for lifetime achievement in musical theater.

Principal Works

film scores:The Swimmer, 1968; Take the Money and Run, 1969; Bananas, 1971; The Way We Were, 1973; The Spy Who Loved Me, 1977; Ice Castles, 1978; Starting Over, 1979; Ordinary People, 1980; Pennies from Heaven, 1981; Sophie’s Choice, 1982; D.A.R.Y.L., 1985; Three Men and a Baby, 1987; Little Nikita, 1988; Frankie and Johnny, 1991; The Mirror Has Two Faces, 1996.

musical theater (music): A Chorus Line, 1975 (lyrics by Edward Kleban; libretto by James Kirkwood and Nicholas Dante); They’re Playing Our Song, 1979 (lyrics by Carole Bayer Sager; libretto by Neil Simon); Smile, 1986 (lyrics and libretto by Howard Ashman); The Goodbye Girl, 1993 (lyrics by David Zippel; libretto by Neil Simon); Imaginary Friends, 2002 (lyrics by Carnelia; libretto by Nora Ephron); Sweet Smell of Success, 2002 (lyrics by Craig Carnelis; libretto by John Guare); Nutty Professor, 2012 (lyrics by Rupert Holmes).

Bibliography

Hamlisch, Marvin, and Gerald C. Gardner. The Way I Was. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992. Hamlisch’s autobiography details his career and includes humorous anecdotes about his work and experiences.

Hoerburger, Rob. "Marvin Hamlisch, Whose Notes Struck Gold, Dies at 68." The New York Times, 7 Aug. 2012, www.nytimes.com/2012/08/08/arts/music/marvin-hamlisch-composer-dies-at-68.html. Accessed 2 Jan. 2018.

Laufe, Abe. Broadway’s Greatest Musicals. Rev. ed. New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1977. An indispensable survey of musical theater from its beginnings through most of the 1970’s. The appendix outlines the authors, producers, casts, and songs for long-running musicals.

Mordden, Ethan. The Happiest Corpse I’ve Ever Seen. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2004. Mordden traces the development of the American musical from 1978 to 2003, and he covers Hamlisch’s work in musical theater beyond A Chorus Line.

Swain, Joseph. “Frame Story as Musical.” In The Broadway Musical: A Critical and Musical Survey. 2d ed. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2002. Swain’s award-winning book examines musical drama in terms of how plot, character, and conflict are developed through the music.

Viagas, Robert, Baayork Lee, and Thommie Walsh. On the Line: The Creation of “A Chorus Line.” New York: William Morrow, 1990. Written by three of the original cast members, this book is a memoir of their personal experiences in creating the landmark musical A Chorus Line.