It’s me and Marvin Hamlisch!
He was at the Shubert theater back in the ’90s for one of his patter-filled “Evening With…” piano concerts in which he discusses his long and varied career. At the after-party in the Shubert mezzanine, I was briefly invited to shake Hamlisch’s hand, during which I uttered incredulously, “I’m just awestruck to meet someone who accompanied Groucho Marx.”
Hamlisch was the pianist for Groucho’s concerts in Ames, Iowa and at New York’s Carnegie Hall. The shows were recorded and released as the An Evening With Groucho album.
Marvin Hamlisch grinned ear to ear at my admission, and proceeded to regale me with anecdote after anecdote about his time with Groucho. He had to be dragged away by Shubert administrators to do the obligatory handshakes with the bank presidents and others who’d co-sponsored his concert. As soon as he’d acknowledged the bigwigs, he’d spin back ’round to me and continue, “…and then Groucho said to me..”
I’ve since seen Hamlisch play outdoors with the New Haven Symphony orchestra. I’ve seen him conduct Pops concerts. I saw one of the final performances of the musical version of Sweet Smell of Success on which he collaborated with John Guare. I saw a wild low-rent tour of Hamlisch’s underrated musicalization of Goodbye Girl, which starred Eddie Mekka (Carmine from Laverne & Shirley).
I just found a paperback copy of Rex Reed’s 1977 essay collection Valentines & Vitriol for free at New Haven Reads, and was enjoying the Hamlisch profile, in which the composer is justifiably defensive about how some of his most famous stage and movie scores were perceived. He says that with A Chorus Line he deliberately downplayed some tunes he could have easily turned into showstopping hits so that the ensemble-build show could build dramatically in a more democratic manner. He’s also aggrieved by suggestions that he simply ripped off Scott Joplin for his Oscar-winning The Sting score, noting that he’d always given Joplin full credit for the tunes, that Hamlisch didn’t take “arranger” royalties which he easily could’ve, and that it’s the arranger, not necessarily the original composer, of movie soundtracks that gets nominated for Oscars.
Marvin Hamlisch deserves a lot more attention and respect for what he’s contributed to theater and film history. Starting with that he’s real nice to Groucho fans.