Hamlisch leads the NSO in music from A Chorus Line, The Swimmer, The Sting, Sophie’s Choice, The Way We Were, and more!

Marvin Hamlisch leads the NSO in music from A Chorus Line, The Swimmer, The Sting, Sophie’s Choice, The Way We Were, and more!

Nothing ages better than a stripper. At least in the case of Gypsy, Jule Styne’s beloved musical of vaudeville, burlesque and Gypsy Rose Lee. On May 21, 2009 Gypsy turned 50, and like our own Marvin Hamlisch’s A Chorus Line, it remains one of the great behind-the-scenes fables of the American Theater.

Actually, tonight’s concert plays like a musical version of another great backstage story— a musical autobiography of Marvin himself (can Hamlisch! The Musical be far behind?). The magical toe-in-the-door moment that changed Marvin’s life was a call to fill in at the last moment as a rehearsal pianist for Barbra Streisand in 1964. The show was another Jule Styne hit: Funny Girl. From there he was asked to write the score for his first film, The Swimmer, after a chance meeting with producer Sam Spiegel. Listening to the score it is hard to imagine a 24-year-old newcomer penning this edgy, innovative, and surreal sound track. But for Marvin, that was only the opening act. Liza Minelli, a pal from high school, who recorded his “Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows” as part of her debut album, took him home to play the song for her mother. “I almost died,” said Marvin on meeting the legendary Judy Garland for the first time.

More films followed, with Woody Allen (Take the Money and Run, Bananas, and Save the Tiger), Walter Matthau (Kotch), and others.

Then came A Chorus Line, which remains, along with Gypsy, one of the most moving and iconic musical fables of life in the theater. And like Baby June, Mama Rose, Zach, Paul, and Cassie, we are all part of the story. Each of us owns the lyrics of “What I Did For Love” as well as “Wherever We Go” or “Some People.”

But Marvin’s brilliance is not just the ease with which he can cross genres, but also his ability to embrace so many styles from so many different eras. This is the man who re-invented ragtime with his adaptations of Scott Joplin for The Sting; who re-conceived the soul (and soles) of a dancer in A Chorus Line, and who re-defined the wistful ballad of lost love with The Way We Were. Marvin can make you want to play the piano, tap your toes, or burst into tears with nary a word spoken. In Sophie’s Choice, his two lovers at a piano, playing Schumann that whimsically becomes “Way Down Upon the Swanee River,” can make us smile and can break our hearts.

So relish this night—rich in everything much that makes music and stories told at night so essential to our lives. We are all made complete by experiencing and seeing ourselves in those around us. And while we would like to imagine being one of those hopeful young unknowns who dream that one day they’ll break into the big time, it is sometimes fun as well to just be a gypsy and have a “real good time”—and who better to help you than that most versatile of entertainers— American music’s own singular sensation.

NSO @ Wolf Trap Festival Conductor Emil de Cou