Marvin Hamlisch

Dialogue with Tom Blair

A CHILD PRODIGY AT 5, Marvin Hamlisch has been writing, performing and making music for five decades. At 7, he was the youngest person ever accepted to the Juilliard School of Music. As a teen, he began writing his first popular songs. As a young adult, he accompanied and wrote for such future superstars as Barbra Streisand and Liza Minnelli. His film work includes musical scores for Save the Tiger, The Sting, The Spy Who Loved Me, Sophie’s Choice and Little Nikita; Broadway credits include A Chorus Line, They’re Playing Our Song and Smile. The recently appointed principal pops conductor for the San Diego Symphony, Hamlisch holds the same position with the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Buffalo Philharmonic and the National Symphony Orchestra.

TOM BLAIR: The symphony is banking on you to bring in new audiences. The goal, they say, is to have you “broaden and unite the symphony’s splintered pops audience.” Tall order. What do you have up your sleeve?

MARVIN HAMLISCH: What I hope I have up my sleeve is to just pick programming San Diegans will like. If you look at winter or summer pops, what we’re trying to do is bring together a lot of people, mostly families, for a varied type of programming. So, if you like Latin-American, we’ve got that; if you like ABBA, we’ve got that; if you like John Williams, we’ve got that. To me, everything that has to do with the symphony, no matter which part you’re involved with, it really comes down to programming: Are you programming something people want to hear?

TB: There was an experiment last year with some hard rock——“The Music of Led Zeppelin,” in particular——that generated noise complaints, not to mention artistic issues.

MH: I can understand that. Hard rock, per se, is not quite what an orchestra is supposed to do. My biggest complaint about what’s going on right now in music and the arts in America is that the kids of today—— and it’s not their fault——are not hearing the Cole Porters, the Gershwins, the Richard Rodgerses. When I was growing up, we had The Ed Sullivan Show, we had The Perry Como Show, we had all these TV shows that would feature a song from the show that had opened on Broadway the night before. Now the kids only get what they get from their iPod experience or the radio. To me, it’s up to the parents to either play it or bring their kids to the pops. If the parents bring the kids, I’ll take it from there. But I can’t go home-to-home and say, “Come here!” Two weeks ago, I did a concert at Carnegie Hall that was all about Richard Rodgers. And in the audience, there’s a boy who looks to be 9 or 10. When I see kids in the audience, I try to do a lot of talking back and forth. So I ask him, I’m kidding around, and I say, “Who forced you to come here? And he says, “My mom.” Later in the performance, this kid raises his hand, as if we’re in school, and he shouts out, “I can tell you why I’m here. I love music!”

TB: In 2004, San Diego Symphony ticket sales hit $1 million. This year’s goal is $1.7 million, up 70 percent in three years. Do you feel some pressure?

MH: Holy moley! I’m starting to feel like Alex Rodriguez. All I can tell you is that I’ll do my best. If we get to 70 percent, great. But the name of the game is to just get better and make these things go up. You know, when people buy a car, they have to kick the tires. Well, it’s time for audience members to start kicking the tires of pops and see what we do.

TB: Your pops gig isn’t your first connection with San Diego. I saw you perform maybe 15 years ago, in a one-man show at our California Center for the Performing Arts, Escondido, and you’ve returned many times. Do you feel some affinity for San Diego?

MH: I love San Diego. The people are very, very nice. I like that you fly into the airport and five minutes later you’re downtown shopping. I love the restaurants——a lot. And I think the orchestra’s excellent. We’re building; that’s what we have to do.

TB: You’ve come a long way from your first recording gig——a demo record for 14-year-old Liza Minnelli in a Scarsdale neighbor- hood garage. What was the first song you wrote that was professionally recorded?

MH: “Travelin’ Life,” which was actually recorded by Liza Minnelli. But my first hit was “Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows,” with Lesley Gore.

TB: And that was Top 10. What did it feel like to suddenly find yourself with a Top 10 hit?

MH: Well, it felt pretty good——for a while. You know how long it takes for a record to get into the top 10? You get on the chart, and it says 83 with a bullet; then, a week later, 62 with a bullet; then 43 with a bullet. Finally, it’s number 7. And you go, “Wow, we made it!” The problem is, two weeks later it’s off the chart. That’s the ultimate in “What the hell happened here?” It’s a bit like going to a movie and falling asleep. Then somebody wakes you and says, “Excuse me, you have to leave. The movie’s over.” And you go, “What did I miss?”

TB: Well, you made up for that later.

MH: Yes.

TB: My trivia search tells me that you were the first person to win three Academy Awards in the same evening——not that three Oscars is trivial. I’m sure you remember that night. What were the Oscars for?

MH: The first two were for The Way We Were, song and score. One was for the adaptation of The Sting. And I want you to know, the first thing I did was, with my three Oscars under my arm——which are heavy, by the way——I went to Baskin-Robbins. That was my first celebration of the night. Because getting to the official Oscar party is a big deal. And you should make an entrance, so you should be late.

TB: You’re also one of a very few who’ve won all four top U.S. entertainment awards ——the Oscar, the Emmy, the Tony and Grammy. Of all your awards, does one mean most to you?

MH: I’m most proud of the Tony for A Chorus Line, because the people who worked on that were trying to do something unique, new and different. And I think we really succeeded.

TB: Well, then it won a Pulitzer Prize for its music, and that’s got to feel good.

MH: I tell you, prizes feel good. But to be really honest, they’re in the past. So although I’m thrilled and honored about them, my life is always about trying to move forward. If you came to my New York apartment——once you got through the turnstile, you know . . . That was a joke.

TB: Got it.

MH: All the awards are behind me, literally and figuratively. In my home office, I’m not looking at any awards. They’re put behind me, so I can look ahead and hope there are new vistas to conquer and new things to do. That’s the way I feel about San Diego. Yes, I know they’re counting on me. And I’m counting on the audience. The terrible truth about all these things is, if it all works out——as it has in Washington and Pittsburgh—— I’ll be thrilled, the orchestra will be thrilled, everybody will be happy. And if it doesn’t work out, I can honestly say I gave it my best shot and for some reason the chemistry didn’t work.

TB: And then, of course, there’s always something else.

MH: Exactly. And that’s what you do.

TB: You’ve written so many major film scores along the way——among them, two for early Woody Allen pictures, Take the Money and Run and Bananas. His films are almost always very personal. He’s also a musician. Did he have a hand in the music for those films?

MH: He didn’t, really. Although when you’re working on a film, you talk to the director and you ask him what he’s expecting, or what he likes, or what he thinks. But basically, those were his first two films, and he wasn’t anywhere as top seed as he’s become in the past 10 or 15 years. It was the early Woody Allen, where it was very funny but chaotic-funny, you know?

TB: You have another San Diego connection. Five years ago, you collaborated with director Jack O’Brien on Imaginary Friends, which premiered at the Old Globe here, then went to Broadway. Your music was praised by critics; the play itself didn’t do very well. Was that a major disappointment?

MH: I think Jack O’Brien is one of the greats. And he’s proving it constantly in New York. And the Old Globe is one of the things I love about San Diego. Where you can really try something out, away from the glare of New York. So the experience was wonderful.

TB: Among the pops programs this summer is one based on your own music. Can you even roughly estimate how many songs and scores you’ve written over the past 45 years?

MH: Well, I’ve done 40 scores, no question about that. As far as songs, God only knows. What we’re doing for the pops is a show called “Marvin at the Movies.” So I’ll be doing some of my own music, like “The Way We Were” and “Ice Castles.” But I’ll also be doing songs other people wrote for the movies.

TB: Is there anything you haven’t done in music that you wish you’d done, or still hope to do?

MH: I’d just like to keep doing it. I’d like to have one more Broadway show before I hang it up.

TB: Anything in the works?

MH: It’s taken forever, but I think I’m closing in on it. So hopefully next year at this time I can talk about it.

TB: Hopefully, I can see it.

MH: I hope so, too.

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