I’M PLAYING YOUR SONG – THE MARTIN HAMLISCH STORY. Written by Jonathan Roxmouth and Alan Swerdlow. Music Marvin Hamlisch, with Jonathan Roxmouth and Sharon Spiegel-Wagner. Sound design by Mark Malherbe. At Theatre on the Bay until February 6 TRACEY SAUNDERS reviews
ANY doubt about the profound impact of music and the people that create it was assuaged earlier this month when across the world people expressed their grief following the death of David Bowie. Countless anecdotes of the effect that he and his music had on people’s lives were shared.
While Hamlisch is definitely not David Bowie, whether you know it or not he has had some effect on your life in the past 40 years if you thrilled to the soundtracks of The Sting, Three Men and a Baby, or Take the Money and Run, fell in love to Streisand singing The Way We Were, or were wooed with Nobody does it Better from The Spy who Loved Me, you have experienced the immense talent of this prolific composer.
His career was acknowledged by several institutions and not only did he garner awards he made history doing so.
He is one of only 12 people to have been awarded an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony and only one of two to have won all four and a Pulitzer, which he received in 1975 for The Chorus Line. In 1973 he became the second person to win three Oscar Awards in one night.
Roxmouth and Swerdlow share not only the vast musical talent of his professional career, but also the personal essence of the man. Doing justice to his vast repertoire is a nigh impossible task, but they have succeeded in highlighting the wide variety of genres, from beautiful ballads to bold orchestral numbers.
A canny scene where the audience is privy to the inner dialogue of the composer’s mind as he conducts a performance of Rent-a-composer, lends credence to the “manic loquaciousness” which Marty Heiter ascribed to him in the New York Times.
Hamlisch, in an interview with her at the age of 49 in 1993 said, “As I get older, I’m slowing down and, yes, calming down in my desire to be taken seriously. That I can be entertaining and funny and (have a) high nervous energy can work against me as a serious composer.” The serious side emerged ,but not at the expense of his vibrant and energetic scores.
Each facet of his personalty is evident during the performance as Roxmouth plays a very believable American Jewish mensch with a distinctive accent.
Impressive as it is, the show is about more than the music. The many women who played a pivotal role in the composer’s life are the focus of this production and Swerdlow and Roxmouth explore his encounters with many of them, professionally and personally.
All the women in his life are played by Spiegel-Wagner and she shares the full range of her formidable vocal talents while she changes costumes more frequently than the Cape weather.
She has paid careful attention to detail with each of them from the nervous arranging of her hair that is so characteristic of Streisand’s public performances to the languid insouciance of Cher.
Because she spends such a brief time in each role she isn’t allowed to develop anyone to it’s full potential with the exception of Hamlisch’s mother.
The frequency of her appearances and the authenticity of her dialogue makes her the most memorable woman of the evening.
His mother encouraged him with all the passion of a woman denied her own dreams, and gave him the very sage advice to “make elbows,” in order to create a space for himself in the highly competitive environment of The Julliard School of Music.
She sustained him with more than a constant supply of tuna fish sandwiches and her profound influence on his life is woven through the narrative as surely as any underscore.
Another pivotal relationship with Carole Bayer Sager resulted in some memorable collaborations including the musical They’re playing our Song.
Sadly their personal relationship did not enjoy the longevity of the successful musical which had an opening run of 1082 performances after it’s première on Broadway in 1979.
Arguably his most memorable musical, A Chorus Line, enjoyed a 15 year run on Broadway and only relinquished the title of longest-running Broadway show when it was eventually surpassed by Cats in 1997. I can do It and The Music and The Mirror are included in the playlist, as well as the haunting I cannot hear the city from The Sweet Smell of Success. Fortunately the focus of the songs is not limited to the successful musicals.
The ill-fated musical biography, Jean Seberg first performed at the National Theatre in London in 1983 was described as “a very big musical for someone who seems to have been a very small girl”.
It did include Dreamers, which contained the memorable lines, “And maybe we dream to change the way that we feel, because to dreamers the real world can be unreal”, which became something of a motif for the musician’s life.
The orchestration of the songs is impeccable and the sound design ensures that the big, bold sound of Broadway show tunes is replicated. While the additional instruments are impressive it is in the intense stillness of the theme from Sophie’s Choice that Roxmouth’s talent is most evident.
With only the piano keyboard he wrings every ounce of emotion out of the heartbreakingly beautiful score, which captures the pain of every choice a mother ever makes. Possibly one of the most memorable movie scores ever written it’s inclusion was an inspired decision.
The video projections are distracting at times and rather than enhance the visual quality of the show they detract from the scenes on stage.
It may be as a result of the uneven surface which really works best with more abstract visuals.
Nothing can detract from the sheer musical delight that Roxmouth exhibits though, and he and Spiegel-Wagner create some truly magical moments on the stage.
You will leave the theatre to the resounding finalé from The Chorus Line with the sense of having experienced A Singular Sensation and a deep sense of appreciation for the life of the man and the dreamer who created music that outlasts any final curtain.
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