Guest Composer Arranges Delightful Evening Of Song

Spokane Symphony SuperPops with Marvin Hamlisch Saturday, Nov. 8, Spokane Opera House

Marvin Hamlisch wrote two songs before our eyes - or is that before our ears? - at his warm and enjoyable SuperPops concert Saturday night at the Opera House.

Hamlisch, the Oscar-Tony-Emmy-winning composer, asked the audience to call out a song title.

The first one was “A Little Drop of Kindness.” To plenty of laughter, Hamlisch sat down at his Steinway and turned it into a full-length story of a man in love with woman, who finally deigns to give him “a little drop of kindness.”

The second was “Thank a Veteran For Your Freedom,” a title called out by an audience member with Veterans Day on his mind. The drummer started a martial rat-a-tat, and Hamlisch launched into a patriotic number that crescendoed into a regular George M. Cohan flag waver.

Hamlisch knows how to have fun at his concerts, but he also demonstrated his serious side as a musician (he is a Juilliard graduate, after all). Taking the baton, he conducted the somber, elegant and moving suite from his “Sophie’s Choice” score.

He also offered up a high-minded anthem to global understanding, “One Song,” with cliched lyrics but a powerful arrangement.

Most of the show was dedicated to Hamlisch’s gift for catchy, mainstream pop music.

On piano backed by the orchestra, Hamlisch played a beautiful arrangement of his Oscar-winning song “The Way We Were.” Later in the evening, he played a rousing overture to “A Chorus Line,” or at least “what the overture would have sounded like if ‘A Chorus Line’ had an overture.” The orchestra sounded spry and swinging.

Hamlisch also took plenty of time to pay tribute to his favorite composers.

He opened the show with a piano medley of his three all-time favorite songs, “Someone to Watch Over Me,” “Somewhere” from “West Side Story,” and “Send in the Clowns.” Later, he did a Gershwin tribute featuring a medley of tunes from “Porgy and Bess.”

Hamlisch, an easy and comfortable host, told the audience that when he was growing up, his mother wanted him to be Horowitz, but he wanted to be Richard Rodgers. He said his love of show tunes stemmed from long afternoons at the movie musicals, especially those of Gene Kelly.

With that, he launched into a Gene Kelly tribute, the highlight coming when percussionist Rick Westrick, holding a tap shoe in each hand and a tray in front of him, proceeded to pound out a jaunty imitation of a Gene Kelly tap solo.

Hamlisch also brought along singer Mark McVey, who appeared at SuperPops several years ago as part of Bravo Broadway. McVey sang Hamlisch’s hit theme from the “Ice Castles” and then, as an added treat, sang “Bring Him Home,” from “Les Miserables,” a show that Hamlisch said McVey “owned” on Broadway.

After a respectful standing ovation, Hamlisch returned to play a graceful version of Scott Joplin’s “Solace,” from Hamlisch’s soundtrack to “The Sting.”

Is there any better way to send a crowd home than with Scott Joplin?

, DataTimes