|
Marvin
Hamlisch
Hosts
'My
Name
Is
Barbra'
on
PBS |
December
4,
2005
Marvvin
Hamlisch
and
PBS
Anchors
Midge
Woolsey
and
Tom
Stewart
Anchor: He's won every major award: three Oscars, four Grammys, four Emmys,
one Tony and three Golden Globe awards. His ground breaking show, A Chorus
Line received the Pulitzer Prize. And on top of that, he personally knows
Barbra Streisand.
Marvin Hamlisch: Isn't that something?
Anchor: Please welcome composer, Marvin Hamlisch.
Marvin: Well, I not only know her, but when we first met, I was the
rehearsal pianist on the original show Funny Girl. I was playing the piano,
mostly for the dancers and singers. In walks this fantastic star that we all
knew about. She was already a star. She was not as big a star as she was about
to become with Funny Girl. But there she was in that voice, and it's just been
better and better. And then, what always happens with me is, I met her, and then
many years go by. Then we meet again on The Way We Were. Then many years go by.
Then we meet again on her concert tour.
Anchor: Marvin, a lot of people think that she has a reputation of being
perhaps sort of difficult to work with, and you say that's just not so.
Marvin: You know what it is? I feel it's like, when you think about
NASA and the shot going to the moon, right? You want everybody on that team to
give 120%, right? Because, if somebody doesn't, the thing's not going to get
there. Well, what you have with Barbra: you have the vehicle to get you to the
stars and the moon. Now, the people around her have got to give the same like
she does, which is that 120%, because she wants to get it really perfect, or as
near perfect as possible. Remember, she's used to getting it perfect for the
screen. She's used to making as many takes as she wants for a record, right? So,
when you're going to do something live, you're only going to get one shot at it,
and that's the beauty of it. I think she brought out the best in everyone that
works for her.
Anchor: Well, it is obvious, even in 1965 when this program was first
aired; the incredible perfection and poise.
Marvin: The perfection, the poise, and also the daring. The idea of,
we're going to try something different, and we're going to succeed at
it. I can imagine the people who were pitched this idea probably said, "Are
you kidding? Alone? You're going to do all this?" Turns out, yeah.
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Anchor: As we learned in the last intermission, he was the rehearsal
pianist for Funny Girl. He wrote Barbra Streisand's Oscar winning song, The
Way We Were, and most recently he was musical director of her 1994 concert tour
and her millennium concerts. Please welcome, once again, composer
extraordinaire, Marvin Hamlisch.
Marvin: Right. And we wrote The Way We Were with the wonderful Bergmans who are dear friends of Barbra. Getting to be her conductor for the
tour was really exciting. The thing that was interesting was, she has a book
that's been compiled over the years of every song title that she's ever
recorded. You know, everything. It's cross referenced with the name of the
album, because I think there's over 40-something albums by now, am I right, 40,
45?
Anchor: That sounds right, yeah.
Marvin: Well anyway, she had all these titles. So when I came prepared
for the first meeting, I put down what I thought were the absolute "must haves"
in an act. Like, how can you do an act and not do People? How can you do an
act and not do The Way We Were and Happy Days Are Here Again. So I had my
list of what I called, "These Are The Ones You Gotta Do." Then you decide
what else you want to do depending on what the story is that you're trying to
tell. At the first meeting, and I can understand why she said this, she said,
"why do I have to do those other songs for? You know, People, I've done it
forever. I've done it forever. Who needs that?" And I understood what she was
saying, because in a strange way she was saying, "listen, the people have heard
me do this." The difference was, they haven't heard you do it live. They haven't
heard you do it with a 70-80 piece orchestra. So that's how it began. That's how
day 1 began. We had a great time, I must say. I must say we had a good time.
Anchor: And it turned it into a great show, I should say. I saw it and it
was really wonderful.
Marvin: I loved doing it in London particularly. She was always, in
great voice. We talked about the fact it's a God given gift, that voice.
Anchor: And she never warms up?
Marvin: Not that I know of.
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Anchor: And back with us, once again, award winning composer, conductor,
Marvin Hamlisch. It's wonderful to have you with us again.
Marvin: It's great to be here.
Anchor: Marvin, I know a lot of people out there watching are probably
wondering what it's like to have a song recorded by Barbra Streisand.
Marvin: Well, you know, you have to understand, in your mind you have
this idea of what the song is going to sound like once she goes into the studio.
So here we did The Way We Were. We go into the studio, she records it, and you
just feel like, Thank you, God. Thank you. I think this is one of the
best things that can happen to a composer, right? Here's the problem, though. So
it was 2 o'clock, I'll never forget it, 2 AM in California when we left the
studio. Now, who are you going to call at 2 AM? Well, you can't wake somebody in
LA. That would be a mistake. It's a little too early in New York, it's 5 AM. And
you've got it in your hand and you want to play it for someone. You know how
many friends I made in England that night? I started calling England. "Hello...
Hello... Just a second, you've got to listen to this." There's something so
thrilling about hearing it for the first time, because, you know what, it's
probably one of the few things in your life, that, whatever you imagined it to
be, it is better when she does it for real. In your brain, you think, "Oh it's
going to be this and this," and then she just finds a way to do it, and you go,
Wow!
Anchor: And takes it to a whole other level.
Marvin: And takes it to other level. Exactly. I think that's probably
what every composer always has wanted: to get a Sinatra recording, to get a
Streisand recording. That's something.
Anchor: You know, as I was watching her in the special sing Happy Days, I
thought, is she doing this live? Because she looked so unbelievably comfortable,
singing like it was effortless. I mean, is that the truth?
Marvin: This is a God given gift that she can just do it. She can do
it, and it's wondrous.
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