(Revised) OVERNIGHT REVIEW: Marvin Hamlisch and Pasadena Pops at the Rose Bowl

By Robert D. Thomas
Music Critic
Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily News
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Pasadena Pops; Marvin Hamlisch, conductor
“Marvin Does Broadway”
Saturday, August 6, 2011 • The Lawn Adjacent to the Rose Bowl
Next concert: August 27, 2011 • “Marvin Does Movies”
Info: www.pasadena-symphony.org
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There may have been more important ways to spend a Saturday night but few, if any, could have been more pleasurable than spending last night with Marvin Hamlisch, the Pasadena Pops and an array of soloists under balmy skies and a bright half-moon at The Lawn Adjacent to the Rose Bowl.

A good-sized crowd turned out (particularly impressive considering there was competition from the California Philharmonic’s Rodgers and Hammerstein program at the Arboretum and from the staged production of Hairspray at Hollywood Bowl) to hear Hamlisch and friends work their way through a couple of dozen selections from Broadway, the place where Hamlisch quipped “tickets cost $150 and parking is $900.”

That sort of witty, yet gentle repartee is part of what makes a Hamlisch concert go down so easily. His banter ranged from the downgrading of the nation’s credit rating from AAA to AA+ to joking with KABC weatherman Dallas Raines about the region’s relentlessly constantly good weather. Mid-show he dashed off a Victor Borge-like set of piano variations on Happy Birthday in the styles of Bach, Mozart and Beethoven.

More than anything, however, Hamlisch succeeds by connecting with all ages in the audience in part because his comments on the music are intelligent even when they’re brief. For example, he and the orchestra opened with two Rodgers and Hammerstein overtures, with Hamlisch explaining that the Oklahoma overture was the traditional, “Hey, come on in” collection of song that would appear in the show, while the Carousel Waltz was radically different because the music never reappears and the curtain is open at the beginning, not closed.

(I do, however, take issue with Hamlish’s contention that Porgy and Bess is a musical. I realize that director Diane Paulus is working on a new production of what she calls The Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, which is supposed to recast the work as a musical, but, in the words of Ira Gershwin, “It Ain’t Necessarily So” — i.e., it’s an opera).

One of things that make Hamlisch’s programs succeed is that they are really a series of short works that he ties together artfully to make a winning package (in the descriptive phrase of the former Pops music director, Rachael Worby, programming for the iPod mentality). About the only thing he didn’t do correctly was to identify all the shows from whence the music came (although there was a list of the shows in the program).

In addition to his commentary, Hamlisch conducted decently, if not with great flair (he does seem to bury his head in the score quite a bit), played the piano (sometimes doing both at the same time), and even sang a duet with Cady Huffman for one his own tunes, They’re Playing Our Song, which Huffman informed people was the show with which she made her professional debut at the La Mirada Theater. Apart from a few rough patches, the Pops orchestra playing was typically first-rate.

Individually and as ensembles the three soloists provided many of the evening’s high points (there was actually a fourth soloist at the conclusion of the first act: Steven Brinberg who did a neat takeoff on Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond, — my original review didn't identify him by name).

As a trio, Huffman, Anne Runolfsson and Gary Mauer offered a poignant rendition of Send in the Clowns, while Runolfsson and Mauer played Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better with typical over-the-top foolishness, although she did display the requisite amount of impressive power.

Huffman vamped a slinky Ulla from The Producers while Mauer offered a winsome rendition of Begin the Beguine and later had the evening’s funniest moment with another witty Cole Porter song, The Tale of the Oyster. To conclude the evening, Mauer joined with Runolfsson, Hamlisch and the orchestra to finish the evening on the highest and most powerful of notes as they reprised their roles in The Phantom of the Opera, a performance that should have impressed even the most ardent “Phantom” hater and did bring forth a thunderous standing ovation from the others.
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Hemidemisemiquavers:
• Although the Pops uses video screens on both sides of the stages, the camera work remains mediocre and the lighting continues to have problem, rendering people’s faces much redder than they really are (Huffman and Runolfsson looked like they had Rosacea).
• Hamlisch listens to his audience. After hearing reports that some people (not everyone, I hasten to add) were upset that the first concert didn’t begin with The Star Spangled Banner, Hamlisch opened with the National Anthem last night, then quipped that the balance of the program would be SSBs from countries around the world.
• One thing I’m going to miss when the Pops moves to the Arboretum is the convenient parking adjacent to the Rose Bowl venue and the fast getaways that patrons have.
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(c) Copyright 2011, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved. Portions may be quoted with attribution.

Comments

[Frank Darmstadt]

Dear Mr. Thomas:

Thank you for the nice review.

The Streisand impersonator is Mr. Steven Brinberg. Can you please update this post to include his name?

This is his website if you can also list it or to use as backup for ID verification.

www.simplybarbra.com

Be well.

[Bob Thomas]

Thanks for providing the information — and for reading!
— RDT