The Way I Was

by Marvin Hamlisch, Gerald Gardner

Overview

The EGOT-winning composer of The Way We Were and A Chorus Line recounts his remarkable life from childhood to Broadway and Hollywood.

The son of Jewish Viennese immigrants, six-year-old Marvin Hamlisch’s early musical talent and discipline led him to Julliard, where he studied for more than a decade. From there, Hamlisch got his start as a rehearsal pianist for Funny Girl starring Barbra Streisand. He went on to co-create the classic American musical A Chorus Line and wrote the Oscar Award–winning musical score for The Way We Were. Hamlisch is one of only a handful of people to achieve EGOT status—winning an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony.

In this autobiography, Hamlisch tells the tale of his life and career, revealing personal stories of his childhood, his marriage, and his friendships with stars including Liza Minnelli, Barbra Streisand, Groucho Marx, and others. It offers an intimate view of his life and a compelling portrait of Broadway and Hollywood through the second half of the twentieth century.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781504096737
Publisher:	Open Road Media
Publication date:	09/10/2024
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	250
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Marvin Hamlisch was a composer and conductor. After attending Juilliard School of Music and Queens College, he conducted the Tony Award–winning A Chorus Line and composed dozens of scores for such films as Sophie’s Choice, Ordinary People,and Three Men and a Baby. Hamlisch won multiple Oscars for his work in The Way We Were, as well as another for his adaptation of Scott Joplin’s music for The Sting. He received two Emmys for his musical direction of Barbra Streisand: The Concert. Hamlisch held positions as the principal pops conductor for symphony orchestras across the country, including the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, DC.

Marvin Hamlisch was a composer and conductor. After attending Juilliard School of Music and Queens College, he conducted the Tony Award–winning A Chorus Line and composed dozens of scores for such films as Sophie’s Choice, Ordinary People,and Three Men and a Baby. Hamlisch won multiple Oscars for his work in The Way We Were, as well as another for his adaptation of Scott Joplin’s music for The Sting. He received two Emmys for his musical direction of Barbra Streisand: The Concert. Hamlisch held positions as the principal pops conductor for symphony orchestras across the country, including the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, DC.

Editorial Reviews

Writing with freelancer Gardner, composer Hamlisch, now 45, sums up his life to date. Peppering his narrative with anecdotes about friends and colleagues such as Liza Minnelli, Groucho Marx, Ann-Margret and Michael Bennett, he describes his childhood with his Jewish Viennese immigrant parents who were determined to make him a classical musician, his 14 years studying at New York City's Juilliard School of Music and his determination to go into show business rather than onto the concert stage. He recalls his early jobs as a rehearsal pianist, his instant celebrity with three Oscar awards for The Way We Were , his highly successful scores for the movie The Sting and the Broadway show A Chorus Line , his marriage and his recent foray into symphonic music. Hamlisch's confession that he tends toward pessimism and anxiety and his assessments of his failures ( Smile and Jean , a musical about the life of Jean Seberg) as well as his account of three years of relative inactivity--during which Hamlisch realized that his successes had been at the expense of a satisfying personal life--add a bit of weight to this slight and sometimes amusing autobiography. Photos not seen by PW. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

For a dyed-in-the-wool New Yorker, Hamlisch has a narrative style that's long on homespun humor and not without a little pathos. As a talented youngster from a close-knit Jewish family, he sat for stressful yearly scholarship exams at the Juilliard School, which generally meant Maalox tablets and stomachaches. And when he wrote his first film score at 23 years of age, bleeding ulcers followed shortly thereafter. Because of some astounding successes, the composer of "Chorus Line" and "The Way We Were" may well command readers' attention with this chatty and fast-paced account of life in the show biz fast lane--his early triumph, later flops, and an overdue date with true love and marriage in 1989.

Alice Joyce