They Played Mostly His Songs

Going to the Hollywood Bowl on Friday night was like attending a party where you were promised an introduction to someone extremely witty and instead got stuck listening to a man who talked about his accomplishments all night long.

Yes, it was a whole lot of Marvin Hamlisch and not enough of Nathan Lane, along with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Hamlisch conducted the orchestra in a tribute to himself, basically a compilation of songs that should never be played by a symphony orchestra. Sweet tunes like “They’re Playing Our Song,” “The Way We Were” and “One” were stretched beyond endurance in orchestrations so vapid and overstated it was like the elevator ride from hell.

Hamlisch explained that “I do these concerts because a lot of people have questions” about him and his big break. And so he told of Queen’s College, the Juilliard School, the job as rehearsal pianist for “Funny Girl,” a story with one faux modest touch--fetching doughnuts if Barbra Streisand wanted doughnuts. Hamlisch admitted that it’s very hard for him to pick a favorite from among his film scores, but nevertheless went on to conduct the music from “Sophie’s Choice.” He even took credit for the evening’s orchestral tribute to Gene Kelly (“There wasn’t one in the library, so I had to write my own”) which featured dancer Don Correia in a homage to “Singin’ in the Rain.”

Lane seemed under the weather. But, even at low energy, he and his natural self-effacement were offstage entirely too much. He did a lovely job with “Errol Flynn,” Amanda McBroom’s melancholy ballad about a man who knew a girl whose father was once almost somebody in Hollywood. When he was done, Lane imagined what the audience must be thinking of him: “Oh my God, that was sad. That was a depressing song. He’s like the Sylvia Plath of musical comedy!”

No one has better patter than Lane, a compact funny man with the unexpected physical grace of Jackie Gleason. On Friday night, though, his voice sounded tired, and he was almost drowned out on several occasions by the Philharmonic. At curtain, he ruefully informed Hamlisch: “I just wish there had been more rehearsal.”

Lane forged ahead with more show-bizzy numbers, most notably that anthem of self-effacement, “Mister Cellophane” from “Chicago.” He also went through the paces of a curiously unsatisfying version of “Rose’s Turn” from “Gypsy.” Lane was off his mark and seemed disappointed with his own performance Friday night (there was a second show Saturday).

After intermission, Hamlisch performed a wimpy tribute to Streisand, which was essentially just a medley of “People” (from “Funny Girl”) and his own “The Way We Were,” which we had already heard in the first act. In a medley called “Songs I Wish I’d Written,” the composer sat down to play Gershwin’s “Someone to Watch Over Me,” Sondheim’s “Send In the Clowns” and Bernstein’s “Somewhere,” though he did not take the time to identify those songs to the audience. Hamlisch also did his impression of Bach, Mozart and Beethoven playing “Happy Birthday,” a clever bit that had the aura of a joke told more than 3,000 times before.

The big finish was Hamlisch’s “A Chorus Line” overture (cut from the Broadway show), which included a chorus line of dancers who, under original cast member Baayork Lee’s tutelage, attempted to re-create Michael Bennett’s magic and failed. Then Lane came out to croon, “They’re playin’ your song” to Hamlisch, and Hamlisch crooned back, “They’re playin’ my song,” and everyone went home with a clear knowledge of whose song was being played.