Reflections on Marvin Hamlisch's passing and other things to ponder...
Woke up yesterday morning (Tuesday) and had the uneasy feeling that someone I knew had died. It wasn't Marvin Hamlisch I was thinking about but another Show Biz personality. So, when the phone began to ring around 8 AM, I picked it up with not a little apprehension. (My extrasensory powers are well known among my friends and family. I won't go into specifics at this time but I'm One With The Force on matters ranging from who's about to call on the phone to whether Lavoris is on sale at the local Walgreens.)
Hearing the news that Marvin had died was like a swift punch to the solar plexus. I've endured many losses in the past few years (haven't we all) and with the exception of Gary LaBriola, I was pretty much "Stiff Upper Lip, Old Man" and gotten on with it. I knew that Marvin had canceled some concerts of late and that he looked extremely fragile at a Pasadena Pops concert just a few weeks back. Marvin himself had called me prior to going into the Hospital a number of months ago and while he didn't say what he was having done, he was his usual, "Hi Babe, It's Marvin" when I picked up the phone.
So, it was really a shock to me that I was so shaken by the news. Marvin and I had met in Los Angeles in 1979 when I was doing Evita at the Shubert Theater. Introduced by Larry Blank, conductor for both Marvin and Evita, it seemed that Marvin liked what I was doing in the pit on the drums and was favorably impressed. Moving to New York in 1980, I followed Larry to Broadway, where we both served in the galleys of the Good Ship "Onward Victoria" a Broadway flop that previewed for 4 weeks and closed on Opening night in December of 1980.
Somewhat adrift until my next Broadway show was about to begin rehearsals, I received a call from Mr. Blank asking if I wanted to play drums for Marvin Hamlisch on the road. Of course I said yes and thus began the saga of Berkowitz and Hamlisch, Attorneys at Law, an on again, off again relationship that lasted 33 years.
It was Marvin who made me a Conductor, first with the 28 piece Orchestra we used on smaller concerts and then, when he thought it was time, I became the Symphony show Conductor. We played all over the World. I conducted the London Symphony twice
