{"id":177,"date":"2013-07-01T05:28:20","date_gmt":"2013-07-01T05:28:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/?page_id=177"},"modified":"2013-10-25T06:17:31","modified_gmt":"2013-10-25T06:17:31","slug":"marvin-hamlish-get-him-to-the-greek","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/sample-page\/morgans-people-places\/people\/marvin-hamlish-get-him-to-the-greek\/","title":{"rendered":"Marvin Hamlish \u2013 Get Him to the Greek"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Regis<\/a>

Regis Philbin, Mrs. Mary Beninato, Cyndi Garvey and Marvin Hamlish at Club Ben\u00e9. Photo Courtesy of Donna and Tommy Andrejewski.<\/p><\/div>\n

Morgan Memories of the Way We Were \u2013 Marvin Hamlish \u2013 Get Him to the Greek<\/h3>\n

Sometime after it opened its doors for Broadway-like productions on October 8, 1968 with Carol Bruce in \u2018Gypsy\u2019 – after having previously been a bowling alley – the amazingly talented Marvin Hamlish<\/a> appeared at Club Ben\u00e9 in little ole Morgan, NJ.\u00a0 A child musical prodigy, one of the early jobs of this musical legend was as the rehearsal pianist for Barbra Streisand.\u00a0 Since then Mr. Hamlish accomplished what only one other person, Richard Rodgers, had achieved, namely being awarded an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, a Tony and, finally, a Pulitzer Prize.<\/p>\n

As was the unique and very personal custom at Club Ben\u00e9, Mrs. Beninato, wife of Club Ben\u00e9 and Joe\u2019s Kozy Bar founder Joseph Beninato, made dinner for and had a photo taken with the featured guests.\u00a0 According to the above photo, one show or series of shows included Marvin Hamlish, Regis Philbin (see \u201c<\/span>Regis Philbin at Club Bene!<\/a>\u201d) and Cyndy Garvey (co-host with Regis on <\/span>A.M. Los Angeles<\/i> from 1978-81 then <\/span>The Morning Show<\/i> from 1983-1984 on New York\u2019s WABC).\u00a0 I have not yet been able to pinpoint the exact date(s) of this Club Ben\u00e9 event or, with such a unique combination of talent, the content of the show.\u00a0 If any of you know, please post a comment below.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Marvin<\/a>

Marvin Hamlish and Idina Menzel perform at the Greek Theater on October 29, 2011<\/p><\/div>\n

My wife and I had a phenomenal experience the evening of October 22, 2011 at LA\u2019s famous and fabulous Greek Theater.\u00a0 We got to see Marvin Hamlish!\u00a0 Good thing since I missed him when he was in Morgan long ago!\u00a0 For the first part of the show, Mr. Hamlish conducted the Pasadena Symphony in a musical medley of songs from his Tony award winning Broadway musical, A Chorus Line<\/i>.\u00a0 He next played variations of a theme of Happy Birthday using the iconic styles of Bach, Mozart then Beethoven on piano.\u00a0 He made playing the piano seem truly effortless and fun.\u00a0 Finally, in tribute to the featured performer who was to appear after the intermission, Mr. Hamlish conducted the Pasadena Symphony in another medley, this time from My Fair Lady<\/i>.<\/p>\n

After the intermission, the phenomenal Idina Menzel<\/a> took the stage with Marvin moving fully into the conductor role.\u00a0 Ms. Menzel is best known – so far – for her role as Maureen Johnson in the ground breaking off-Broadway play Rent<\/i>, and especially for her unforgettable role as Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, in Wicked<\/i>.\u00a0 The rest of the evening was a magical combination of her singing and humor with Marvin\u2019s conducting of tunes arranged by the very talented Rob Mounsey<\/a> (Idina\u2019s Musical Director who also accompanied on the piano).\u00a0 The pallet of arrangements included some tunes from Rent<\/i> and Wicked<\/i> as well as the encore finale of Marvin\u2019s The Way We Were<\/i>.\u00a0 It was an unbelievable combination of stars under the stars on a crystal clear and very temperate evening in one of LA\u2019s truly great outdoor theaters.<\/p>\n

Sadly the world suddenly lost Marvin Hamlish ten months later on August 6, 2012.<\/p>\n

Originally Posted on October 30, 2011.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Morgan Memories of the Way We Were \u2013 Marvin Hamlish \u2013 Get Him to the Greek Sometime after it opened its doors for Broadway-like productions on October 8, 1968 with Carol Bruce in \u2018Gypsy\u2019 – after having previously been a bowling alley – the amazingly talented Marvin Hamlish appeared at Club Ben\u00e9 in little ole […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":975,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"page-templates\/full-width.php","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-177","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":981,"href":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/177\/revisions\/981"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}