Marvin Hamlisch called the new L.A. County Arboretum home of the Pasadena Symphony and Pops a “singular sensation” during a ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday to kick off the inaugural summer season at the venue. The debut performance is at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, June 16, with guest artists Lucie Arnaz and Robert Klein joining the orchestra with their unique blend of comedy and musical theatre. Hamlisch entertained the crowd during Thursday’s ceremony coordinated with the help of the Arcadia Chamber of Commerce by playing a piano medley of songs from his “A Chorus Line,” highlighting “One Singular Sensation.” Chamber members who purchase the new All Access Pass can use it to get an “Admit One” pass to a Pops concert valued at up to $96. <Story continues below the following 3-minutes of video highlights from Thursday’s press conference…>
Get the Flash Player to see this content. — By Scott Hettrick The artists will perform a concert version of Hamlisch’s Broadway musical They’re Playing Our Song, a musical tribute to Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, selections from musicals by Irving Berlin, Lerner & Lowe, and more.
Hamlisch, now in his second season as Principal Pops Conductor, is widely recognized as one of America’s greatest musical talents with Grammy, Emmy, Tony, Oscar, Golden Globe, and Pulitzer Prize awards among his many accolades. The prolific composer and arranger is known for bringing the music of Scott Joplin back to popularity with his score for “The Sting” starring Paul Newman, writing the smash Broadway hit A Chorus Line, creating unforgettable songs such as “The Way We Were”, “Nobody Does It Better”, “What I Did For Love”, “One” and many more.
Robert Klein
Lucie Arnaz
Klein and Arnaz both starred as the lead roles in They’re Playing Our Song when it premiered on Broadway in 1979. Arnaz, the daughter of Hollywood icons Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, is in award winning actress, singer, and comedienne. She has starred in musicals ranging from the hilarious “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” to the evocative “Witches of Eastwick,” appeared on screen in many of her mother’s timeless comedies, and co-starred opposite Neil Diamond and Laurence Olivier in “The Jazz Singer.” Klein, a veteran of the famed Second City comedy troupe, played a pivotal role in TV and comedy history as the first comedian to appear in concert on HBO; since his debut in 1975, he has performed nine specials for the channel earning multiple Emmy nominations.
Tickets to They’re Playing Our Song with Marvin Hamlisch and the Pasadena POPS at the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden, 301 N Baldwin Ave, Arcadia, on Saturday, June 16 are on sale now. Gates open at 5:30 p.m. for picnicking and the concert begins at 7:30 p.m. Tickets begin at $10 for children and $20 for adults. For tickets or more information, contact the Pasadena Symphony and POPS Box Office at www.PasadenaSymphony-Pops.org or call 626.793.7172.
· Cost: Children tickets start at $10, adult tickets start at $20 · Parking: Free parking is available at the adjoining Westfield Santa Anita shopping center (complimentary shuttles will provide service between Westfield and the Arboretum’s main entrance). · Dining Options: Catered meals may be pre-ordered in advance from Julienne, Marston’s, or Porta Via. Onsite purchase options will include an array of gourmet food trucks and a cash bar. Guests may also bring a picnic and beverages.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
ABOUT MARVIN HAMLISCH Marvin Hamlisch’s life in music is notable for its great versatility and substance. As composer, Hamlisch has won virtually every major award that exists: three Oscars, four Grammys, four Emmys, a Tony and three Golden Globe awards.
For Broadway he has written the music for A Chorus Line, which received the Pulitzer Prize, as well as They’re Playing Our Song, The Goodbye Girl and Sweet Smell of Success.
He is the composer of many motion picture scores including his Oscar-winning score and song for The Way We Were and his adaptation of Scott Joplin’s music for The Sting, for which he received a third Oscar. His prolific output of scores for films include original compositions and/or musical adaptations for Sophie’s Choice, Ordinary People, The Swimmer, Three Men and a Baby, Ice Castles, Take the Money and Run, Bananas, Save the Tiger, and his latest effort The Informant!, starring Matt Damon, and directed by Steven Soderbergh.
Marvin Hamlisch holds the position of principal pops conductor for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Pasadena Symphony and POPS, Seattle Symphony and San Diego Symphony.
Mr. Hamlisch was Musical Director and arranger of Barbra Streisand’s 1994 concert tour of the U.S. and England as well as of the television special, Barbra Streisand: The Concert (for which he received two of his Emmys).
Hamlisch is a graduate of the Juilliard School of Music and Queens College. He believes in the power of music to bring people together. “Music can make a difference. There is a global nature to music, which has the potential to bring all people together. Music is truly an international language, and I hope to contribute by widening communication as much as I can.”
ABOUT LUCIE ARNAZ Believe it or not, Lucie Arnaz is celebrating over 45 years in show business. She began her long career in a recurring role on television on The Lucy Show, opposite her mother, Lucille Ball. At age fifteen, she became a series regular on Here’s Lucy, a show that ran for six seasons. She starred in her own series, The Lucie Arnaz Show and later in the critically acclaimed Sons & Daughters on CBS.
On the big screen, Lucie has starred opposite Neil Diamond and Sir Laurence Olivier in The Jazz Singer (for which she received a Golden Globe nomination); opposite Tom Laughlin in Billy Jack Goes To Washington; alongside Ken Howard in Second Thoughts; and opposite Freddie Prinze, Jr. and Henry Winkler in Down To You, a Miramax film. Most recently Lucie co-starred with Richard Roundtree, Robert Loggia and Bob Forster in Wild Seven; and in an award winning controversial new film about second hand smoke from writer/director Alyssa Bennett entitled, The Pack, that debuted at Sundance.
She has starred in many made for television films, as well, including the cult classic Who Killed The Black Dahlia?, Washington Mistress, The Mating Season opposite Laurence Luckinbill and Swoosie Kurtz, Who Gets The Friends? with Jill Clayburg and James Farentino, and Abduction of Innocence opposite Dirk Benedict.
On the stage, Lucie got her Equity card playing many of the best women’s roles in the theatre: Sally Bowles in Cabaret; Daisy Mae in Li’l Abner (her first time opposite Dirk Benedict); Princess Winifred, opposite Kaye Medford, Rudy Vallee, Christine Andreas and Don Amendolia in Once Upon A Mattress; Goodbye Charlie (produced by Burt Reynolds); and A Place To Stay, opposite John Ritter. With Stockard Channing and Sandy Duncan, Lucie created the role of Kathy in the West Coast premiere of Vanities at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. She won the role of Gittel Mosca in the national company of the Cy Coleman-Dorothy Field’s “love of a musical,” Seesaw, opposite John Gavin and Tommy Tune, and directed by Michael Bennett.
She spent a summer at The Jones Beach Theatre in New York, playing Annie Oakley in Irving Berlin’s Annie Get Your Gun with Harve Presnell. During that summer, Broadway beckoned and she auditioned for and snagged the coveted role of the unforgettably wacky Sonia Wolsk in the Neil Simon-Marvin Hamlisch-Carole Bayer Sager-musical They’re Playing Our Song, directed by Robert Moore, for which she received The Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle, Theatre World and Outer Critics Circle Awards.
In 1979, during the run of They’re Playing Our Song, Lucie met her husband, actor-writer, Laurence Luckinbill, while he was also on Broadway in another Neil Simon hit, Chapter Two. The couple were married in June of 1980 and they have appeared together in the American premiere of Educating Rita, directed by Mike Ockrent; sold out tours of I Do! I Do! and They’re Playing Our Song; national companies of Whose Life is it Anyway? and the Andrew Bergman comedy Social Security, directed by Mike Nichols (Carbonelle Award); and in the revival of Lunt and Fontanne’s The Guardsman at The Papermill Playhouse. Lucie has also starred opposite Tommy Tune in the international company of the acclaimed Gershwin musical My One and Only (Sarah Siddons Award).
Ms. Arnaz returned to the Broadway stage where she received rave reviews for her portrayal of Bella in the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning play, Lost In Yonkers, written by Neil Simon and directed by Gene Saks. Lucie has starred Off-Broadway as Glorie in Grace and Glorie, a two-hander with Estelle Parsons; and as Maria Callas in Terrence McNally’s Tony-Award-winning tour de force Master Class, directed by Don Amendolia (who also directed her as Ruth in the Reprise production of Wonderful Town).
Lucie flew to London in 2000 to play Alexandra opposite Maria Friedman, Joanna Riding and Ian McShane in the new Cameron Mackintosh musical, The Witches of Eastwick, which opened at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. She has starred at the Coconut Grove Playhouse in Eduardo Machado’s Once Removed; A Picasso, written by Jeffrey Hatcher and directed by John Tillinger; Ann and Debbie with Elizabeth Ashley; and in April 2006, she opened in Sonia Flew, co-starring with her youngest child, then a senior and theatre major at University of Miami, Katharine Desiree Luckinbill.
Touring the U.S. and Europe with her critically acclaimed nightclub act, Lucie has made stops in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Tahoe, Reno, The Cinegrill in LA, New York’s elegant Rainbow and Stars, Feinstein’s and several sold out appearances at the world famous Birdland Jazz Club. Her first album, “Just in Time” was released on the Concord Jazz label and, her newest CD, “Latin Roots” was released in 2010 through LML Music.
Throughout her varied career, Ms. Arnaz has found herself helming several different production retrospectives based on the iconic fame of her parents, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. With her husband, Larry Luckinbill, she teamed up to form ArLuck Entertainment, which produced the Emmy Award-winning documentary, Lucy & Desi: A Home Movie, (for NBC in 1993, subsequently on A&E and Nickelodeon, and currently available on DVD), published two CD-ROMs (Lucy & Desi: The Scrapbooks, Volume I and How to Save Your Family History: A 10-Step Guide by Lucie Arnaz). Most recently, ArLuck Entertainment produced An Evening With Lucille Ball: Thank You For Asking, a one-woman show starring Suzanne LaRusch, co-written and directed by Ms. Arnaz and currently touring the U.S. and Canada.
In 2001 Lucie and her brother, Desi Arnaz Jr., executive produced the I Love Lucy 50th Anniversary Special which aired on CBS and received an Emmy nomination. Miss Arnaz says with a smile: “A few of those kinds of projects are healthy. My parents are always happiest when they’re working.”
In 2006 Lucie spent several months back on “The Great White Way” co-starring with Jonathan Pryce, Norbert Leo Butz, Rachel York and Gregory Jbara then Keith Carradine, Brian D’Arcy James, and Sherie Rene Scott in the rib-tickling Jeffrey Lane-David Yazbek musical Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, brilliantly directed by Jack O’Brien and playing to sell-out crowds at the Imperial Theatre, where she made her first Broadway appearance 30 years before in They’re Playing Our Song.
In January of 2010, Lucie was Artistic Director for BABALU: A Celebration of the Latin Music Craze of the ‘40s and ‘50s as Seen Through the Music of The Desi Arnaz Orchestra which opened the 40th season of the famed Lyric and Lyricist Series at the 92nd St. Y in New York City with sold out performances. The show received “sizzling” reviews when it played to Miami audiences the following summer.
ArLuck Entertainment also currently produces all of Miss Arnaz’s symphony and concert performances, her lecture appearances (Surviving Success and Q&A seminars), as well as Mr. Luckinbill’s four one man shows (Lyndon, Clarence Darrow, Tonight!, Teddy, Tonight!, Hemingway, The Abraham and Larry Show: My Week In Bibleland and a compilation lecture entitled The Great Americans: Words Matter.
With her husband, Ms. Arnaz is mother to three beautiful and talented children: Simon (born in 1980), Joseph (1982) and Katharine (1985) in addition to being stepmother to his two sons, Nicholas (1969) and Benjamin (1975). It is these credits of which Lucie is most proud.
ABOUT ROBERT KLEIN For more than forty years, Robert Klein has entertained audiences, and he continues to have an acclaimed career in comedy, on Broadway, on television, and in film. Born in the Bronx, he was a member of the famed “Second City” theatrical troupe in Chicago. He was nominated twice for Grammy Awards for “Best Comedy Album of the Year” for his albums “Child of the Fifties” and “Mind Over Matter.” He received a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor, and won a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for his performance in the hit Neil Simon musical, They’re Playing Our Song. In 1993, Klein won an Obie and the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Performance by an Actor in Wendy Wasserstein’s, The Sisters Rosensweig.
In 1975, Klein was the first comedian to appear in a live concert on Home Box Office. He has gone on to do nine one-man shows for HBO and received his first Emmy nomination for Outstanding Music and Lyrics in 2001 for Robert Klein: Child in His 50’s. Klein released Robert Klein: The HBO Specials 1975-2005, a collector’s DVD box set to critical acclaim. His most recent special for HBO, Robert Klein: Unfair and Unbalanced aired on June 12th, 2010 and is also available as a DVD. This special earned him a second Emmy nomination in 2011 for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics.
Among dozens of starring and guest-starring roles on television, he co-starred in the hit NBC series, Sisters, and recently has a recurring guest-starring role on Law and Order. He regularly appears on talk shows, making more than 100 appearances on “The Tonight Show” and “Late Show with David Letterman” alone. Klein has also appeared in many notable films including, Hooper, The Owl and the Pussycat, Primary Colors, People I Know, Two Weeks Notice, and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, and The Back-Up Plan with Jennifer Lopez.
“The Amorous Busboy of Decatur Avenue,” his first book for Simon & Schuster, is an affectionate coming-of-age memoir about growing up in the ‘50s and ‘60s before embarking on a show business career. In it he recounts his journey from an apartment in the Bronx, developing his talent in Chicago and the beginning of his show business stardom. The book is pure Robert Klein: witty, honest, self-questioning and always contagiously funny. Publishers Weekly wrote: “…he unfurls an array of captivating anecdotes, writing with wry wit and honesty.”
Robert, a lifelong New Yorker, makes his home in Westchester and New York City.
ABOUT THE PASADENA SYMPHONY AND POPS Recent Acclaim: “…Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony sent me straight to the thesaurus for more options to ‘enthusiasm.’ They include eagerness, fervor, passion, gusto, zeal, zest, keenness, excitement, fire. All will do. Vitality, drive, vivacity, dash, vim, gusto, brio, dynamism, verve and spirit are other suitable synonyms. You get the point.” – Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times. October 30, 2011
“…full of pulsating energy from first note to last… the strings were lushly resonant, the wind principals were at the top of their games, and the brass rang out with gleaming vigor.” – Robert Thomas, Pasadena Star News. November 2, 2011.
The Pasadena Symphony Association was founded in 1928 by Conductor Reginald Bland. Originally named the Pasadena Civic Orchestra, its first members were mostly volunteer musicians, many of whom were students of Bland. The annual operating budget was $3,500, which was funded entirely by the City of Pasadena.
The Pasadena Symphony and POPS is an ensemble of Southern California’s most talented, sought after musicians. With extensive credits in the film, television, recording and orchestral industry, the artists of Pasadena Symphony and POPS are the most heard in the world.
In the fall of 2007, the Pasadena Symphony incorporated the Pasadena POPS into its Association under the new name Pasadena Symphony and POPS. This merger created an expanded Classics and POPS series providing the community with a full spectrum of live symphonic concerts year-round. Starting summer 2012, the Pasadena POPS’ summer home will relocate to Los Angeles County Arboretum.
The Pasadena Symphony provides a musical experience like no other at the Ambassador Auditorium – known as the Carnegie Hall of the West. Internationally recognized, Presidential Medal of Arts Recipient, Maestro James DePreist, serves as the Pasadena Symphony Association’s Artistic Advisor. The Pasadena POPS welcomed Marvin Hamlisch to the podium as its new Principal Pops Conductor on July 23, 2011.
A hallmark of its robust education programs, the Pasadena Symphony Association has served the youth of the region since 1972 through the Pasadena Youth Symphony Orchestra comprised of over 160 gifted middle school students from more than 40 schools all over the Southland. The PYSO most recently performed on several episodes of the popular television show GLEE.