Boy, that's a shocker. 68 years old. With a new musical (The Nutty Professor) just opened.
I can't recall ever hearing a bad word about Marvin Hamlisch, not even from Theater People who can be enormously bitchy and quick to pounce on anyone's failings or failures. I don't recall that he had any failures that seemed to be due to his failings. He had shows that didn't fly but no one seemed to feel those were due to Mr. Hamlisch not doing his job properly. He was the guy who wrote the tunes for A Chorus Line, after all. And so many other fine works.
The first time I saw him or heard his name was when he was Groucho's pianist for those sad one-Marx shows near the end of the comedian's career. At one point during the L.A. one, Groucho suddenly went off-script and, apparently to give himself a brief rest, he turned to his pianist and asked Marvin to do his Johnny Mathis impression for the audience. Hamlisch was clearly thrown by that and he muttered something about how "They didn't come to hear me." But sensing Groucho needed the Time Out, he pressed ahead and it was a pretty decent impression, as I recall. We all felt for that kid on stage at the piano. We didn't imagine then that Marvin Hamlisch would go on to become Marvin Hamlisch. But we should be grateful that he did.