Hamlisch charms Arcadia with Pasadena Pops

On a stunningly clear summer evening in Arcadia, Marvin Hamlisch entertained with great exuberance, he even made a few wise-cracks.

The June 16, Pasadena Symphony and Pops concert “They’re Playing Our Song,” at the L.A. Arboretum was conducted by Hamlisch, featuring vocalists Lucy Arnaz, Robert Klein and the JPL Chorus. The Pasadena Youth Symphony Orchestra, comprised of 6th grade to 9th grade students, gave a pre-concert performance.

Hamlisch, the Principal Pops conductor, joked that as wonderful as it was to win an Oscar, write A Chorus Line and work with Barbara Streisand, “to be in Arcadia is the top of the line.”

Hamlisch teased teenagers in the front row about being forced by their parents to attend the concert, but he promised to try to show them a good time. He also conducted parodies “Happy Birthday” for audience members based on the personalities of famous composers; Mozart’s happy and exuberant with flourishes and Beethoven’s crazy and fraught with doom.

Klein performed a musical tribute to his experience of a Colonoscopy set loosely to the music of Jeffrey Osborne’s “On the Wings of Love.”

Arnaz sang a series of songs in tribute to her parents. She said that her mother taught her how to be responsible, successful and get things done, while her father taught her the passion and beauty of her heritage.

The performance was intermittently upstaged by the cries of the local peacock population.

The Mayor of Arcadia, Bob Hartnick, said “this is the first for the Pasadena symphony in Arcadia and we hope it goes on for a longtime.”