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Chuck Basil Remembers Marvin Hamlisch

When Marvin Hamlisch died this week, one Buffalonian felt a stronger connection than most. Local cabaret star Chuck Basil had some meaningful and memorable interactions with the famed composer, beginning with Buffalo Star Search in 2002. By the time Basil met Hamlisch, the composer was already one of the few stage and film composers who was instantly recognizable to the general public. His quick wit, combined with three Oscars for his scoring of The Sting, his Tony and Pulitzer winning score for A Chorus Line, and hit songs like the title tune for The Way We Were and the Carly Simon recording of “Nobody Does it Better” from the James Bond picture, The Spy Who Loved Me, made Hamlisch the darling of the talk show circuit—back in the days when all of America actually watched talk shows.

A Midsummer Night's Dream

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of Shakespeare’s most beloved plays. A father’s death threat send a mismatched crew of Athenian lovers into the woods on various flights of escape and yearning, only to become the object of mischief and merriment for the fairies who reside there. In a subplot, a group of local workmen, or “mechanicals,” prepare a theatrical performance to celebrate the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta, the Duke of Athens and the Queen of the Amazons. When the six men decide to rehearse in the woods, their leading man, Bottom, also finds himself caught in the crossfire of mischief and magic.



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