They're Playing Our Song 1979 - Articles Page 59

Featuring book by Neil Simon, "They're Playing Our Song" follows the on-again, off-again romance of one very despondent composer and one very ditzy lyricist, as they try to create their own unique love song. Based on the real-life love affair of the show's composer, Marvin Hamlisch, and the show's lyricist, Carole Bayer-Sager, "They're Playing Our Song," ran 1,082 performances on Broadway.



After Sager and Hamlisch scored an international hit with "Nobody Does It Better" (the theme song from "The Spy Who Loved Me"), they began to work on a new musical based on some surprising subject matter -- their own romantic life -- with the most successful and popular playwright of the era, Neil Simon. They came up with an unusual, new form for a Broadway musical: a chamber musical with two main characters supported by a three-person Greek Chorus.



"They're Playing Our Song" had its world premiere as part of the Center Theatre Group series at the Ahmanson Theatre of the Music Center. It starred comic Robert Klein and Lucie Arnaz, who made her Broadway debut in the role and went on to star in Reprise's inaugural season's "Wonderful Town" in 1997.



Carole Bayer Sager has written the lyrics for "Don't Cry Out Loud," "Everything Old is New Again," "Come in From the Rain," "Heartbreaker," and "That's What Friends Are For," and has collaborated with Neil Diamond, Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones, Peter Allen, Michael McDonald, and Burt Bacharach. In 1977 she was romantically involved with Marvin Hamlisch. Hamlisch followed winning three Academy Awards in 1973 for "The Way We Were" and the score of "The Sting", with the score for "A Chorus Line" which won nine 1975 Tony Awards including Best Musical and Best Score for Hamlisch and lyricist Edward Kleban.