Hamlisch Uncovered

Kelli O'Hara, Nancy Opel, and More to Sing Unrecorded Marvin Hamlisch Songs on New Album

BY LOGAN CULWELL-BLOCK

NOV 21, 2017

Featuring songs from The Nutty Professor, Smile, and other lesser-known Hamlisch works, Hamlisch Uncovered drops December 15.

Broadway records will release Hamlisch Uncovered digitally December 15, with a physical release set for January 26, 2018.

Performers featured on the album include Tony winners Kelli O'Hara (The King and I) and Randy Graff (City of Angels), Tony nominees Tony Sheldon (Priscilla, Queen of the Desert) and Nancy Opel (Curvy Widow), Hayden Tee (Les Misérables), Leah Horowitz (Follies), Marissa McGowan (Bonnie and Clyde), Lisa Brescia (Mamma Mia!), cabaret stars Klea Blackhurst and Steven Brinberg, and several new voices.

The new album offers a host of songs from the late Emmy, Grammy, Tony and Oscar-winning composer that have never been recorded, as well as cut numbers from some of his better-known shows. 

Among works being recorded for the first time are songs from Hamlisch's final musical The Nutty Professor, the 2000 Nora Ephron play Imaginary Friends, an unproduced adaptation of Bullets Over Broadway, the 1976 TV movie The Entertainer, and a song written for a 2010 production of Ballroom that expanded the original 1978 Broadway score.

Also represented is Smile—both the score written with Howard Ashman that opened on Broadway in 1986 and an earlier unproduced score written with Carolyn Leigh—and three cut songs from Sweet Smell of Success, which played a brief run on Broadway in 2002.

The album has been produced by Michael Lavine, Chip M. Fabrizi, and Hamlisch-collaborator Craig Carnelia.

Take a look at the track list, divided by show, below:

Smile, lyrics by Howard Ashman
1. Typical High School Senior (Mana Allen, Jenny Baker, Taylor Brauer, Ashley Bruce, Daisy Carnelia, Jessie del Rio, Sara Glancy, Aja Goes, Sarah Grace, Leigh Ellen Jones, Linda Van Kesteren, Caitlin Kinnunen, Caroline Liff, Molly Modell, Chelsie Nectow, Jaime Rosenstein, Amy Weaver)

Smile, lyrics by Carolyn Leigh
2. Vet (Jenny Baker)
3. Walking in the Sunshine (Hayden Tee)
4. Classical Music (Randy Graff)
5. Six O’Clock News (Daisy Carnelia)

Ballroom, lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman
6. There is More to a Ballroom (Steven Brinberg)

Sweet Smell of Success, lyrics by Craig Carnelia
7. A Different World (Kelli O’Hara)
8. Us and Them (Nancy Opel)
9. That’s How I Say Goodbye (Kelli O’Hara)

The Nutty Professor, lyrics by Rupert Holmes
10. While I Still Have the Time (Marissa McGowan)
11. Step Out of Your Shell (Klea Blackhurst & Julian Decker)

Bullets Over Broadway, lyrics by Craig Carnelia
12. Everything You Do (Leah Horowitz)

The Entertainer, lyrics by Tim Rice
13. The Only Way to Go (Tony Sheldon)

Imaginary Friends, lyrics by Craig Carnelia
14. Fig Tree Rag (Craig Carnelia & Marvin Hamlisch
15. A Smoke, A Drink and You (Craig Carnelia & Marvin Hamlisch)
16. Smart Women (Craig Carnelia)
17. Imaginary Friend (Holly Davis, Jessica Fontana, Happy McPartland & Emily Shoolin)
18. I Would But I Can’t (Craig Carnelia)
19. Words Fail Me (Lisa Brescia)
20. Will It Matter At All (Craig Carnelia & Marvin Hamlisch)