Composer Marvin Hamlisch is being remembered today as one of the saviors of Broadway. In yesterday’s New York Post, theater columnist Michael Reidel paid tribute to Hamlisch saying, “It was, as his song ‘One’ goes, a ‘singular sensation’ that saved the Great White Way — and, in some ways, New York City itself.” And while Hamlisch may forever be associated with his musical A Chorus Line, I’ll forever remember him and his music for the guidance they provided my life during a time of uncertainty.
When I was 20 years old I moved to New York City for a summer. I had just worked on Rick Santorum’s 2006 senate campaign, where we lost by 16%. The loss broke me, and really made me question whether a life in politics, in public service, was really worth it.
On my first night in New York City I saw A Chorus Line at Broadway’s Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre. Towards the end of the show, there’s a song called, “What I Did Love” where the auditioning dancers are asked, how would you feel if you could no longer dance? One of the aspiring chorus girls, Diana, steps forward and sings:
Kiss today goodbye,
And point me t’ward tomorrow.
We did what we had to do.
Won’t forget, can’t regret
What I did for love
Even though I was standing in the last row of the orchestra, behind a packed house, I felt that song was directed at me. The message that life’s passions are worth fighting for, that ups and downs will occur, that I should never regret a choice, struck a chord with me. Politics was always my first love and if I was going to make a difference, I had to preserve through difficulties.
A Chorus Line was groundbreaking for a myriad of reasons, but I feel none more than for its honesty. The show’s portrayal of the so-called ‘gypsies’ of Broadway, the dancers, was so honest and real. Everyone who ever saw A Chorus Line related to their dreams, struggles, hopes and failures. We may all not have been dancers, but we understood what it meant when life puts us on the line.
The Great White Way paid tribute to Marvin Hamlisch last night when Broadway marquees were dimed in his honor. I’ll always remember him for the life lesson his music taught me about persevering and never losing sight of my dream. After leaving New York, I returned to Washington, DC for a political job that would forever change my life. However I did so remembering that I won’t forget, can’t regret, what I did for love.
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