‘Harmony’ Review: Barry Manilow Musical Tells Sensational True Story With Pop Prowess
variety.comA.D. Amorosi Since 1997, composer-singer Barry Manilow and lyricist-librettist Bruce Sussman — the team behind iconic ’70s pop classics such as “Copacabana” — have been looking to get their wise and witty “Harmony: The Musical” to Broadway.
After its world premiere at San Diego’s La Jolla Playhouse, the pair brought its flashy historical tale to Philadelphia, Atlanta and Los Angeles before touching down for its current run at downtown Manhattan’s intimate Museum of Jewish Heritage.It’s an appropriate venue for the show, a true-life tale of “the three Jews and three Gentiles” behind The Comedian Harmonists.
This pre-Nazi-era, tightknit singing-and-slapstick act — an ensemble “hotter than horseradish” — was so popular in Germany (packed concerts, hit singles, films), then around the world, that “Harmony” starts not at home, but at the height of its powers on Dec.
16, 1933, at New York’s Carnegie Hall. It was a night to remember: a sold-out show across the ocean, a telegram from NBC Radio asking to meet for a potential long-term program contract, a burgeoning artistic relationship with Josephine Baker.
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