After two decades, “Harmony,” Barry Manilow’s labor of love, seems to have finally found its groove. The musical, about a popular sextet in the Weimar Republic that ran afoul of the Nazis, opened in Atlanta recently to strong reviews. Under the headline “A Glorious Work of Art,” Wendell Brock, the critic for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, called “Harmony” “a virtual ‘Jersey Boys’ for Jews,” adding, “I mean that as a high compliment.” The positive responses, coupled with Manilow’s substantial fan base, has immediately generated buzz that the show will arrive on Broadway next season. It is a fulfilling ending to a turbulent development period fraught with a disappointing 1997 tryout and a contentious lawsuit involving the original producer.
Manilow and his writing partner Bruce Sussman (“Copacobana”) have long been intrigued by the story of the Comedian Harmonists, a group that rose in popularity throughout Europe with their blend of folk, classical, and original pop songs. It’s not difficult to see the appeal. Since three of the members were Jews — while another was married to a Jewish woman — the Nazis forced their disbandment in 1935 and eventually banned their songs. After the war, they went into obscurity until a 1977 documentary resurrected interest in the group. A 1997 German movie followed, and two years later a musical called “Band in Berlin” had a short run on Broadway.
While that 1999 musical used the original song hits of the group, Manilow and Sussman, who has also written the libretto, created an entirely new jazz-oriented score. They had high hopes for show when it opened at the La Jolla Playhouse in 1997 but the reviews then indicated that the show needed a lot of work, especially in the area of plot and character development. The show was still Broadway-bound in 2003 but the original lead producer, Mark Schwartz, came up short in the funding. Manilow and Sussman sued to reclaim the rights and finally prevailed.
Manilow, who maintains that Broadway has always been his first love, is just the latest in a growing roster of pop composers who are lining up to take their crack at Broadway. It’s been two decades since the trend began with “The Who’s ‘Tommy’” and continued with shows composed by the likes of Elton John, ABBA, Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, Green Day, and, most recently, Cyndi Lauper. At the time of “Tommy,” Pete Townshend provided the rationale, “I just have to collect the [royalty] checks for something we wrote a long time ago,” he said. “I don’t have to tour. And at my age, how great is that?”
Photo by Greg Mooney/ Courtesy of Alliance Theatre
