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NEW YORK – Of all the indignities suffered by the Comedian Harmonists, darkness may be the cruelest. The Harmonists, a singing male sextet, were formed in Germany and enjoyed great popularity throughout Europe in the early to mid-1930s. However, their success was ended by the Nazis because some of the singers were Jews.
Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman spent years trying to bring the true story of this group to Broadway audiences. Their consistency finally paid off with “Harmony,” the efficient if formulaic “new” musical that had its official premiere Monday night at the Ethel Barrymore Theater.
New is in quotes because Manilow, who composed the music, and Sussman, the author and lyricist, had been working on “Harmony” since the 1990s. It is undoubtedly the best musical based on the Comedian Harmonists that you have ever seen. (There were others.) Before Mandy and I Write the Songs, Manilow had his heart set on writing Broadway musicals; Sussman, another lover of musical theater, collaborated with Manilow on more than 200 songs. The impressive pedigree extends to a cast that includes Chip Zien, Sierra Boggess and Julie Benko, all with proven Broadway credentials.
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But “Harmony” has an insoluble dilemma: the Comedian Harmonists themselves. The actors who portray them — Sean Bell, Danny Kornfeld, Zal Owen, Eric Peters, Blake Roman and Steven Telsey — are lively and elegant. However, as an act, the group lacks the real appeal that could pique our interest song after song. Manilow and Sussman write comical Central European pastiches for them, which are performed in six-part harmonies. It’s all done with consummate musicality and lively choreography by director Warren Carlyle. And yet the novelty quickly wears off.
The setting is the rise of Nazism in Germany in the early 1930s, when the fame of the Harmonists reached its peak; In 1933 they even performed at Carnegie Hall when they did not take advantage of the opportunity to remain in the United States. The straightforward account of their forced dissolution is narrated by Zien, who plays the rabbi. the older version of the last living Harmonist (portrayed by Kornfeld as a younger man).
Boggess plays a non-Jew who marries a rabbi and Benko, a Jewish radical who marries a non-Jewish member of the group. (Both give lively supporting performances.) This ecumenical dimension dominates the first half of the musical; It is the culture’s blind spot that the show highlights, the fallacy that Adolf Hitler was a passing fad and that Jews and non-Jews could continue to coexist and even intermarry at this time. The mixing of faiths among the Harmonists is posited in “Harmony” as a false flag of national harmony that proves useful to the Nazis. For a while.
Too much of “Harmony,” however, focuses on the Harmonists’ sterile stage personas, including during an odd fantasy sequence in which they perform “Copacabana”-style with a feather-covered Josephine Baker (Allison Semmes). It is only in a bitter number in the second act, “Come to the Fatherland,” that Manilow and Sussman make inspired, theatrical use of the possibilities of the musical. The song, reminiscent of Kander and Ebb’s “Cabaret,” is set at the Tivoli in Copenhagen, where the group, still allowed to travel but outraged by the growing threat, performs a satirical anti-Nazi song as puppets. In this number and throughout the show, costume designers Linda Cho and Ricky Lurie work wonders with the wardrobe budget.
Carlyle gives the proceedings a Broadway gloss, played on Beowulf Boritt’s simple set, equipped with dark glass panels that reflect the silhouettes of the Harmonists. It’s as if their ghosts are walking across the Barrymore stage, with Zien in the role of the haunted master of ceremonies. The implications in these troubled times are warning and show how quickly violence fueled by prejudice can take hold. That’s a red flag that this serious musical can clearly raise.
harmony, music by Barry Manilow, book and lyrics by Bruce Sussman. Direction and choreography: Warren Carlyle. Musical direction: John O’Neill; Set, Beowulf Boritt; costumes, Linda Cho and Ricky Lurie; lighting, Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer; Sound, Dan Moses Schreier; Orchestrations, Doug Walter. About 2 hours 40 minutes. At the Ethel Barrymore Theater, 243 W. 47th St., New York. harmonynewmusical.com.
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