Harmony reviews - thoughts

I just finished reading the Variety and LA Times reviews. (As I mentioned previously, I saw it in Atlanta and liked it.) It appears that, as is often the case, the book is the problem. Both reviewers felt that there was not enough depth to the main 8 characters.

Titanic and Broadway's Wild Party both came to mind as shows that had difficulty when the focus was spread among many central characters.

Rent and Ragtime were able to develop deeper characters.

Which other shows didn't quite manage it (and ended as failures or successes)?

Seeing this show next Friday night. I've heard lots of positive things about it and can't wait to see it!

I saw this in La Jolla years ago and while the cast was excellent and there were a few decent songs, the book needed a lot of work.
Perhaps they need to change the book writer? Not sure. But when you keep getting the same review over & over again...

I liked it for the most part. The subject matter's interesting. The leads are excellent. The music is also good and a few songs are hummable. The problem the show has is that it isn't now and probably never will be "a critic's show" and if they "fix it", the reviews could be better but it might be less appealing to the family audience that seemed to like it more or less just fine as it is.

I saw this about a week and a half ago. I thought all of the actors playing the Harmonists were wonderful, several of the songs were lovely and some of the staging - particularly the intro of the Harmonists - very clever.

However, I agree with the reviewers that the book (particularly the second act and the lead female roles) needs to be entirely re-done. It was a mess. At intermission, a woman leaned over and asked if this was the first time they were performing the show because there were so many holes in the story. And then it got a million times worse.

The Variety review sums up my feelings about the second act: "Ninety minutes of principals frisking like puppies in a sack ill-prepares them, or us, when events turn dark. Characters make abrupt, unprepared-for about-faces and wail in anguish, engaging in passionate arguments whose sense is impossible to follow."

The moment when Hitler boards the train and the Rabbi sings a song about "if only he had grabbed Hitler's gun and shot him at that moment everything would have been different..." - I can't recall the last time I had such a wtf moment in a theatre.

I also agree with this statement from Variety: "Sussman and helmer Tony Speciale must think none of us has ever heard of Nazi Germany or anti-Semitism, because they interject numberless historical nuggets solemnly intoned on the sidelines (“Attention! The following Nuremberg Laws will be enforced”), and threats delivered by oily Gauleiters in cliched encounters verging on camp." So much of the second act really was a badly written and frankly embarrassing history primer. Completely unnecessary (particularly for a LA (and potentially NY) audience).

Updated On: 3/17/14 at 04:21 PM

I can only comment on the first act, because I left at intermission. I would have stayed but the two people I was with hated the show even more than I did. Needless to say, this show was dead on arrival. It's a shame because there is the basis for a good musical. This just wasn't it.

The biggest problem, like the reviews said, is the book. It's just horrible -- paper-thin characters, wretched dialogue, and dreadful attempts to provide historical context. Scene after scene would create one "conflict" that would immediately be resolved with a song and then would be done. Character A is concerned his family won't approve of him being a singer? Let's sing a song so he can practice how he will tell them his decision. Boom. Problem solved. Woman doesn't want to marry man. Why? It's not explained very well -- and it's the first we heard that she has any doubts about him. But he just sings to her. Problem solved. Unfortunately, the music also is mostly forgettable, except the opening number which is rather trite but is repeated ad nauseum and is guaranteed to leave an earworm.

The cast was very talented and did the best it could with the very underwritten roles. Shayne Kennon was a strong lead, while Chris Dwan and Will Blum handled their more comic roles well. The two female roles were so weak it's almost unfair to judge them. Leigh Ann Larkin seemed off-key in her first song, What Do You See, but it may have just been the song. She got stronger as the act progressed.