Manilow's musical "Harmony"

Harmony is not a jukebox musical - it is an original score by Manilow for the theater. Barry has been performing the title song and “Every Single Day” in concert for the last ten to fifteen years.

He was involved in a very long and drawn out court battle with the original producer to get the rights back to his show. I know they did a full production I think in Atlanta, and somewhere there is a great video of Barry and Brian D’Arcy James (who was originally attached to the production) singing “Every Single Day” back-to-back (literally) in concert.

There is an album called Scores in which Barry does songs from Copacabana and Harmony that is actually quite good.

I saw the production of Harmony when it was in LA and I remember it being a pretty interesting story but I can't remember anything about the music (and I think Tony Yazbeck was in that production). Though I was fairly young at the time so not sure if that's an accurate indicator of how good the songs actually were. But I'm hoping to see what another incarnation of this would be like so many years later.

I saw a reading of ''Harmony'' many years ago, and enjoyed Manilow's score. And it was done at the Alliance in Atlanta and at the Ahmanson in L.A. in 2013. Why has it taken so long to get to New York? And why isn't it opening on Broadway? Given Manilow's connections, you would've imagined that it should've happened years ago. Anyway, here's Shayne Kennon singing the beautiful ''Every Single Day'' from ''Harmony''::

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpJ_Yz4vqZk

Updated On: 8/17/19 at 01:44 AM

"Some group" is the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, which premiered the Yiddish production of FIDDLER. So, not exactly a run at the Public or MCC, but it's playing there for 7 weeks with backing from Ken Davenport and commercial producers, and it will be seen/reviewed by New York audiences and critics. We can assume Broadway is ultimately the goal.

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: ""Some group" is theNational Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, which premiered the Yiddish production of FIDDLER. So, not exactly a runat the Public or MCC, but it's playing there for 7 weeks with backing from Ken Davenport and commercial producers, and it will be seen/reviewed by New York audiences and critics. We can assume Broadway is ultimately the goal."

NYTF in Battery Park City is tiny around 200 seats

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Updated On: 8/17/19 at 08:56 PM

I saw the Atlanta production 5 or 6 years ago-- at the Alliance-- and loved it. The score was beautiful, the story was quite interesting (and true) and I would have sworn it was going to Broadway. I actually went back to see it several times during its run...I thought it was quite powerful.

You can, indeed, hear several of the songs on Manilow's Scores album, and I'd recommend them, though they are immensely more meaningful in the context of the show. Over the last 5 years I've seen most of the original musicals that have premiered in New York and in Atlanta (including many pre-Broadway runs at the Alliance) and I would put HARMONY in the top 10. The problem is the pedestrian book, which was OK but not sufficient to the power and scope and showmanship of the rest of it. I am excited for the upcoming off-Broadway production, done by a group I admire so much for their FIDDLER.

Updated On: 8/18/19 at 11:55 PM

I saw this in Los Angeles and it was pretty bad - the reviews were more or less spot on. Between that and the producer involved, I'm hoping it as least crosses into so bad its good territory.

The N.Y. Post's Page Six reports that ''Harmony'' recently got a private reading at Sardi's. It said Jarrod Spector, Rob McClure, Reeve Carney, Nicholas Barasch, John Behlmann, Kate Baldwin and Jessie Mueller joined director Warren Carlyle.

Updated On: 8/24/19 at 01:57 AM