‘Harmony’ Review: Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman’s Broadway Musical Is a Glitzy, Superficial Look at a True Story
variety.comTrish Deitch There’s a narrator in “Harmony,” Bruce Sussman and Barry Manilow’s musical now playing at Broadway’s Ethel Barrymore Theater—an elderly rabbi, played ably by Chip Zien, who tells the true story of six young men in Berlin who formed a comedic singing group in 1927 that rose to international fame at the same time that the Nazis came to power.
The rabbi was one of three Jewish men in the group, called the Comedian Harmonists, and he implies throughout the play that he was the only survivor.
You’d think, then, that the two and half hours of action up on the stage would be sorrowful and terrifying, and ultimately tragic, but they’re not.
The play, equal parts glitzy and superficial, consists largely of jaunty songs, written by Manilow, that the group sings on stages — including Carnegie Hall — as they travel the world.
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