The crackling-good, even inflammatory Harmony—tough-minded music by Barry Manilow, tough-minded book and lyrics by Bruce Sussman—likely needs an introduction. It’s a long stone’s throw from “Copacabana (At the Copa)” that song Manilow and Sussman (with co-lyricist Jack Feldman) sent up the 1993 Top 40 charts.
Harmony is the initially inspiring, ultimately sorrowful history of the Comedian Harmonists, a Berlin-based sextet founded in 1927 that hit a stride internationally in the years 1930-32. Due to its three Jewish members, the group became politically endangered in 1933. Adolph Hitler rose to power, and by 1934 the ensemble was forced to present a last Munich performance. They disbanded—that is, were somewhat reconstituted—by 1935.
As a program note explains, bookwriter Sussman recounts their sadly too brief renown with some retooling of the facts. Chronology and locale are altered, and the character of one woman is a composite of several. All of this is, evidently, a prerogative for bookwriters prepping a musical.
Nonetheless, the Comedian Harmonists’ tale remains true, or true enough, as narrated by now much older member Josef Roman Cycowski, known as Rabbi (Chip Zien). The Manilow-Sussman version is joyful and, in the end, profoundly moving, even as it risks crossing the line into shameless tear jerking.
The (loose) Harmony chronology begins with Harry Frommermann (Zal Owen) auditioning the five additional Harmonists—Robert “Bobby” Biberti (Sean Bell), Ari “Lesh” Leshnikoff (Steven Telsey), Josef Roman “Young Rabbi” Cycowski (Danny Kornfeld), Erich Collin (Eric Peters), and Erwin “Chopin” Bootz ( (Blake Roman).
The six assembled, Sussman follows them finding their unique sound and landing some early gigs. Then, thanks to Richard Strauss (Zien, doubling as, yes, that Strauss), they’re booked into the posh Barbarina and on their exhilarating way. They appear—per a program note—with Josephine Baker (Ana Hoffman) in the “New Ziegfeld Follies of 1934.” They begin globe-hopping tours.
They shake Carnegie Hall rafters in 1933, which, in this history’s backward glance, leads to an act-one-closing turning point. Considering the possibility of establishing themselves in the States rather than returning to Germany, about which they’re hearing dire news, they argue among themselves—not uncommon with music groups.
Despite the internal strife, they decide on the homeland and spend the second act feeling Nazi walls close in. Their unavoidable destiny is exacerbated by pianist Bootz’s Jewish wife, Ruth (Jessie Davidson), an unabashed protester against National Socialism. She’s quite unlike Young Rabbi’s Aryan wife, Mary (Sierra Boggess), who keeps her counsel and talks of converting.
The opening Harmony sequence, a title tune, immediately lets the audience know that where songs are concerned, Manilow and Sussman can easily provide a score in the tradition of outstanding Broadway contributions. (Manilow and Sussman began work on the first-rate project some years ago, with a 1997 premiere at the La Jolla Playhouse.)
Whether they’ve produced standard step-outs, a rarity these days anyway, may not occur, though on “Every Single Day” Kornfeld has a voice to ravish the moment. But those comedy numbers! “How Can I Serve You, Madame?” is a double-entendre treat with the Harmonists suggesting that food service is not what these scantily dressed waiters are offering. “Come to the Fatherland” is a bitter and dangerous excoriation of what Hitler’s Germany has become.
Not only the Harmony score, conducted by John O’Neill, but the book, too, receive a high-gloss polish, many thanks to director-choreographer Warren Carlyle. He’s direct from The Music Man and, recently enough, direct from Hello, Dolly!
As a matter of what looks to be intended fact, Carlyle’s presence (along with set designer Beowulf Boritt, costume designers Linda Cho and Ricky Lurie, lighting designers Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer, sound designer Don Moses Schreier, video designer batwin + robin projections) suggests something aspirational about producer National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene with Ken Davenport and Sandi Moran and an armful of other producers. They won’t be satisfied until their enterprise moves from the way-downtown Museum of Jewish Heritage to Broadway or, maybe, to off-Broadway’s Theatre 42, where the Yiddish Fiddler on the Roof transferred after the MJH stop.
As Harmony reaches its conclusion, Chip Zien—also appearing as Comedian Harmonist fan Albert Einstein—grows weary. That’s after recounting so many mixed memories of his earlier days in the libertine Weimar Republic and the encroaching Third Reich.
As he does, only the extremely unaware observer won’t be jarred by the frightening similarity of what’s happening around the globe nowadays, when too many established and wannabe autocrats adopt that worrisome I-alone-can-fix-it attitude.
Carlyle and cast take care that the wide range of emotions send home the musical’s past and current message. Most prominent among them are Zien (giving his most remarkable performance in a long career); Kornfeld as the fervent Young Rabbi; Boggess as the Young Rabbi’s wise wife; Davidson as the defiant Nazi hater; Roman as a Gentile husband enamored of his Jewish wife; and Owen as the committed Comedian Harmonists creator. A large and busy supporting cast further indicates the producers’ determination to get Harmony to the much-bigger time where it also belongs.
Final note: For perhaps obvious reasons, Manilow and Sussman include nothing from the Comedian Harmonists large repertoire. Many of these can immediately be located on YouTube, e.g., the devilishly infectious “Veronika, Der Lenz Ist Da.”
Harmony opened April 13, 2022, at the Folksbiene Theatre (Battery Park City) and runs through May 8. Tickets and information: nytf.org
