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August 20, 2013 Huffington Post"Barry Manilow's New Musical Based on 'Backstreet Boys of the 1920s'" by Kristi York Wooten
In 1991, Broadway lyricist Bruce Sussman saw a documentary by director Eberhard Fechner that prompted him to run to the nearest payphone and tell his writing partner, Barry Manilow, they must create a show about a forgotten 1920s ensemble called The Comedian Harmonists. That six-man German vocal group, which toured the world until being disbanded and dispersed by Nazi activity in 1934 (three of its members were Jewish), was the hottest thing going on the international music scene. Yet, today its story is little known -- even among music aficionados.

Manilow and Sussman are hoping their hummable new collaboration will bring the German singers' story to the mainstream. After more than a decade of rewrites, soft starts and business snafus, the pair will open Harmony -- A New Musical, at Atlanta's Alliance Theatre on September 6.

The musical is "adapted for the grasp of a 2013 audience," but inspired by the unique talents of The Comedian Harmonists, Manilow told me during a recent interview. "They were the Backstreet Boys of their time."

Manilow is quick to point out that Harmony "isn't a show about the Holocaust," although it contains references to "the approaching storm" of German oppression in the mid-1930s, says Sussman. The show instead focuses on the high drama within the personal lives of the group members, their love interests, travels, and friendships with other famous artists of the day.

Sussman describes Harmony, directed by Tony Speciale (a veteran of off-Broadway productions such as Classic Stage Company's A Midsummer Night's Dream starring Bebe Neuwirth), as "a sweeping book musical that visits 28 locations" featuring "original numbers and presentational songs" he co-penned with Manilow (the pair is famous for their 1970s hits, "Copacabana" and the theme song from "American Bandstand").

For authenticity, Speciale picked cast members whose ages matched those of the actual Comedian Harmonists (ages 21-27) at the time of their debut in 1927. Both Sussman and Manilow are impressed with the Harmony cast, which includes Will Blum (Book of Mormon), Chris Dwan, Shayne Kennon, Will Taylor (42nd Street), Douglas Williams, and Tony Yazbeck (Chicago), along with Leigh Ann Larkin and Hannah Corneau in the primary roles, and an ensemble filled with Alliance and Broadway veterans.

The singing, Manilow says, "is beautiful." Like the original Comedian Harmonists, Harmony's cast has real chops. "Those days, there was no such thing as autotune or 'punching in,'" he says.

There's comedy, too. Sussman adds that a "transformative moment" in the musical -- and one he hopes will be an audience favorite -- happens when the sextet of performers "first realize that they're funny."

As for staging Harmony's latest debut in the South (John Mellencamp and Stephen King brought their musical, Ghost Brothers of Darkland County to the Alliance in 2012), Sussman says he's reminded of a conversation he once had with Sheldon Harnick, lyricist for the 1964 Broadway production of Fiddler on the Roof: "He told me if Fiddler succeeded, it could run for three years in New York, based on the Jewish audiences in the Northeast," Sussman says. Of course, the musical went on to become the first Broadway show to surpass 3,000 performances. "What they didn't anticipate was the universality of it," he says of Fiddler on the Roof. The same is true of Harmony, he believes: "We don't have to cater to any audience, whether we do it in the South or the Northwest, it makes no difference."

Harmony's Sept. 6-Oct. 6 stint in Atlanta will be a proving ground for future plans (the musical will head to L.A. next with no definite dates scheduled for a New York run -- yet), and its creators are too seasoned to boast of grand schemes for Broadway. Yet, if the "fanilows" come shining through, maybe's there's hope? "I think I can count on my loyal fans to get us started," Manilow says,"But this show is going to have to stand on its own. We have to rely on Harmony as a musical."

August 19, 2013 Broadway WorldBehind The Scenes Of Barry Manilow's HARMONY
Take a look behind the scenes of Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman's long in-development musical HARMONY as it prepares for its highly anticipated debut at Atlanta's Alliance Theatre in a few short weeks byway of a handful of new shots recently released.

     

With a score by Manilow, featuring a book and lyrics by Bruce Sussman and direction by Tony Speciale, HARMONY is Manilow's first original stage musical with an eye set torwards Broadway following the highly anticipated bow of the show this September at the ALLIANCE THEATRE in Atlanta, Georgia.

The official synopsis of HARMONY is as follows: "HARMONY tells the compelling story of the Comedian Harmonists. They were the first sensational boy band: six talented young men who came together in 1920s Germany and took the world by storm with their signature blend of sophisticated close harmonies and uproarious stage antics. The Comedian Harmonists sold millions of records, starred in a dozen films and packed the houses of the most prestigious concert halls around the globe until the world they knew forever changed. Their amazing story inspirEd Barry and Bruce to create a spectacular new musical with an original score that celebrates this extraordinary group of friends and ensures their quest for true harmony in the most discordant chapter of human history will never be forgotten."

HARMONY opens September 6 at the ALLIANCE THEATRE in Atlanta. A second production at the Ahmanson Theatre in California is planned for March 2014, as well.

August 16, 2013 The GA Voice"Barry Manilow’s 'Harmony'" by Jim Farmer
He writes the songs that make the whole world sing. And he’s the voice behind them as well: "Mandy," "Copacabana" and dozens more. Now Barry Manilow is collaborating with the Alliance Theatre for the company’s 2013-2014 season opener, "Harmony – A New Musical," taking the stage early next month.

"Harmony" is the true story of what could be the first boy band extraordinaire: The Comedian [Harmonists], composed of six young men in Germany in the 1920s. They sold millions of records and starred in films. But three members were Jewish and as anti-Semitism grew, the group fell apart. Nazis eventually disbanded them.

Manilow is surprised that the band is relatively obscure to today’s audiences. "They were huge in Europe, all over the place, but we didn’t know about them," he says. "They were the Manhattan Transfer (of their age). They knocked us out." He compares their humor to that of the Marx Brothers.

The fine line in "Harmony" is creating a musical with a great score (almost 20 songs in all) but with a darker subject - and not making it overly morose. Manilow is quick to point out that this isn’t a Holocaust musical. "It ends in 1935," he says.

While Manilow is handling the music for the production, his longtime writing partner Bruce Sussman is responsible for the book and lyrics. The Atlanta gig is directed by Broadway veteran Tony Speciale.

Manilow and Sussman were in town recently for rehearsals and are pleased with what they are seeing. "It is going great," Sussman says. "It’s been thrilling; it is going to be a spectacular show."

Sussman read an article about the Comedian Harmomists and soon after saw the documentary about them. He knew he had a project. The musical was first produced back in 1997 at the La Jolla Playhouse in La Jolla, Calif.

The upcoming Atlanta show is the first staging since, although there have been attempts to do it elsewhere. When Sussman and Manilow were looking around for a regional theater to re-stage it, people kept on mentioning the Alliance. They called and found a welcoming home. "Harmony" has been tightened since the 1997 production. The first act is much shorter, Sussman says. He refers to it as a new vision.

Both men feel "Harmony" is especially relevant for LGBT audiences. "Who wouldn’t relate to six friends in trouble creating beautiful music in a terrible time?" Manilow says.

Sussman believes "any group in the shadows or that have been in the shadows" can empathize with the characters. During the course of the musical is the rise of national socialism and the tracking down of gays and lesbians, he says.

After the Atlanta engagement, the musical will travel to Los Angeles. Beyond that, where it goes is anyone’s guess, although Sussman and Manilow certainly would not be opposed to taking it elsewhere. For now, though, "our blinders are on; we’re only thinking of this production," says Sussman.

Although they love the pop songs that made Manilow popular, the two realize that doing a stage musical takes a good five years to produce. Previously, the two worked on a stage version of "Copacabana" together, as well as a few films.

The secret to a 41-year working relationship, both men feel, is knowing how to collaborate - knowing that it’s okay sometimes to make a fool out of yourself and try new things until it all clicks.

INFORMATION: "Harmony – A New Musical". Sept. 6 – Oct. 6. Alliance Theatre. www.alliancetheatre.org

August 15, 2013 New York Times"Breaking Out of His Pop Prison: Barry Manilow’s Musical 'Harmony' to be Revived in Atlanta" by Jesse McKinley
Meeting Barry Manilow for the first time comes with all sorts of surprises. For someone who sings big songs in an unapologetically open-lunged manner, Mr. Manilow speaks quietly in interviews, often more mumbling than mellifluous.

Likewise, while he’s known for his smooth demeanor onstage, Mr. Manilow glides a touch gingerly nowadays, the result of hip surgeries - one as recently as last week - and shoulders so square that it appears someone may have accidentally left a coat hanger in his jacket. And while he’s known for sugar in his songs, he can be a little salty in person; he’s from Brooklyn, after all.

But perhaps the biggest surprise about Mr. Manilow, a confirmed master of the soft-rock American standard, is this little fact: despite all his years of gold records and frosted tips, what he’s always really wanted to do is make a first-class Broadway musical. "I’ve been kind of imprisoned in the pop music world, very happily, but there are these rules that you need to adhere to in pop music," said Mr. Manilow, mentioning some of his best-known songs about love, loss and hot spots north of Havana. "There is a certain brick wall that you hit. But this gave me the opportunity to go way, way beyond what I’ve been doing for 30 years."

The result of that artistic stretch is "Harmony," with a book and lyrics by his longtime collaborator, Bruce Sussman. It’s a show that has been gestating for two decades, including a 1997 run at La Jolla Playhouse in California and a planned 2004 Broadway engagement, which was foiled when its lead producer announced soon before an out-of-town opening that he was millions short of capitalization. Rehearsals ground to a halt, and Mr. Manilow and Mr. Sussman eventually had to fight to wrest back rights for the show.

But Mr. Manilow said he never gave up on "Harmony" - "We tried putting it in the drawer, and it just won’t stay there" - and said he has a simple goal now. "I just want to see it one more time before I croak," said Mr. Manilow, who’s 70.

Barring unforeseen tragedy, that wish will come true when the Alliance Theater Company in Atlanta presents "Harmony" in a monthlong run beginning Sept. 6, directed by Tony Speciale. Tickets are selling briskly, more evidence of Mr. Manilow’s continued drawing power, something displayed with his successful concerts earlier this year on Broadway. But both he and Mr. Sussman are playing down any suggestion that Atlanta is a tryout. "We’re just saying thank you very much, come down and see us, we’ll talk to you later," Mr. Sussman said. "We want to keep the blinders on."

The long wait between productions seems to have done nothing to dull the two creators’ ardor for "Harmony," which tells the story of the Comedian Harmonists, a vaudevillian German sextet whose rise to international fame was interrupted by the Nazis rise to power. The group - whose mix of Jewish and non-Jewish performers was anathema to Hitler - has been the subject of several other creative interpretations, including an acclaimed 1997 German film, "The Harmonists," and a 1999 Broadway musical, "Band in Berlin," which was much less loved.

Mr. Sussman, 64, said he first came across the Harmonists in 1991, when he saw a documentary that explored their story and left him wanting more. So much so that he flew to Berlin to inspect the archives of the group, and left there with a clear idea of what their tale was about. "This is a show about the quest for harmony in what turned out to be the most discordant chapter in human history," Mr. Sussman said.

As for music, Mr. Sussman’s first call was to Mr. Manilow, with whom he had collaborated on the ridiculous, and ridiculously catchy, 1978 hit "Copacabana" and scores of other songs since the two met in the early 1970s. By that time, Mr. Manilow had already written a musical - "The Drunkard," which ran Off Broadway - and had established his bona fides: born in Brooklyn, he started playing piano in elementary school and attended the Juilliard School before working as an arranger and musical director for Bette Midler. He began recording in the mid-1970s, and has since sold more than 80 million records, and produced for Ms. Midler and Dionne Warwick.

For all of that, though, Mr. Manilow said that when Mr. Sussman first mentioned the Harmonists, it bothered him that he hadn’t heard of them. "They were the architects of the kind of popular singing that we all grew up loving," Mr. Manilow said, mentioning groups like the Manhattan Transfer and Take 6. "They were huge. How’d did we miss these guys?"

The 1997 production - which came in at three hours - received mixed reviews. Some critics faulted Mr. Sussman, while others dissed the more famous Mr. Manilow. "It’s a solid show, impeccably staged and performed," wrote Charles Isherwood, in 1997, for Variety, "whose major disappointment is the contribution of Manilow, its marquee name."

Still, in 2003, it looked as if "Harmony" would finally get a fuller production. Rehearsals were under way in New York and a theater in Philadelphia was prepped for a pre-Broadway tryout. And then the money ran out.

At the time, Mr. Manilow referred to the cancellation as a "colossal blunder." But last year, he called Mr. Sussman and asked if he would consider taking another shot. Soon, they were calling regional theaters, including the Alliance, whose main number they say they looked up in the phone book. "They said, ‘Who’s calling?’ and we said, ‘Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman,’ and they said, ‘Yeah sure,’ " Mr. Sussman recalled.

Once they got past the receptionist, Susan V. Booth, the theater’s artistic director, was less circumspect. She had kept tabs on the progress of "Harmony" over the years and was intrigued by its premise. More recently, she’d heard a demo of the show sung by Mr. Manilow. So, she said, "It wasn’t a long line to ‘yes’ " when the two called.

Mr. Manilow was stunned by the quick booking - Mr. Sussman recalls him calling in a happy, profanity-enhanced reverie after the conversation with Ms. Booth - but there was work to done, including landing a creative team. With a background in plays and classics, Mr. Speciale may have seemed an unorthodox choice for the new production, but he said the job was the result of an instant connection at an interview last fall. "I felt like I had known these guys my entire life," he said.

Despite the earlier production, Mr. Speciale said he approached "Harmony" as a new musical rather than a revival, cutting almost an hour. And while Mr. Manilow’s songs may not be synonymous with deep thoughts, Mr. Speciale said audiences would be surprised if they expected many songs like "Mandy," or other entries in his adult contemporary canon. "It’s not a golden age musical that has a sort of fluff ending," Mr. Speciale said. "It’s about real people, and it tells their rise to success, but also the things that eventually tore them apart. I don’t know if that’s surprising. But its what’s rewarding to work on."

Mr. Sussman echoed that. "One of the most joyful parts of this for me is that everyone else gets to see the Barry that I know and that I’ve known all these years," he said, adding that "the general public tends to think of him in one way."

That said, Mr. Manilow seems open to questions about his image. His visage seems to have - how to put this? - adapted over the years, and he admits to having some minor plastic surgery in the 1990s, as well as some Botox shots, though he says he stopped those before the millennium dawned, saying they didn’t work. And while steroids ease his hip pain - he had major surgery in 2011 - they cause his face to swell.

In a recent rehearsal, Mr. Manilow stood at the piano, giving notes on an actor’s key and the phrasings of songs, while sucking on an electronic cigarette. His eyes deeply set behind spectacles and his teeth preternaturally white - there’s a kind of cool crocodile vibe to Mr. Manilow - he listened intently as his cast worked its way through "How Can I Serve You, Madame?," a waltz that includes references to Hamlet, falsetto singing and complex harmonies. In short, Top 40 it wasn’t.

Indeed, Mr. Manilow said the songs in "Harmony" had to be "more authentic" than other things he’d written in his career, one that began many years ago in Brooklyn, with an eye always cast toward Broadway. "This is not anything new for me," he said. "This is what I’ve loved to do ever since I was a kid." Then he added: "I know how to do it. I just have never been asked to do it."

August 9, 2013 Access Atlanta"Manilow’s 'Harmony' finds a home at the Alliance" by Melissa Ruggieri
On opening night of "Harmony: A New Musical," don’t expect to see Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman lounging in the audience. It’s more likely the iconic musician and his longtime songwriting partner will be boring a hole in the Alliance Theatre carpet as they pace somewhere in the darkness. Raw nerves are understandable, as the journey to bring "Harmony" to the stage again has been detoured and derailed so frequently, it could form its own nail-biter of a drama.

At the moment, however, Manilow and Sussman are sanguine. Staging their musical about the Comedian Harmonists, a six-man vocal and comedy ensemble that ruled music in 1920s Germany, at the Alliance is, as Sussman whispers with a smile, "bashert," the Yiddish expression for "meant to be."

During the first week of rehearsals earlier this month, Sussman and Manilow took a break from watching director Tony Speciale and the 19-member cast run through the swelling ballads "This is Our Time" and "Every Single Day" to discuss the production they’ve been trying to get back on stage since a short run in La Jolla, Calif., in 1997.

"I just want to see it up there one more time before I croak," Manilow says, his soft blue eyes expressing the passion he’s felt for the show since Sussman first called him from a pay phone on Lafayette Street in Lower Manhattan in 1991. He had just watched a documentary about the vocal group at an area movie house and "blathered" to Manilow, "I think we found the story we’re looking for."

"Bruce and I know a lot about music, but we had never heard of these people. How’d we miss them? They were the architects of the kind of stuff we love. They were so inventive, but how come we never heard of these guys? That’s the story," Manilow says.

The Comedian Harmonists were the boy band of their time because of their stylish looks - full tuxedos - and popularity. But they were also vaudevillians, and musically, their six-part harmonies could be compared to the contemporary music of The Manhattan Transfer, Take 6, or, when their voices blended to mimic the sounds of instruments, Bobby McFerrin. Their success continued into the early 1930s, but because three of the group’s members were either Jewish or of Jewish descent, the Nazi regime quashed their success. "It became a crime to play their records," Sussman says, "so people hid them under their beds."

Sussman and Manilow’s friendship and professional relationshipspans 41 years, and they’ve been trying to stage a musical together since the beginning. But Manilow’s extraordinary pop career – more than 80 million records sold worldwide – continued to escalate. "We met to write musicals and the pop thing took over," says Sussman, who wrote the book and lyrics for "Harmony." But that day in 1991 when Sussman called from the payphone, Manilow "took a leap of faith and said, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about, but go get it,’ and I was on a plane to Berlin within a couple of months to start the research."

That research included meeting with an uber-fan, whom the Harmonists had bequeathed memorabilia, including costumes, passports and music, and talking to an original Comedian Harmonist, Roman "Rabbi" Cykowski, before he died in 1998. Unbeknownst to Manilow, Cykowski lived around the corner from him in Palm Springs. "He was a vaudevillian," Manilow recalls. "In the play, he’s married to a woman named Mary, and when I walked into their house, she was sitting next to him. I could cry just remembering that moment."

Sussman attended a performance by a Comedian Harmonists tribute group in a basement club in Germany with a "young, hip punk crowd" – a nod to the timelessness of the Harmonists’ work.

Manilow, who composed the music for "Harmony," also traveled to Germany, headed to Tower Records and stocked up on hit compilation records, called the "schlagerparade," from the music of the 1920s and 1930s. "I left with a suitcase full of the schlagerparade and dove into the classical music of that generation," he says. "In a good way, I don’t think you’ll consider this a Barry Manilow pop score."

Sussman smiles at his friend and is quick to compliment. "I think it reflects not only the impeccable research you did, but your love of the theater."

The rhythm between Sussman and Manilow is palpable. They finish each other’s sentences. They share such a tight mental bond that Manilow often jokes to Sussman, "I can hear you working," when Sussman is merely sitting and thinking.

Sussman, his blue shirt sleeves rolled up, is the animated yin to Manilow’s quieter, black suit-clad yang. But when they huddle together at the back of a rehearsal," they both nod affirmatively at what they’re hearing – different personalities but of the same mind.

They also knew immediately when they contacted Alliance Artistic Director Susan V. Booth a little more than a year ago – a call made without the interference of producers or investors or anyone from "that world," as Manilow frequently refers to Broadway bean counters – that "Harmony" would at last have a home. "She answered the phone and said, 'Gentleman, please tell me you’re calling about Harmony,'" Sussman recalls, eyes widening with incredulity. "Well, the two of us, we were just shy of bursting into tears."

Manilow, shaking his head in disbelief, continues. "She knew the script, she had heard the score. Finally, it was somebody saying the most beautiful things about the show. I don’t know if we’d get that from that other world, because that other world wanted Jay-Z in the show," he says, referring to a meeting with Great White Way producers who suggested that the rapper star in the musical. "I was asked once if I’d consider writing in the Von Trapp children," Sussman adds, amplifying the absurdity that he and Manilow have battled over the years. "(Susan) only confirmed our instincts that regional theaters are where you want to do your work. It’s about the piece. It isn’t about the Von Trapp children or Jay-Z."

Booth, for her part, says she remembered hearing about the show’s two-month run in La Jolla back when she was director of new play development at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre. After coming to the Alliance, she started digging around in 2008 to check on the status of "Harmony," which had been tied up in a series of investor and litigious headaches through the early 2000s. "I put my hand up inside the circle and said, if you’re thinking of doing regional theater, I really want to be on that list," Booth says.

Now that she’s witnessed the pair in action, she is unabashedly impressed. "I’ve been so moved by how unencumbered they are by their professional notoriety," Booth says. "They are treating this moment as if there is this and only this. If that’s the governing vibe in the room, great work gets done. If it’s 'what’s next?' you make decisions for all the wrong reasons."

To listen to Manilow, "Harmony" begins and ends at regional theaters. He shakes his head emphatically when asked what his plan is for the musical beyond its month-long run at the Alliance and subsequent staging at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles next year. "Nothing," is the plan, Manilow says.

Sussman jumps in to counter. "You know what’s going to happen? People are going to be here and talk to us and we’ll see if there is enough Valium on the planet to have those conversations," he says, looking at Manilow.

But Manilow, shaking his head again, is adamant. "I don’t think my heart can take it." Or, for that matter, the theater carpeting.

"Harmony: A New Musical." Previews Sept. 6-14. Opening night Sept. 15. Runs through Oct. 6. 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays-Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays; 2:30 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. Sundays. (No shows 2:30 p.m., Sept. 7, and 7:30 p.m., Oct. 6). $30-$75. Alliance Theatre, 1280 Peachtree St. N.E., Atlanta.404-733-5000, www.alliancetheatre.org/harmony.

August 8, 2013 The Jewish Daily Forward"Barry Manilow Returns To His Jewish and Broadway Roots With 'Harmony': Singer-Songwriter Is Ready To Take a Chance Again" by Adam Langer
At a few minutes before 2 p.m., the mood in the Snapple Theater Center was loose, the ambiance casual bordering on schlumpy. In a low-ceilinged rehearsal room, there was a long table cluttered with papers, three-ring binders and Diet Cokes. A stage manager typed away on a laptop. A box of Cheez-It crackers and a pump dispenser of hand sanitizer stood on what passed for a craft services table. An air conditioner clunk-clunk-clunked away.

In front of an upright piano where assistant music director John O'Neill was building chords and picking out notes, a half-dozen male actors in jeans and sneakers slouched in front of their music stands and horsed around. A carton of coconut water at his feet, Wayne Alan Wilcox -- you may remember him as Marty on "Gilmore Girls" or as Gordon in the film version of "Rent"-- pretended to hump one of his fellow actors as he sang a song called "Every Single Day."

"Every single daaaaay," he crooned while he thrusted. "We'll remember what we do todaaaaaay. Words we didn't saaaaaay we'll remember every single daaaaaay."

If those lyrics seem familiar, it might be because you've heard Barry Manilow sing them on his most recent tour. The song tends to turn up between his cover version of Frankie Valli's "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" and "Lay Me Down," from Manilow's 1975 album "Tryin' To Get the Feeling." He also performed it earlier this year at New York's St. James Theater, as part of his "Manilow on Broadway" show.

That may have been the first time "Every Single Day" was sung on a Broadway stage. But at the rehearsal, the unspoken hope was that the song will wind up there again, perhaps as early as next year, as part of "Harmony," a musical that has been an obsession of Manilow and one of his longtime writing partners, Bruce Sussman, for the better part of two decades. The musical concerns the Comedian Harmonists, a sextet of male German singers -- some Jewish, some not -- who rose to fame in the 1920s and '30s but had their careers crushed by the Nazis. The subject matter seems just about as far from "Mandy" and "I Write the Songs" as one could imagine, but both Manilow and Sussman have said that the project speaks to their Jewish upbringings and to their love of musical theater.

"Harmony" premiered in California in 1997, where it opened to middling reviews; plans to eventually bring it to Broadway were sidetracked by financial troubles and a protracted legal battle with one of the show's original producers. At one point, Manilow was hospitalized for stress that was attributed to the fight over "Harmony." Now that Manilow and Sussman once again have the rights to the musical, they will be opening a new version of the show, this time directed by Tony Speciale, former associate artistic director of the Classic Stage Company in September at Atlanta's Alliance Theatre. Then in 2014, onward to the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles. And after that, well, as Sussman puts it, "Keyn'e hore."

Sussman was seated at the rehearsal table, but Manilow wasn't in the room -- he was out in the hall, chatting with his publicist and his personal assistant as the actors turned pages in their three-ring binders, stopping when they reached a musical number called "Harmony, Part 3." The approach seemed to be for the actors to work as much as possible with their director and without the looming presence of a multi-platinum, Grammy, Tony, Emmy-award winning performer making them jumpy.

At precisely 2 p.m., rehearsal started in earnest, and there was a palpable shift in the room. Someone turned off the air conditioner. The postures became straighter. The actors performed their six-part harmonies with a new precision that almost allowed you to imagine that they were wearing tuxedos and standing on a proscenium stage in a concert hall rather than wearing hoodies and caps while standing on a buffed wooden floor littered with Starbucks cups. "If we've got harmony, we've got a chance," they sang.

When they finished with the song, O'Neill looked to the actors. "Shall we let Barry have a listen?" he asked.

There was a long silence. Then, one of them said, "Sure." But none of the other actors said anything.

"Weee-ell," O'Neill said, "Let's try it one more time before we do that."

At first, the idea of Barry Manilow co-writing an original Broadway musical might seem like a departure for him, but in fact, musical theater was where he got started. Originally the accompanist for an off-Broadway show called "The Drunkard," featuring public domain songs from the 19th century, Manilow eventually wrote an entirely new score. "The Drunkard" opened in 1964 and went on to play off-Broadway at the 13th Street Theatre for eight years. And when Manilow (né Barry Alan Pincus) met Bruce Sussman (né Sussman) in late May 1972, the two talked about collaborating on musicals and about their affinity for intelligent, contemporary shows like Stephen Sondheim's "Company."

"Before the pop career hit, this is where I wanted to be. I wanted to be in the musical world," Manilow said.

"When I met Barry, I was a theater writer," Sussman said. "I didn't know anything about pop music, and we were going to write shows together. But it was kind of an ugly time in musical theater back then."

"All the people we knew in New York were turned off by everything that came after the Golden Age on Broadway we grew up with," Manilow said. "And then 'Company' happened, and that's when everybody I knew said, 'Let's get back into the theater.'"

"I remember talking to you about 'Company' the first night we met, and you said, 'I saw it 17 times,' and I said, 'I saw it 21 times,'" Sussman said.

"I second-acted it," Manilow said. "I'd go in for free after intermission."

"So did I. We were both poor. We stood outside. You can't do that anymore. They ask for Playbills and ticket stubs now," Sussman said. "I remember I wrote Sondheim the only fan letter I ever wrote in my life, when I was a senior in college, and he wrote back and invited me to the opening night of 'Follies' at the Winter Garden. I sat in the eighth row between Ethel Merman and Danny Kaye, and I thought, if I die right here and now, it will have been a full and rewarding life."

Manilow and Sussman were sitting on barstools along with Speciale in the Snapple Theater Center's upstairs lobby, outside the 200-seat house where the long-running murder mystery "Perfect Crime" is performed.

The two men have an easy repartee honed through 41 years of friendship and business dealings. Dressed in a black button-down shirt and matching jeans, Sussman was bearish in an amiable sort of way, an enthusiastic raconteur of Manilow's tales and his own. Manilow, in belted black slacks, black shirt, gray sport coat and blindingly shiny black shoes, was more measured and reserved in his speech; he seems more than willing to let Sussman play Boswell to his Johnson. Sucking contemplatively on an electronic cigarette, Manilow presents a beatific, off-stage presence, suggestive less of a pop superstar than of the caterpillar in Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland." "Onstage, I'm the pop singer. It's a gig; it's a job," Manilow said.

"Harmony" is not Manilow and Sussman's first experience writing the sort of character-based material that "Harmony" requires. The men worked together on the scores for the animated films "The Pebble and the Penguin" and "Thumbelina," and for the TV and stage versions of "Copacabana," based on the monster hit song written by Manilow, Sussman and Jack Feldman. The song is sort of a three-verse musical in itself. And, over the past 40 years, Manilow and Sussman have discussed countless ideas for musicals, including one about the cartoon character Betty Boop and adaptations of everything from Mark Twain's "The Prince and the Pauper" to the movie "Tootsie." But a musical about the Comedian Harmonists, who were the subject of a documentary that Sussman had watched, was the idea that took hold of both of them.

"It's about a quest for harmony in the most discordant chapter in human history," Sussman said, though Manilow was quick to add, "It's not a Holocaust musical."

"Right," Sussman said. "But it takes place in the approaching storm, and I feel that the writing of the play itself is an act of bearing witness, and that's an important thing to me. We had a survivor come speak to the cast yesterday. She's 85 and she said something, and I had to bow my head because I was welling up when she said it. She said: 'I'm 85. How much longer do I have to tell this story?' I feel that. There has to be another generation who continues to tell the story, who continues to remember. That's why this musical is so important."

"The idea spoke to me very quickly. As a musician and as a Jew," Manilow said. "These guys, the Comedian Harmonists, were the architects of the kind of music that we love today. They were the Backstreet Boys, they were The Beatles, they were huge. Huge. They invented this style of six-part singing. They were young, they were attractive, they were funny. They were revered in Europe. After we saw the documentary, we said, 'How come we've never heard of these guys?'"

"And in a way, that is the story -- that we don't know anything about them," Sussman said.

Although Sussman and Manilow started talking about this musical in 1991, they didn't start work in earnest until three years later. Sussman spent a year in Germany doing research before writing a first draft that he says was "longer than Wagner's 'Ring' cycle."

"It's been a very rough road for us, but thrilling when it comes to creativity," Manilow said "Maybe 'liberating' is a good word for it. Because I am kind of imprisoned when it comes to the kind of songs that I have to write for albums. There are certain brick walls that I hit. I've broken so many rules over the years as a songwriter. But even so, there's no way I could write anything like what I'm required to write for 'Harmony.'"

After the initial production, in La Jolla, Calif., Manilow actually got the opportunity to meet one of the original Comedian Harmonists when he was asked to give an award to Roman Cycowski, the last surviving member of the group. Cycowski inspired a character called "Rabbi" in Manilow and Sussman's musical. He died in 1998 at the age of 97, and had worked as a cantor in Palm Springs and, as it turned out, lived only four blocks away from Manilow.

"I'd been walking the dogs in front of his house for 15 years, and I didn't even know he was there. He was a vaudevillian, and he still acted like one. During our meeting, he said, 'If they hadn't destroyed us, we would've been bigger than The Beatles.'"

"I talked to [Cycowski] on the phone," Sussman said. "He was a character, and he was funny and he was a ham -- a kosher one, but a ham. We talked for a while, and I guess his rabbinical training came to the fore; he felt the need to bless me. He said: 'You know I'm a very old man. I wish you as long and as healthy a life as I have. I hope that when you reach my age you will still be collecting royalties.'"

"What did you say to him?" Manilow asked.

Smiling, Sussman answered: "I said, 'A-men.'"

In the Snapple Theater Center, the actors and O'Neill worked out a few rough patches in the musical number they had been rehearsing. O'Neill said that he had decided to use a different chord at the end of a particular phrase. At the table, Sussman looked up from the script he had been studying and asked O'Neill if he was making this change based on something Manilow had suggested. "Yeah," O'Neill said.

Sussman nodded as if to say that this was the only thing that mattered -- "Okay" -- and then he went back to his script. "All right," O'Neill said. "Let's call Barry in."

Moments later, Manilow strode in with the assurance of a man used to being the center of attention in any room. The men stood upright, then turned their attention to their scores. O'Neill began to play. "Harmony," the Harmonists sang. "We sing in harmony. Like the robins in Leicester Square -- Tweedle dee, tweedle dee dee dee dee dee."

Whether they actually sounded like robins is open to some debate, but the harmony did, in fact, sound perfect. Manilow seemed to think so, too. "You guys sound great," he said as he started to head for the door. "You're beginning to sound like a real group. We're almost there, guys. We're on our way."

Harmony opens on September 6 and runs through October 6 at the Alliance Theatre, in Atlanta.

August 1, 2013 Broadway WorldSneak Peek at Barry Manilow & More in Rehearsals for Alliance Theatre's HARMONY: A NEW MUSICAL
Rehearsals began this week in Atlanta, GA, for the Alliance Theatre's production of HARMONY - A NEW MUSICAL with music by Barry Manilow and book & lyrics by Bruce Sussman. HARMONY tells the true story of The Comedian Harmonists, a close harmony ensemble of six young men in 1930s Germany, who took the world by storm until their religious composition - a mixture of Jews and Gentiles - put them on a collision course with history. HARMONY is a co-production with Center Theatre Group!

Drama Desk Award nominee Tony Speciale (Classic Stage Company: Unnatural Acts, A Midsummer Night's Dream) will direct HARMONY and is supported by a talented creative team including Set & Costume Designer Tobin Ost (Jekyll & Hyde Revival,Newsies The Musical), Projection Designer Darrel Maloney (American Idiot), LX Designer Jeff Croiter (Jekyll & Hyde Revival, The Anarchist), winner of the 2012 Tony Award for Best Lighting Design of a Play for his work on Peter and the Starcatcher, Choreographer JoAnn M. Hunter (On a Clear Day You Can See Forever), Music Director Patrick Vaccariello (Annie Revival, Come Fly Away), Assistant Music Director John O'Neill, and Sound Designer John Shivers, winner of the 2013 Tony Award for Best Sound Design of a Musical for his work on the Tony Award winning musical Kinky Boots.

The character of Rabbi, who acts as narrator for the story, will be played by Wayne Alan Wilcox. Wilcox's Broadway credits includeChaplin and The Normal Heart. Wilcox also played Gordon in the film version of Rent and had a recurring role on the popular TV seriesThe Gilmore Girls. Also joining the cast in principal roles - Tony Yazbeck (Irving Berlin's White Christmas, Gypsy) as Harry; Douglas Williams as Bobby; Chris Dwan (Off-Broadway: The Old Boy, Peter & I) as Erich; Will Taylor (A Chorus Line) as Chopin; Will Blum(The Book of Mormon) as Lesh; Leigh Ann Larkin (A Little Night Music, Gypsy) as Mary; and Hannah Corneau as Ruth.

The ensemble for HARMONY consists of eleven actors who must play over thirty roles including historical figures like Marlene Dietrich, Albert Einstein, and Richard Strauss - all of whom the Comedian Harmonists really knew. Members of the ensemble include Shayne Kennon, Patrick O'Neill, Greg Kamp, Charles Osborne, Bryan Thomas Hunt, Chad Lindsey, Brandon O'Dell, Lauren Elaine Taylor, Kim Sava, Lindsay Moore, and Liberty Cogen.

"We are tremendously excited that this is the team who will join us in our effort to serve the memory of these six extraordinary young men and the women they loved, whose story this is, and who sought to find harmony in what turned out to be the most discordant chapter in human history," said Manilow and Sussman.

Performances for HARMONY are Tuesday through Thursday at 7:30pm, Fridays at 8:00pm, Saturdays at 2:30pm and 8:00pm, and Sundays at 2:30pm and 7:30pm, September 6 - October 6, 2013. Opening Night is September 15, 2013. There will be no 2:30pmperformance on September 7. There will be no performance at 7:30pm on October 6.

Tickets start at $30 and are available at The Woodruff Arts Center Box Office in person or by calling 404-733-5000. Tickets are also available online at www.alliancetheatre.org/harmony. Discounted rates for groups of 10 or more are available by calling 404.733.4690. Discounted rates are also available for members of the military, seniors and students. The Alliance Theatre is located at the Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree Street, NE, Atlanta, GA 30309, at the corner of Peachtree and 15th Street.

August 1, 2013 NJ.com"Barry Manilow branching out as songwriter but will focus on hits at Newark shows" by Tris McCall
As a young fan of Broadway theater, Barry Manilow found that his imagination wasn't fired by the actors onstage. His attention was fixed on the musicians below. "I'd keep looking at the orchestra pit," says Manilow, 70. "I was fascinated. Why were they making me feel so excited or so sad? How are they doing that?"

That fascination ripened into ambition. Early in his career, he wanted nothing more than to write for the stage. Pop stardom interceded. "Before my career exploded," says Manilow, who sings at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark tomorrow and Sunday, "my goal was to be a Broadway songwriter. But once 'Mandy' took off, there was never enough time. It takes about five years of constant work, and I never had those five years."

That's changed. "Harmony," a new musical by Manilow and longtime collaborator Bruce Sussman, premieres Sept. 6 at the Alliance Theater in Atlanta. No, it isn't Broadway. But the Alliance has been recognized as one of America's best regional theaters, and several plays that have opened there have eventually come to Manhattan - including "The Color Purple" and Elton John's "Aida."

Manilow is cautious, but hopeful about the future of "Harmony." He calls Broadway "a tall mountain to climb," and is painfully aware of the financial cost of a debut on the Great White Way. But he believes deeply in the musical and is captivated by its subject matter: the emergence, success and eventual breakdown of the Comedian Harmonists, a vocal group popular in Germany just before World War II.

"I know a lot about pop," says Manilow, whose NJPAC concerts will be his last two of 2013, "and I'd never heard of them. But they were huge in Germany. They were the first boy band. They were idols. Before I put pen to paper, I really dove into that world of (German) classical music and pop, and learned all I could about the Comedian Harmonists. They were so inventive: six guys standing around one microphone doing the most complicated vocals, and so in tune."

Three of the Harmonists were Jewish, which put the pop group on a collision course with world events. Researching the group meant that Manilow, who is more than half-Jewish himself, was forced to confront some uncomfortable relics of history. "I found the Nazi marching band song," says Manilow. "It was the creepiest thing I've ever heard, but it was also brilliant - which was confusing, because they were monsters."

Manilow will include a song from "Harmony" in his NJPAC set. But the veteran storyteller knows his fans don't come to his concerts to hear new tales. He recalls attending a Frank Sinatra concert and loving the Chairman's new material - but not-so-secretly craving the big hits. "Over the last two years, I've come to realize what the audience wants," Manilow says. "The people want the songs they grew up with or that their parents taught them or sang to them. So what I've been doing is practically a greatest hits performance."

Manilow has enough hits to keep him singing well into the wee hours. In the '70s and '80s, he was among the most reliable pop balladeers in the world, composing, arranging and performing a string of records that drew heavily from the Broadway tradition of the generously appointed story-song. "Weekend in New England," "Looks Like We Made It," "Even Now," "Copacabana" - these were romantic scenarios, slices of life, scenes from a bittersweet drama. For older listeners -- the kind that contemporary popular music largely ignores - these songs were particularly resonant. For younger fans, Manilow's storytelling seemed to give a glimpse of the emotional complexity of adulthood.

There is no longer much room on the charts for music like that. But Manilow has not stopped coming up with new projects. "15 Minutes (Fame ... Can You Take It?)," a 2011 concept album about the rise and fall of a celebrity, was the hardest-rocking album of his career. Granted, that's still not very hard. But the guitars were overdriven, the drums hit hard and Manilow's vocal performances were surprisingly tough.

Nataly Dawn of Pomplamoose - a singer who knows something about overnight success - dropped by the studio to grace "15 Minutes" with a guest performance. "She accepted the gig right away, and she really studied and got into the role," says Manilow. "We had a really fun time. After all these years, the hardest thing to do is to sit down and write a pop song. When you're in the pop music world, all you've got to write is 'I love you' or 'I miss you.' If you go any further than that, you're not writing a pop song anymore. You're writing a story-song."

Barry Manilow. Where: Prudential Hall at New Jersey Performing Arts Center, 1 Center St., Newark. When: Tomorrow and Sunday at 8 p.m. How much: $44 to $167; call (888) 466-5722 or visit njpac.org.

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July 30, 2013 Broadway WorldBarry Manilow Attends HARMONY Rehearsals
Internationally regarded pop mega-star and legendary recording artist Barry Manilow took some time off from his busy ongoing world tour schedule to attend preliminary rehearsals for the new production of his long-gestating musical project HARMONY earlier this week. With a score by Manilow, featuring a book and lyrics by Bruce Sussman and direction by Tony Speciale, HARMONY is Manilow's first original stage musical with an eye set torwards Broadway following the highly anticipated bow of the show this September at the ALLIANCE THEATRE in Atlanta, Georgia.

The official synopsis of HARMONY is as follows: "HARMONY tells the compelling story of the Comedian Harmonists. They were the first sensational boy band: six talented young men who came together in 1920s Germany and took the world by storm with their signature blend of sophisticated close harmonies and uproarious stage antics. The Comedian Harmonists sold millions of records, starred in a dozen films and packed the houses of the most prestigious concert halls around the globe until the world they knew forever changed. Their amazing story inspired Barry and Bruce to create a spectacular new musical with an original score that celebrates this extraordinary group of friends and ensures their quest for true harmony in the most discordant chapter of human history will never be forgotten."

HARMONY opens September 6 at the ALLIANCE THEATRE in Atlanta. A second production at the Ahmanson Theatre in California is planned for March 2014, as well.

July 30, 2013 Jersey Arts"Barry Manilow on Hits, 'Harmony' & Brooklyn" by Christopher Benincasa
Barry Manilow is returning to NJPAC for a special two-show engagement. It’s a new production, designed to deliver hit after hit after hit – something Manilow knows a lot about. Last year, he earned his fiftieth Top 40 hit. He probably couldn’t fit all fifty songs into one concert, but maybe he should try.

Manilow is fresh off a critically acclaimed, sold out Broadway run. He recently performed at the annual Fourth of July concert at the U.S. Capitol, broadcast live and seen by millions of fans around the world. (In 2010, he headlined the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Norway.) To date, he’s sold about 80 million records. He has a Grammy, a Tony and two Emmys. During the years he performed full-time in Las Vegas, he lived in Elvis’ suite. And, despite a history of music critics turning their noses up at him, at the age of 70, Manilow seems to be everywhere and widely embraced in an era in which pop songs swarm through our laptops and phones free of whatever associations or prejudices are out there to inhibit our enjoyment of them.

It’s not that he wasn’t already a household name – it’s that, in addition to his diehard fan base, a new generation of fans has come of age. He pops up everywhere from "American Idol" to NPR. A sizable chunk of his song "Sweet Life" was featured prominently in a Jay-Z remix. Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters has gone on record saying that "Barry Manilow is the coolest motherf***er in the world." Homer Simpson sort of covered "Mandy" ("Oh, Margie. You came and you found me a turkey..."). As a classic "Rolling Stone" profile observed: "He endures. He adapts. He persists. There is always a new album. There is always a world tour. Most probably, he is the showman of our generation." All that, and he’s a native of Williamsburg, Brooklyn – so he’s kind of a hipster Godfather.

He spoke with me by phone from California.

Jersey Arts (JA): You grew up in Brooklyn – in Williamsburg – which is now one of the trendiest places on Earth. Tell me about the Brooklyn you knew growing up.
Barry Manilow (BM): The Williamsburg that I grew up in was a rough neighborhood with a lot of struggling immigrants from all over the world. It was filled with families – Italian, Jewish, Irish – a lot of families that were struggling to put food on their tables. The other part of that neighborhood was filled with gangs. It was a dangerous area. Whenever I would try to get a cab from Manhattan, they wouldn’t go to Williamsburg. It was too dangerous. That was how I grew up. That was the neighborhood I grew up in. Like you said, now it’s a very trendy area. I think the same old apartments I grew up in are now going for a million dollars or something.

JA: You’ve described your stepfather’s record collection as being like a stack of gold to you – not much music in the house before that?
BM: Well, my family knew that I was musical, but they didn’t know what to do with me. Nobody else in the family ever had that kind of ability. There was no money in the family for teachers or pianos or anything like that, but they rented an accordion and got me accordion lessons when I was about eleven. I was good at it. The best thing about playing the accordion was that I learned how to read music, and that was a really important step. If you want to be in music – and I say this to all the kids I talk to – if you’re serious about going into music, learn to read music. Because even if you don’t wind up being a star singer or a star musician, you’ll always work if you can read music – you’ll always be able to work in a band, or do studio work, or background singing. But if you can’t read music, then you’re stuck with your talent, and that’s not as secure. So, that was the best part of learning to play the accordion. And then when my stepfather, William Murphy, came into the picture, he – they rented a piano, got me a piano teacher, and I was off and running.

JA: How did you start the Manilow Music Project?
BM: Well, it started about eight or nine years ago when a friend of mine down here where I live in Palm Springs, California, told me that his daughter needed a sax because the school that she was going to didn’t have a sax. And I said, "The school doesn’t have a sax? What’s that about?" And so I started to look into it, and, sure enough, I found out that because of budget problems, not only were they cutting music and arts classes in high schools and middle schools all over the country, but that the schools that did still have classes were running out of instruments. And I thought, "Y’know, I’ve got to do something. What can I do?" And so I started the Manilow Music Project to get instruments into schools, so that the kids can have instruments. It started off city by city – we would find the 15 or 20 schools that were running out of instruments, and we would raise money and give them the instruments that they needed. And then I decided that, as long as I was still on the road, I would ask my audiences in every city we would go to – we would do an instrument collection. And we’ve been doing it for the last two or three years. I get to a city, I give them a piano, and then we ask the audiences and the public to drop off gently used instruments, and we fix them up and give them to the school district, and the school district gives them to the schools that are running out of instruments. In every city, we collect between 75 and 100 instruments. And, y’know, maybe it’s making a difference. Maybe it’s making a dent.

JA: What drives you to keep a program like this running – and growing?
BM: How could I not? When I found out that schools were running out of instruments – how could I not? I’m a musician. The thought of kids not having instruments? I mean, I don’t know where I would be… I had an orchestra class in this terrible high school I went to. But they had an orchestra class, and I finally found what I was meant to be when I joined that orchestra class. By that time I was playing piano, and I was in the orchestra, and, y’know, I was good at it, and I knew where I wanted to be. And maybe there’s a young, baby Barry out there who might have talent. And if they don’t have instruments in the schools for these kids, that would be terrible.

JA: I think it’s really interesting that you had no intention of becoming a pop star – that you thought you were destined for a more average existence – but that you couldn’t get away from music. It just kept coming out of you.
BM: I think that I probably would’ve had a decent life staying in the background. By the time "Mandy" hit [in 1975] I was 29 – I had already had a really nice career accompanying singers, arranging for them, conducting for them – y’know, Bette Midler was the last one I did that for. It was a great three or four years with her, and I was ready to go on to the next singer and arrange and produce records and night club acts – and there were all those jingles that I wrote – [McDonald’s, Band-Aids, State Farm Insurance, etc…] – that was a really good life. It would’ve been a really decent way of making a living, and that would be been fine for me. Performing and singing and making records was a big surprise. I resisted it. I resisted the success of being a performer and having records out there because I had never thought about it. I was very uncomfortable about being in the public eye. I was very uncomfortable standing on a stage and entertaining. I was used to playing for everybody else, and I thought, "Well, that’s for them. That’s not what I wanna do." And then, there I was – standing in front of 5,000 people, trying to communicate with them, and tell jokes, and sing songs. It was just so uncomfortable. It was so [far from where] I had ever imagined I would wind up, and I resisted it for a good four years before I finally said to myself: "This doesn’t seem to be going away." I have to embrace this. Because I’m going to be a miserable guy if I don’t figure out how to make friends with this new way of life. And I did. I had to dive in and learn how to do what I’d never even imagined doing.

JA: You’re famously modest – but you’re also a super-successful artist/composer/performer – and you can’t be that without being really, really great at your craft. As an artist, can you explain what sets your songs apart? You’ve been ahead of the pack for a long time now.
BM: You’d have to ask the audiences about that one. All I know is that I just try to make the most beautiful music I know how to make, and I send it out there. I try to make music that is well-written, well-crafted, no matter what the styles are. And I do listen to the radio, and I try my best to keep up with what’s going on, but when it’s all said and done, I turn off the radio and I just write what moves me. I think that sometimes the best way to be commercial is to not try to be commercial – to just do what you love to do. And that’s all I can tell you – I don’t know why my career has lasted this long because, really, all I do is do what moves me, and I’m one of the lucky guys. What moves me seems to move the audiences, the listeners. I don’t do it on purpose. I don’t say, "Oh, this is going to be a hit, or this is what’s going to work". I just do what I love, and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.

JA: Tell me about the musical you co-authored – "Harmony." You fought for and won the rights to it in 2005. Why was that a fight you were willing to have? Why is it so important to you? And what’s happening with it now?
BM: Bruce Sussman and I have been working on "Harmony" for quite a while now. Putting up a Broadway musical is really quite an effort. It’s been a long road, and we’ve just been unlucky – trying raise $18 million, and all the Broadway stuff that goes along with it. We had some bad luck with producers and investors. And it never had anything to do with "Harmony" – it was always money and investors and stuff like that. It means a lot to us. Bruce and I have always wanted to do this. Always. Before "Mandy", Bruce and I were trying to write a musical, and then suddenly this brand new career started for me, and I just never had the time – it takes about five years to pull something like that together. Bruce and I would write for the records, and I’d go on the road – we never had that five year window to actually think about it and write it. Then, at one point, we did, and we started to write "Harmony." We had done "Copacabana" – there was a musical based on the song. It was very successful in Britain, and it still runs around the country now and again. That was nothing like "Harmony." "Harmony" is a very ambitious and very moving show based on a group of singers that were very famous in Germany right around World War 2. They were hugely popular. It’s an interesting show, very ambitious... and it’s a beauty – it’s a really beautiful show. And instead of doing the Broadway thing, we decided to go to a regional theater, because the first time that we did "Harmony" we did it at the La Jolla Playhouse out here in California and it was a great experience for us. So, we decided that we’d go back to a regional theatre and just see it up there once again – not even thinking about or considering a Broadway production because we’d had such bad luck with it. We just wanted to see it one more time. So we chose the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta. It’s a beautiful, beautiful theatre – great people that we’re working with. And it’s going up at the Alliance in September.

JA: It’s based on a true story – set in 1930s Germany – about a musical group called the Comedian Harmonists. Who were they, and why were you drawn to their story?
BM: They were six guys who were led by a genius named Harry Frommermann. He had this idea about putting this six-guy vocal group together, and they wound up being comedians as well as very, very sophisticated singers. They were kind of like the Manhattan Transfer – very complicated harmonies – and they were like the Marx Brothers. Bruce tracked down this documentary that told their story, and he just flipped out over it. And then I saw it, and it was just the most interesting story about six guys who were the most famous, famous group in Germany and all over Europe – and they even came to America – Carnegie Hall – and Australia. And we had never heard of them! And I know a lot about music – so does Bruce – and we had never heard of these people! And they were so huge! Well, when we looked up their story, we realized why we had never heard of them, and that’s the story of "Harmony." We are telling their story, and why we don’t know who they are – why today’s public doesn’t know about the Comedian Harmonists.

JA: Tell me about the show you’re doing now.
BM: I’ve been on the road for about two years with this show. I decided that I was going to try to give them what I think they want. A lot of the years I spent on the road I was promoting a new album, or a new TV special, or whatever the new project was. This year I decided that I was going to give them all the hits I can give them. My audience is so kind. Now and again I throw in an album cut and, y’know, they sit through it, they indulge me, and then I do "Ready To Take A Chance Again" and the roof caves in. So, I know what they want, and I’m happy to give it to them. So, this show is filled with as many of the familiar songs that I’ve done as I can possibly do – and the audiences love it, and I’m happy to do it.

JA: For you, it’s always been all about writing, composing, creating – performance is last on the list. It seems like, despite your super-stardom, you still feel like an unlikely super-star. Is that accurate?
BM: I must admit that I do. Although, y’know, over the years, I have embraced it, and have really come to enjoy it. I really love it. I love getting up on the stage and performing for an audience. And I’ll tell you what happened: I resisted it for so many years until I realized, about, oh, five or six years into the success, that it wasn’t really about me. It was about them. When I realized that it was about me giving enjoyment to strangers out there who might feel better after… That’s when I was able to say, "Oh, now I get it. I’m doing the work to make people feel good." And then I was able to enjoy the job. And I really do love it now.

JA: You said something interesting about today’s pop music – that it sounds great, the production is irresistible, but that the craft of songwriting is almost a lost art. What’s missing?
BM: Yeah, it’s too bad. It’s too bad. Y’know, melody is gone, wonderful lyric writing is gone. Y’know, they’re still making great records – there’s no doubt about that, because of all the incredible machinery that we all work with, software – y’know, I know how to work all of this stuff, and it’s great, but I’ve always believed that if you write a song and you can’t play it on the piano – if you need all that stuff to make the song sound good – then you haven’t really written a good song. Y’know, after you’ve finished writing, doing all the work on the computer, you have to turn off everything but the guitar – and if the song holds up, with just you singing and the guitar playing, then you’ve got a song. But if you have to rely on all the other stuff, then you haven’t got a song. What you’ve got is a great record.

JA: You’ve sold more than 80 million records – you have a truly phenomenal fan base. You recently earned your fiftieth Top 40 hit. And you just turned 70 in June. What’s next?
BM: Oh, Chris, I always have ideas. With my last breath I’ll be yelling, "I’ve got one more idea!" I’ve got so many ideas in the pipeline – two albums coming up, more live shows, and then there’s "Harmony." So, there’s a lot of stuff coming up.

On August 2 and 4, Barry Manilow will be performing at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center at 8 p.m. To get tickets, visit NJPAC’s site here.

July 29, 2013 Broadway WorldBarry Manilow and Bruce Sussman's New Musical HARMONY
Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman's new musical HARMONY will open Atlanta's Alliance Stage 2013-14 season on September 6, 2013. Check out a just-released promo for the show below!

The musical tells the story of The Comedian Harmonists, a close harmony ensemble of six young men in 1930s Germany, who took the world by storm - from the stages of Europe to Carnegie Hall. The Comedian Harmonists' sophisticated music, paired with hilarious comedy, made them the brightest of stars, until the group's religious composition - a mixture of Jews and gentiles - put them on a collision course with history.

"We are both thrilled to finally return to our first love - writing a musical together. Especially this one," said Manilow and Sussman. "It has been an indescribable honor to spend all this time in the company of these six extraordinary men."

July 26, 2013 New Jersey MonthlyBarry Manilow at NJPAC
Barry Manilow returns to the New Jersey Performing Arts Center for a special, two show engagement. Direct from a critically acclaimed, soid-out run on Broadway, Manilow - the undisputed Number One Adult Contemporary Artist of All Time, brings his hit-packed concert to NJPAC and cities around the nation. Don't miss this unprecedented concert as Manilow performs songs from his massive catalog of hits, from "Mandy" and "I Write the Songs" to "Copacabana (At the Copa)" and so many more.

Date: August 2, 2013 and August 4, 2013. Time: Friday Aug 2, 8 pm / Sunday Aug 4, 8 pm. Cost: $39.50, $59.50, $99.50, $149.50, $239.50. Ticket Info: Tickets: Reserved $39.50, $59.50, $99.50, $149.50, $239.50 (including facility fee) available at NJPAC.org, by phone 1-888-GO-NJPAC (1-888-466-5722) or at Box Office. http://www.njpac.org/events/detail/barry-manilow.

July 24, 2013 Broadway WorldBarry Manilow, Bruce Sussman Reveal Details of New Musical HARMONY on 'Today'
Songwriters and long-time collaborators Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman stopped by this morning's Today show on NBC to reveal details about their exciting new musical HARMONY. "It's easier to write for theater than for a pop song," Manilow explained. Adds Sussman, "It's a blank page in that you have a character and a situation and the song has to accomplish something."

HARMONY will open the Atlanta's Alliance Stage 2013 - 2014 season on September 6, 2013. The musical tells the story of The Comedian Harmonists, a close harmony ensemble of six young men in 1930s Germany, who took the world by storm - from the stages of Europe to Carnegie Hall. The Comedian Harmonists' sophisticated music, paired with hilarious comedy, made them the brightest of stars, until the group's religious composition - a mixture of Jews and gentiles - put them on a collision course with history.

July 14, 2013 Examiner.com"Harmony the Musical" by Julia Walker Crews
Coming September to Atlanta to the Alliance Theater Stage is "Harmony" the musical. This is a MUST SEE musical filled with amazing songs written by the one and only legend, Barry Manilow.

If you live in the Metro Atlanta area, save the date and book your tickets at the Alliance Stage during the dates of September 6, 2013 to October 6, 2013. Go to the Alliance website and click on the [Buy] Tickets link http://alliancetheatre.org/production/harmony.

They were the first sensational boy band: six talented young men who came together in 1920s Germany and took the world by storm with their signature blend of sophisticated close harmonies and uproarious stage antics. The Comedian Harmonists sold millions of records, starred in a dozen films and packed the houses of the most prestigious concert halls around the globe until the world they knew forever changed. Their amazing story inspired longtime collaborators, the legendary Barry Manilow and theatre veteran Bruce Sussman, to create a spectacular new musical with an original score that celebrates this extraordinary group of friends and ensures their quest for true harmony in the most discordant chapter of human history will never be forgotten. Harmony is a co-production with Center Theatre Group.

July 12, 2013 Fox 13 Salt Lake City"Barry Manilow concert postponed" by Brittany Green-Miner
Friday night’s Barry Manilow concert is postponed. The Maverik Center said Friday afternoon that the concert has been postponed due to illness and will be rescheduled for a future date. Concertgoers are told to keep their tickets because they will be valid for the rescheduled date.
July 12, 2013 Taco Bell ArenaManilow in Concert Show Postponed
Tomorrow night’s July 13th Barry Manilow show at Taco Bell Arena in Boise Idaho has been postponed due to illness. Please hold on to your tickets for the rescheduled date. New date to be announced soon. If necessary, refunds are available at point of purchase.
July 12, 2013 Idaho Press"He Writes The Song: Barry Manilow’s 'Direct from Broadway' concert set for Saturday at Taco Bell Arena" by Dan Lea
Barry Manilow’s unparalleled career encompasses virtually every arena of music, including performing, composing, arranging and producing. A Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee, Manilow has triumphed in every medium of entertainment. With worldwide record sales exceeding 80 million, Manilow ranks as the undisputed Adult Contemporary chart artists of all time with 50 Top 40 hits. This musical giant brings his "Direct from Broadway" show to Taco Bell Arena Saturday after a sold-out run on New York’s Great White Way.

Manilow will perform songs from his massive catalog of hits, including "I Write the Songs" and "Mandy." Other favorites the artist continues to perform are: "It’s A Miracle," "Could It Be Magic," "Tryin’ To Get the Feeling Again," "This One’s For You," "Weekend In New England," "Looks Like We Made It," "Can’t Smile Without You," "Even Now" and the Grammy Award-winning "Copacabana (At the Copa)."

To date, 29 of Manilow’s albums have been certified platinum, while "Barry Manilow/Live," "Even Now" and "Greatest Hits" (1978) are each certified triple-platinum.

Manilow would describe himself as a musician before he would call himself a singer. His love for music is rooted in his early years in Brooklyn. Today, he promotes that passion through his Manilow Music Project which ensures that middle school and high school students have instruments in their hands to use in their music classes.

July 10, 2013 Daily Herald"He Writes The Songs: Manilow brings hit catalog to Maverik Center" by Bruce Miller
If you recall your own past when you hear a Barry Manilow song, imagine what goes through his mind. "That opening piano riff on 'Mandy' is so deep for me, it’s quite emotional," the Grammy winner says by phone. "These songs are much more than pop songs and, sometimes, it is hard to sing them."

Music that makes the whole world sing -- words from "I Write the Songs," one of the few hits he didn’t pen -- has been around for more than four decades, prompting plenty of TV specials, Broadway shows and tours. His latest -- a "best of" jaunt -- will include "more hits than you can imagine. It’s what the audience is really looking for," says Manilow, who will appear Friday in concert at the Maverik Center in West Valley City.

Although he set aside songs in past shows ("ones I felt I had done too much"), he insists the hit list is intact this time out. "There are three rules to writing a hit song," Manilow, 70, teases, then pauses. "And nobody knows what they are. I never know when I’ve got a hit. I’ve had (producer) Clive Davis on my side all these years and he’s the guy who says, 'This is a hit.' But I can’t tell."

Manilow’s method -- write on demand -- struck when he was doing commercial jingles. ("Like a good neighbor ... State Farm is there." That was his.) "They’d call and give me the lyrics. Then I’d ask, 'Do you want a ballad or an up-tempo song?' And I’d just do it. I like writing on demand. I like knowing what to write. I’m not one of those people who can just write a song about whatever ... those usually wind up in the garbage."

Projects, though, make him salivate. Currently, he’s tweaking "Harmony," a Broadway musical that will have test runs in Atlanta and Los Angeles this year before heading to New York. Manilow and co-writer Bruce Sussman call it "our proudest achievement." The musical tells the story of the Comedian Harmonists, a six-man ensemble that impressed audiences around the world during the 1930s.

Frequently, insiders say, Manilow sings selections from the show in his solo concerts. "Manilow on Broadway," his one-man show in February, was a huge hit, suggesting New York is ready for another incarnation next year. "The last time I did Broadway was 20 years ago and I figured I should do it one more time before I croak," he says. "It was beyond fun. It was crazy. The audiences at the St. James were fantastic. Everyone from New York came to greet their friend Barry. It was a New York guy coming back home."

Cruising through that catalog of hits -- from "Can’t Smile Without You" to "Copacabana" -- he found theatergoers’ sweet spot, one of the reasons he doesn’t even entertain the idea of retiring. "When you make a connection, night after night, with an audience, how can you turn that down?" he asks. "Basically, you’re getting an opportunity to spend an evening with 10,000 people cheering for your music."

Although hip surgery slowed his dancing, Manilow still has moves. "I don’t think my hips will ever come back to where they were," he concedes. "But that’s OK. I’m more concerned about Lady Gaga. She had the same labrum tears and after that surgery it never really comes back like it’s supposed to. I’m still able to do my thing but she’s a dancer, I’m not. I hope her surgery went better than mine."

Gaga, he says, represents one of the last best hopes for variety television to return. "You would think her special would have gone through the roof, as hot as she is, but they don’t sell. (Networks) were coming back to all of us and saying, 'Music specials don’t work.'" Never mind the Emmy Manilow won in 2006 for "Barry Manilow: Music and Passion."

That’s just the way his life is: Experts throw roadblocks in his way; he knocks them over. Possessing a Tony, a Grammy and an Emmy, he’s just an Oscar shy of having an entertainer’s grand slam. "They’re just not writing the kinds of songs that I love to write," he says of Hollywood. "I may have missed the boat on that one. But I did get a nomination."

More important? That audience reaction. Selected to perform at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in 2010, he got to see Norway’s king grooving to "Copacabana." "Song after song, he kept getting more excited," Manilow says proudly. "Who would want to miss seeing that?" Not Barry. "I’ve got so many things I want to do, they’re going to have to carry me out," he insists.

Among his latest projects: Covering the songs of other artists in a series of CDs. He says it’s an honor to give them a new spin. "They’re more than just songs. They’re anthems. They’re hymns. I’m proud I get to do them."

But are they more fun than the entries in his own catalog? Manilow hedges. "It depends on the song," he says. "But if I forget the lyrics to one of mine -- which isn’t often -- I can just turn to the audience and they always help me out."

July 10, 2013 Denver Westword"Barry Manilow donates piano for Jeffco Public Schools instrument drive" by Jon Solomon
Pop icon Barry Manilow is donating a new Yamaha piano to launch an instrument drive for Jefferson County Public Schools, which is partnering with The Manilow Music Project, which provides musical instruments to high schools and middle schools as well as music scholarships at universities throughout North America. Anyone who donates a new or gently used musical instrument can get two free tickets to Manilow's show at Red Rocks Amphitheatre tomorrow, July 11.

"Jeffco is proud to partner with the Manilow Music Project to bring the sounds of music to our schools," said Jefferson County Public Schools superintendent Cindy Stevenson in a statement. "Music allows our students to express themselves through creativity and artistic expression, opening up a world of possibilities to them. In Jeffco, we want students to excel in the arts as well as academics. For those students and families who can't afford instrument rental fees, a small donation can make a big impact to a child." Instruments can be dropped off at Rockley Music (8555 West Colfax Avenue in Lakewood), which is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., through tomorrow, July 11.

July 9, 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune"Barry Manilow returns to Utah: Two free tickets to those who donate an instrument" by Michael Appelgate
With a chuckle, Barry Manilow said he doesn’t think the number next to his name is correct. At age 70, the adult-contemporary pop legend doesn’t feel old in mind or body. "I still have my hair, and I look the same," he said in a recent telephone interview.

Manilow will perform at the Maverik Center on Friday, July 12 - his first concert in the Salt Lake area since 2002. He has fond memories of that last visit, and he is expecting the same warm reception this time around, thanks to a new generation of fans. "There’s always a new audience," Manilow said. "There’s my core audience who’s been with me, and they are very loyal and faithful ... There’s another generation who doesn’t know what I do. I’m a relic of this kind of performing. Not many people stand up on the stage and do this and communicate with the audience."

That’s what has kept Manilow onstage for more than four decades. He began as Bette Midler’s music director and pianist in 1971; a year later, he recorded his first solo album. To this day, he contends he’s not much of a singer, but an adept performer who learned how to engage the crowd. "I could communicate with an audience, and maybe they wouldn’t notice I’m not a singer," he said. "I write my own script out. I know what I’m going to do. But I just go and do whatever happens. I’m very comfortable on the stage."

However, it’s Manilow’s voice that has defined his career - with more than 80 million records sold worldwide, 50 Top 40 hits and more than 40 albums released. He originally never wanted a career in singing. He wanted to be a conductor or arrange music. Before he worked with Midler, Manilow penned commercial jingles such as State Farm Insurance’s "Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there" and Band-Aid’s "I’m stuck on Band-Aid."

Those jingles are just as familiar as "Copacabana," "Mandy," "Can’t Smile Without You" and "Turn the Radio Up," all of which the audience at the Maverik Center can expect to hear. "I’ve been trying to do every hit song I’ve done in concerts," Manilow said. "I’m lucky I have a catalog filled with songs people are familiar with. They sing along and it’s like reliving their childhoods."

Fans can receive two free tickets to the Salt Lake City if they donate new or gently used musical instruments to the Manilow Music Project. The now-8-year-old project donates instruments to schools in the cities in which Manilow performs.

Manilow started the free ticket incentive about 18 months ago with his own childhood in mind. Growing up in Brooklyn, he had one orchestra class where his love of music grew. Now, he can’t imagine where he would be today without the opportunity. "I love doing it," he said. "Any day now I expect to wake up with a cane and become an old guy."

He writes the songs! Barry Manilow returns to Utah. When: Friday, July 12, 8 p.m. Where: Maverik Center, West Valley City. Tickets: $23 and up; Manilow.com or Ticketmaster.com, in person at the Maverik Center or 1-800-745-3000. Get in for free: Donate a new or gently used instrument to the Manilow Music Project and get two free tickets to the show. Drop off instruments at the Maverik Center Saturday, July 6, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Monday through Friday, July 8-12, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

July 5, 2013 The Denver Post"Barry Manilow has stories to tell" by John Wenzel
Barry Manilow turned 70 last month, but the tenacious singer-songwriter isn't cutting back on his touring schedule because of his age. "I just miss home," Manilow said over the phone from Los Angeles this week. "I started so many years ago and when you do that, you don't have a life. Your life is hotel rooms and waiting for airplanes and bad room service. It's a young man's job."

Nonetheless, Manilow remains not only a fan favorite but a bankable superstar. Last fall he scored his historic 50th hit on Billboard's adult contemporary chart - marking nearly 40 years since his single "Mandy" catapulted him from jingle-writer and producer to crush-worthy music idol - and in February completed a blockbuster run on Broadway, reaching the rarified ticket sales of shows such as "Wicked" and "The Book of Mormon" in his first two performances.

We caught up with Manilow in advance of his concert at Red Rocks Amphitheatre on Thursday, which finds him backed by a relatively bare-bones, nine-piece band.

Denver Post (DP): You've played Red Rocks quite a bit over the years, but what was your first time there like?
Barry Manilow (BM): I used to play for Bette Midler as her music director, conductor, arranger and producer. We did albums and went on the road together and we made a deal that I would open as her second act, which was the suicide spot because she was so fantastic. They didn't wanna see me! At least that's what I thought. Audiences were always very kind, but when we got to Red Rocks there was something in the air. It was probably weed, but I didn't know that. When I got to the last number, "Could It Be Magic," the song I wrote based on a Chopin prelude, I could see the shadows of people beginning to stand up. It was my first full, bona fide standing ovation in this gorgeous place with the stars and the mountains and it was an epiphany for me. It was something that I'll always be very grateful for.

DP: You have lots of great stories that accompany your songs in concert. Is that something you like to see in other performers, giving a bit of context to the whole affair?
BM: You're so right. I would love Sting to tell us why he wrote "Roxanne" before he sings it. I've been doing that forever so if I told the audience just a little bit about where this song came from or why it meant something, that song would land harder. The last time I saw that was with John Denver. Boy, he was great.

DP: He's a saint out here in Colorado, you know.
BM: And he is to me too. I worked with him on one of my TV shows. And I saw him at the Greek Theatre in L.A. and he would tell us stories about things that were important to him and do introductions to songs and we were all riveted.

DP: A reworked version of your musical "Harmony" is debuting in September in Atlanta before it goes to New York. I know it's been around in some form or another for awhile, but why is it coming back now?
BM: (Writing partner) Bruce Sussman and I have been working on this for a long time, and it's probably my proudest achievement of anything I've ever done in my entire career, and I've done a lot. We just had some bad luck that never had anything to do with the show, but it collapsed twice and after the second time I said, "It just hurts too much." But finally I said, "I wanna try the show one more time before I croak!" so instead of raising a bunch of money and going to Broadway producers we went to regional theater where nobody would bother us much.

DP: Has turning 70 slowed you down at all?
BM: You know, I don't feel any different. I've got energy and ideas. I expected the moment I hit this age my hair would turn silver and I'd start to drool and limp with a cane, and none of that has happened. I feel the same. I think I look decent. I've still got my own hair. I'm just waiting for this old guy to appear!

BARRY MANILOW. Pop singer-songwriter. 8 p.m. Thursday at Red Rocks Amphitheatre, 18300 W. Alameda Parkway. $20-$130. 800-745-3000 or ticketmaster.com.

July 5, 2013 Access Atlanta"Tickets on sale for Barry Manilow's 'Harmony'" by Melissa Ruggieri
The long-in-the-works musical written by Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman is rolling toward its Sept. 6 opening date at the Alliance Theatre. "Harmony – A New Musical," has now been cast, with Broadway veterans Wayne Alan Wilcox ("The Normal Heart," "Chaplin"), Tony Yazbeck ("Gypsy"), Will Blum ("The Book of Mormon") and Leigh Ann Larkin ("A Little Night Music," "Gypsy") among the principals.

The musical tells the true story of The Comedian Harmonists, a harmony ensemble of six men in 1930s Germany who wowed audiences until their religious composition – they were a mixture of Jews and Gentiles, according to production notes – put them on a collision course with history. Wilcox will star as Roman "Rabbi" Cykowski, who was the only surviving member of The Comedian Harmonists back when Manilow and Sussman began working on the show. The memories of Cykowski, who died in 1998, along with historical information, provide the basis for the musical.

"Harmony," which will be directed by Tony Speciale, will include 18 musical numbers steered by Music Director Patrick Vaccariello ("Come Fly Away," "Annie" revival). Manilow wrote the music for the production and Sussman the book and lyrics. In addition, John Shivers, who just won a Tony for Best Sound Design of a Musical for his work on "Kinky Boots," will serve as Sound Designer for "Harmony."

Tickets for "Harmony," which will launch the Alliance season with its month-long run beginning Sept. 6, are on sale now at www.alliancetheatre.org/harmony or by calling 404-733-5000. Prices range from $30-$90.

July 5, 2013 Broadway WorldBarry Manilow Performs on A CAPITOL FOURTH
Last night, America's favorite host, two-time Emmy Award-winning television personality Tom Bergeron (DANCING WITH THE STARS) returned to the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol to host A CAPITOL FOURTH, starring music legend Barry Manilow, who is back by popular demand following his powerful debut performance on the show in 2009.

The 33rd annual broadcast of A CAPITOL FOURTH aired on PBS Thursday, July 4, 2013, from 8:00 to 9:30 p.m. ET before a concert audience of hundreds of thousands, millions more at home, as well as to our troops serving around the world on the American Forces Network. The program was also heard live in stereo over NPR member stations nationwide.

About Barry Manilow:

With worldwide sales of more than 80 million records, Grammy Award-winning superstar Barry Manilow recently returned to his hometown, New York City, for a new concert series on Broadway - marking his return to The Great White Way for the first time in more than two decades with Manilow on Broadway.

Manilow has been ranked as the top Adult Contemporary chart artist of all time, according to R&R (Radio & Records), with no less than 25 consecutive Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 between 1975 and 1983. The list includes all-time favorites that Manilow still sings today: "Mandy," "It's A Miracle," "Could It Be Magic," "I Write the Songs," "Tryin' To Get the Feeling Again," "This One's For You," "Weekend In New England," "Looks Like We Made It," "Can't Smile Without You," "Even Now," and the Grammy Award-winning "Copacabana (At the Copa)."

July 4, 2013 WTOP 103.5"'A Capitol Fourth' draws star-studded lineup" by Michelle Basch
It's not just fireworks that will draw crowds to the National Mall on Independence Day. "A Capitol Fourth" is the star-studded annual concert happening on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol. Back to host again for a second straight year is the man you know from TV's "Dancing With the Stars" and "America's Funniest Home Videos," Tom Bergeron. "Usually I like to keep a very cold studio, which is not an option ... being here on the West Lawn of the Capitol in July, but this is worth sweating for. This is. It's such an amazing event. It's the national birthday party and it's such a treat to be here," said Bergeron during Wednesday's rehearsals.

Bergeron said his favorite moment of "A Capitol Fourth" comes before the acts even take the stage. "That first moment when you step out on stage. When you get the full impact of a few hundred thousand people here at the West Lawn of the Capitol, Capitol building in the background. Even in this humidity I get goose bumps," he said.

Among those who will perform this year are legendary singer-songwriters Barry Manilow and Neil Diamond; "American Idol" winner Candice Glover; and Jackie Evancho, the young singer who just a few years ago stunned the judges on "America's Got Talent." Also appearing this year: Broadway star, TV star and recording artist Megan Hilty; actor and singer Darren Criss from "Glee;" the National Symphony Orchestra and composer John Williams, who will conduct music from the movie "Lincoln."

Manilow, the musical icon who made famous songs like "Mandy" and "Copacabana," performed during the District's Fourth of July festivities in 2009. "When I get here it's just the most emotional city ever," Manilow said. "What we are about to do is very inspiring, very uplifting. I'm sure it will make everybody feel great."

Manilow will perform a handful of his hits, and also will break out a patriotic song for the crowd. "I didn't think I'd ever have a chance to do this again," he said. "You get one chance in a lifetime to perform in front of the Capitol with all these people."

Also at the concert, Diamond will deliver his first national live performance of "Freedom Song (They'll Never Take Us Down)," a song he felt moved to write after the Boston Marathon bombings in April. Diamond will perform the song twice on Independence Day, giving the tune its debut at the 11:05 a.m. Nationals-Brewers game at Nationals Park. Diamond said the Boston bombings and his visit with wounded warriors at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center inspired him to write the new song to express his love for the country. All of the money from sales of the song will be donated to One Fund Boston and the Wounded Warrior Project for at least the next year.

Bergeron said the bombings struck a nerve for him as well. "I come from Massachusetts, and I grew up north of Boston. I worked in Boston for many years. That day we were doing a live show on ‘Dancing With the Stars,' as I was communicating with my wife who was in Boston not far from the blast site," Bergeron said. "All of that gives it special meaning to me personally, and to know how well the show has integrated all of those elements into 'A Capitol Fourth' is really quite nice."

The concert starts at 8 p.m. and will be broadcast live on PBS. If you plan to attend, it's strongly recommended you arrive by 6 p.m. General admission gates open at 3 p.m.

July 3, 2013 Chicago Sun TimesBarry Manilow headlines PBS’ annual 'Capitol Fourth' bash
It’s as American as apple pie. The 33rd annual PBS "A Capitol Fourth," live from Washington, D.C., serves as the nation’s official Fourth of July concert/fireworks spectacular. This year’s lineup features Barry Manilow, Neil Diamond, "Smash" actress Megan Hilty, singer Jackie Evancho, country vocalist Scotty McCreery, "Glee" star Darren Criss and the cast of the new Broadway show "Motown the Musical." Oscar-winning composer John Williams conducts the National Symphony Orchestra, featuring a solo by Chicago Symphony Orchestra principal trumpet Chris Martin.

"I did it four years ago and I was so thrilled when they called me back and asked me to do it again," Manilow said in a recent interview when asked about returning for the live televised event. "For me it was one of the biggest thrills, not only because I was standing, singing, looking at the Capitol [building] and being surrounded by history ... and then being in the company of the National Orchestra [who] are amazing. Most of all, for me, it was ending the show with 'Let Freedom Ring.' Bruce [Sussman] and I wrote it for a moment like that."

Manilow says he will open the show with a new sequence of his greatest hits and then return at the end for a reprise of "Let Freedom Ring" accompanying the fireworks spectacle. Diamond will perform "Freedom Song (They’ll Never Take Us Down)," which he composed in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing. All proceeds from the sale of the song are earmarked to benefit One Fund Boston and the Wounded Warrior Project.

July 1, 2013 Examiner.com"A fit Barry Manilow returns to San Antonio" by Suzanne Cordeiro
After postponing his May concert due to bronchitis, a fit Barry Manilow returned to San Antonio's AT&T Center on June 29, 2013. With summer vacation plans already in place for many fans who had purchased tickets, staff confirmed that many ticket holders unfortunately requested and received refunds from the cancelled May concert. Nevertheless, Manilow performed to a near sold-out audience who were grateful for both his return to health, and return to the city of San Antonio.

For many, hearing a Barry Manilow song is like seeing an old friend you've really missed. With no opening set and backed by a stellar 9-piece band that included a percussionist and two background vocalists, Manilow still holds his own at seventy years old. He looked fit and was in great spirits. His set list included all those familiar numbers that fans welcomed into their lives so many years ago.

Being the consummate professional, each song was introduced by a story. 'Brooklyn Blues' was his homage to home, 'This One's For You' was his tribute to grandpa, and 'I Am Your Child' [was] his ode to self-discovery and perseverance. His vocals sounded terrific and he seamlessly traveled from electric piano to baby grand to center stage with arms spread wide and moves to go with it. He laughingly told the crowd 'I was the Justin Bieber of the 70's. It's true, just ask your mother'! Manilow is still the same old-school entertainer that shot to stardom in 1974 with 'Mandy.'

The response from Manilow's fans at the AT&T Center confirmed that he still has that inherent ability to connect with a venue full of admirers. He is more than just a musician playing for his supporters. Manilow draws you in and he was quite on target when he laughingly joked 'I still got it'!

AT&T Center San Antonio Set List: It's a Miracle; Could It Be Magic; Somewhere in the Night; Looks Like We Made It; Can't Smile Without You; Bandstand Boogie; Old Songs; Stay; Even Now; Brooklyn Blues; I Am Your Child; This One's For You; New York City Rhythm; Weekend in New England; Let's Hang On; Can't Take My Eyes Off You (Frankie Valli cover); Every Single Day (from the musical Harmony); Tryin' to Get the Feeling Again; I Made It Through the Rain; Mandy / Could It Be Magic; Copacabana; I Write the Songs; Encore: It's a Miracle (Reprise)

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