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January 19, 2023 News Channel 5 Nashville"Nolensville High School band director honored with music teacher award from Barry Manilow" by Brianna Hamblin
Ahead of Barry Manilow's Bridgestone Arena performance this weekend, he is taking time to recognize a local music teacher. Nolensville High School Director of Bands Benjamin Easley won the Manilow Music Project Music Teacher Award. With it, he will [receive] $5,000 cash and another $5,000 in "Manilow Bucks" to support the school band. Easley said the money will go toward getting some new instruments for his students. "I just think it's really neat that his career has not just been a selfishly motivated, inwardly focused thing. That it's actually going to affect generations because of the way they choose to support music specifically in the public schools," said Easley. Easley said he is so grateful to both Manilow and the support from the Nolensville community.

Manilow has been awarding music teachers across the country in different cities as he goes on tour. Easley won it for the Nashville area. He has been with the school since it opened in 2016 and was able to build the band from scratch, going from only 23 members to about 160 over the last seven years. He said he grew up listening to Manilow with his parents. "I grew up with music educator parents. My dad was my band director and my mom was a concert pianist. I grew up on that whole era of Barry Manilow and the Dewey Brothers, Earth Wind and Fire, and James Taylor. There's dusty old VHS's somewhere at 5 years old belting out [his] stuff..." Now he and some of his family are excited to meet Manilow backstage at his show on Friday night.

The Manilow Music Project has given out more than $10 million worth to music programs in schools across the country.

January 19, 2023 WTOC-11"Meeting Manilow: Savannah band teacher talks about big night, big award from music icon: Reginald Mitchell was awarded $10,000 for his band program at Savannah High" by Sam Bauman
SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) - At Savannah High you don’t have to look far to find people who haven’t been impacted by Reginald Mitchell. “He has done everything for us, outside and inside of school. He’s been a great mentor to all of us,” said senior Keshawn Dickson. “Every time I had a problem, I could always go to him. Talk about problems at home and everything,” added fellow senior Vanessa Gutierrez. “He’s an unsung hero. He doesn’t ask for much. He just does it for the love of Blue Jacket Nation and our scholars,” said Savannah High principal, Gequetta Jenkins.

And there’s no doubt Mr. Mitchell loves his students, which means sometimes utilizing some tough love. “Oh, he gets on my nerves sometimes, but I love Mr. Mitchell,” laughed senior Saniyyah Singleton. “He can be hard and tough sometimes, but I know he’s just pushing us to be better people,” senior Kaliah Orr says. “He’s strict because he knows we can do better. He just wants the best for us,” finished Singleton. Pushing them, like he too, once was pushed. “Savannah High saved me. The band saved me,” said Reginald Mitchell.

While Mr. Mitchell would much prefer his students get the attention, when Dr. Jenkins heard Barry Manilow was coming to town, she didn’t hesitate. “It was an opportunity to spotlight him.” Putting him in the running to win $10,000 for the band program from the Manilow Music Project. “I looked at him and he was all surprised, and I said, ‘why are you surprised? You’re amazing!’” Dr. Jenkins recalled. When he won it wasn’t a surprise to anyone but him. “He said, ‘hey doc I won.’ I said, ‘I know, I knew you were going to win,’ because he’s just that phenomenal and we’re grateful to have him at Savannah High,” said Dr. Jenkins.

When Reginald went to pick up the check he was in for yet another surprise. “When he walked in the room, I’m like, ‘that’s Barry Manilow. Am I really meeting Barry Manilow.’” A man he respects for more than just his musical talent. “You have a lot of musicians, a lot of artists who say, ‘support arts, support arts.’ And I can say he actually put it into work to support the arts.”

While the fanfare, including a shoutout during the concert was unbelievable, what this award really means for Mr. Mitchell is a chance to get more instruments which means a chance make a difference in more kids’ lives. “A lot of kids their parents just don’t have it. So, my thing is if I can help take that kid off the street and put him in this band room and do something positive, graduate, go into the military, workforce or college, then I’m doing my job.” So, sure the attention is nice, but for Mr. Mitchell, even award with his name on it isn’t about him. “This award is just not my award, this is an award for Savannah High School, Blue Jacket Nation.”

For more information about the Manilow Music Project, click here.

January 18, 2023 Fox 35 Orlando"Central Florida music teacher receives Manilow Music Project award from iconic singer" by Valerie Boey
ORLANDO, Fla. - The legendary Barry Manilow was in Orlando on Tuesday night, performing at the Amway Center and giving an award to a local teacher. The music icon sings about a miracle on stage, and off-stage he has created one right here in Central Florida. Lake Howell High music teacher Jose Eslava was the winner of the Manilow Music Project, receiving $5,000 for himself and $5,000 for a school instrument. We caught up with him before the concert during his music class. "We are in need of a tuba. I have six tuba players, but only five functional tubas."

"All around the country, they’re running out of instruments in music and art classes because of budget cuts," Manilow told FOX 35. "These kids are playing musical instruments that are old and broken down. So when I heard that 15 years ago I thought, I gotta do something."

That’s why this famous singer created The Manilow Music Project, a non-profit organization that provides instruments to students. Now he’s doing something for Central Florida music students. Eslava plans to buy a new tuba for his classroom. "Jose is one of the people that continue to teach music to children," Manilow said, "and it’s so important because music will change a young person’s life."

"Overwhelming, wonderful, a magical experience," was how Eslava described Tuesday's night show. He said musical performances can change a student’s life forever, and that’s why this award is so important. "You get all these students who come from different talent levels, different backgrounds, different lifestyles, and you come together to do this one magical thing."

Manilow said within a month of class, he has seen a student turn into a musician. For more information, visit The Manilow Music Project website.

January 18, 2023 WJCL 22 ABC"Musician Barry Manilow presents a special surprise to Savannah educator: Music legend presents local band director award and $10K prize" by Olivia Wile
Grammy award-winning music legend Barry Manilow brought his winter tour to Savannah, and with it, The Manilow Music Project — an award that goes to an exemplary local music teacher with a generous prize attached to it: $5,000 cash for the winner, and $5,000 "Manilow Bucks,” to be used to purchase musical instruments for their school. Plus, VIP tickets to the show and a backstage meet-and-greet with the music icon himself. Barry Manilow tells us, "All the schools are running out of instruments because they are running out of money. The government doesn’t give them money for music and arts. That’s the first thing to go. And when I heard that, I thought I got to do something."

When a Savannah High principal heard about the award, she was quick to nominate the fine arts department chair and director of bands at Savannah High, Reggie Mitchell. After receiving the most votes from around the area, Mitchell was shocked to have learned he had won. Reggie Mitchell described it to us, "I was just like, Wow. So, I’m very humbled to receive this award."

Mitchell, a Savannah native, has been sharing his love of music at his alma mater for almost 23 years. Growing the band from 7 students when he started to over 80 who are now in the program. Reggie Mitchell goes on to say, "Help the kids stay off the street and also do something positive in their lives." And he already knows what he’ll use his portion of the generous prize for. Reggie Mitchell explains, "The kids' portion, of course, I have to give them instruments. Now with my portions, I’m going to take a trip out of the country. I need a trip, I need a vacation." And with amazing and encouraging teachers like you, Mr. Mitchell, we’ll be able to ensure the merriment of music beats on.

January 18, 2023 Orlando Sentinel"In Orlando, Barry Manilow marks 50 years of hits: Review" by Matthew J. Palm
He writes the songs that make the whole world sing, and Tuesday night in Orlando’s Amway Center, Barry Manilow showed that’s still the case. “Disney World is down the block but tonight, this is the happiest place on earth,” he greeted the crowd during a stop in his “Hits 2023″ mini-tour of just seven cities. With a twinkle in his eye and a spring in his step, Manilow celebrated 50 years of hitmaking — his first record was released in 1973 — during a 90-minute concert that never flagged.

Nearly 80 — his birthday is in June — Manilow could be expected to come across as some pontificating elder statesman of pop (Barry Manilow is known for "I Write the Songs," "Mandy," "Copacabana" and many other pop classics). But he doesn’t. That’s just not his style. Instead, he appears to be just as he is: Happy to share his music, grateful for his success and in slight disbelief that the youngsters today are making up TikTok dances to his songs. He’s often accused of being schmaltzy — the “sultan of schmaltz” proclaims a Sydney (Australia) Morning Herald headline, while London’s The Guardian goes for “titan of schmaltz” — but is it really schmaltz if it’s sincere?

Manilow’s tale of his grandfather’s encouragement, culminating in a moving performance of “This One’s for You,” touched the heart. And he’s well aware of his rep. “I must have a ballad somewhere,” he cracked at one point. “Weekend in New England” was delivered simply and effectively, emphasizing what makes Manilow’s songs both of their time and yet strangely timeless. He creates a sense of drama in the lyrics and orchestrations so that each song feels like an emotional journey.

Of course, the most obviously dramatic is “Copacabana,” which was given a fun finale with the requisite gaudy costumes. Other up-tempo numbers also offered enjoyment: a swirling mix of “Could It Be Magic” evoked the disco age while “Jump Shout Boogie” offered kicky 1940s flair. He turned “Can’t Smile Without You” and “I Write the Songs” into singalongs. The sound mix improved as the show went on, with the 10-piece band and three backing singers adding to the show’s vitality. Of course, Manilow couldn’t help but show his age occasionally. “Have you noticed the lack of melody on the radio today?” he asked the appreciative audience, though to be fair, he praised today’s “good music” for its use of rhythm.

And he knows his audience; in fact, his rapport with the crowd is part of what makes him such an enduring showman. He still has an ongoing residency at the Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino, owned by Central Floridians David and Jackie Siegel. “Ever hear of TikTok?” he queried Tuesday night before performing the upbeat “Dancing in the Aisles,” a newer song that has inspired youngsters to create their own choreography seen in videos they post on the social-media platform. He featured those videos on his own big screen, which also occasionally flashed album covers from days gone by — including an image of him with the quintessential 1970s feathered hair. “Really? Really?” he exclaimed. “Take that down!” The walk down memory lane culminated neatly in a video of an early performance of “Mandy,” segueing sweetly into his crowd-pleasing live rendition.

Lake Howell High School director of bands José Eslava was recognized as the winner of a contest run by Manilow Music Foundation to promote music education. Eslava won $5,000, and an additional $5,000 was donated to the school for instrument purchases.

Opener Gordie Brown had a tough row to hoe, with an audience eager for the main event. The Las Vegas impressionist-comedian pulled out a lot of voices — he imitates everyone from Katharine Hepburn to Willie Nelson to Louis Armstrong to country singer Josh Turner in rapid succession — but his goofy, scattershot set was a mere distraction until Manilow took the stage.

It has been 30 years since the last time I saw Manilow in concert; I was a college student and took a date to his show. I remember a romantic walk back to campus in the rain, and I remember being impressed with how well Manilow connected with the audience and how well his smartly crafted pop held up. Times change, but some things do not. Manilow’s still got it.

January 18, 2023 The New York Pops40th Birthday Gala on Monday, May 1
Exciting announcement! Our 40th Birthday Gala on Monday, May 1 will honor Grammy, Tony, and Emmy Award-winning singer and songwriter Barry Manilow! New York Pops donors of $100 or more receive early access to our 40th Birthday Gala. Make a contribution to be eligible for this exclusive offer: https://bit.ly/SupportTNYP. Tickets go on sale to the general public on February 1, 2023 at 11:00 AM. Questions? Email development@nypops.org or call (212) 765-7677 for more information.
January 17, 2023 GPB/PBS"North Atlanta HS band teacher wins Manilow Music Award" by Logan Ritchie
North Atlanta High School music programs director Adam Brooks will be honored with the Manilow Music Project Award by the Grammy-award-winning legend Barry Manilow at the Jan. 19 concert as his wife, kids, friends and colleagues look on.  The prize is $5,000 in cash and $5,000 “Manilow bucks” for the NAHS music program. The Manilow Music Project has given away over $10 million worth of funds and music instrument donations.

Brooks, 42, said he plans to buy a new speaker system for the band room and a keyboard for the jazz band, which performs seven to 10 times a year. “I’m very fortunate to have such a great community to serve. From the kids, parents and administration and colleagues, this amazing place to work,” said Brooks. NAHS is the largest high school in Atlanta Public Schools with 2,400 students.

In his 18th year with APS, Brooks spends his days teaching 120 music students. The program boasts a marching band, three levels of concert band (beginner, intermediate and advanced), two jazz bands, ensembles, percussion and music technology. Fall semester was busy with travel. NAHS band visited Western Carolina University, spending the day with a world renowned band and learning a pre-game show, and a traditional marching band competition in Raleigh, N.C.  “We came home with the title of grand champion with first place in every category, so that was a very cool trip,” Brooks said.

Travel continues when NAHS jazz band is hitting the road to attend Essentially Ellington in Nashville, Tenn., spearheaded by Wynton Marsalis, a nine-time Grammy award winning trumpeter, composer and educator. NAHS band members will be playing in the pit orchestra for the spring musical, Legally Blonde. In prior years, the band accompanied the drama department in Footloose, Chicago and West Side Story. “We have a dynamic arts department here, so getting ready for the musical is always a big to-do,” said Brooks.

A horn and percussion player, Brooks grew up in Virginia Beach, Va. Brooks earned a bachelor’s degree from Bethune Cookman University in Daytona Beach, Fla., and a masters degree from Reinhardt College in Atlanta. As a college student, Brooks’ marching band traveled to Atlanta to appear in the movie Drumline. He connected with Atlanta-area band directors who gave him an opportunity at APS. It’s all been a wonderful journey, he said.

Manilow is partnering with concert venues across the country to identify schools and music teachers who deserve a token of gratitude, Manilow said about his tour. The concert is at 7 p.m. on Jan. 19 at State Farm Arena.

January 17, 2023 WSAV-TV"Barry Manilow presents local Savannah teacher with $10K award" by Hollie Lewis
SAVANNAH, Ga (WSAV) – Legendary singer and songwriter Barry Manilow, who is recognized for his hit recordings like Mandy (1974) and Copacabana (1978), made Savannah the hottest spot, more than Havana, this week during his Manilow Hits 2023 concert. During the concert, Manilow recognized Reggie Mitchell, the Savannah High School fine arts department chair and director of bands with the Manilow Music Teacher Award.

The Manilow Music Teacher Award recognizes an outstanding music teacher who helps to bring music to life for his or her students. Award recipients receive a total of $10,000 with $5,000 of it being a cash prize and the other $5,000 in Manilow Bucks credit that can be used to purchase instruments for their classroom. In addition, Mitchell received 10 complimentary tickets for Manilow’s performance with a backstage meet and greet.

This year, SCCPSS had four teachers nominated for the award: Emily Graham of Islands High School; Chloe Washington of Windsor Forest High School; Lashon Leggett of Herschel V. Jenkins High School; and Mitchell. After all the votes were tallied, Reginald Mitchell was selected for special recognition by legendary singer and songwriter Barry Manilow.

January 16, 2023 Creative Loafing Tampa Bay"An ageless Barry Manilow plays Tampa's Amalie Arena" by Ray Roa
History says Barry Manilow is 79 years old. Don't tell that to ageless iconic American songwriter though. Mr. "Copacabana" was in Tampa last Saturday night for a hit filled show that was preceded by the pop star naming local teacher Christopher Allen as a "The Manilow Music Project" winner. The win brings $5,000, plus another $5,000 in "Manilow bucks" to help Allen purchase instruments for Newsome High School. (PHOTOS)
January 16, 2023 Click on Orlando"Seminole County music teacher surprised with Barry Manilow award: Band director José Eslava will receive award at Barry Manilow’s upcoming concert in Orlando" by Carolina Cardona
José Eslava was 10 years old when he discovered a passion for the flute. “My family is from Colombia, and they would always play traditional Colombian music and the three instruments that really stuck out to me growing up were flute, trumpet, guitar,” Eslava said. Eslava recalled when he first tried out for the trumpet, he didn’t quite get it to play. “When I did the trials for beginning band, I could not get the sound of the trumpet,” he said. On the other hand, the flute came naturally to him.

Twenty-six years later, Eslava is the band director for his alma mater, Lake Howell High School in Seminole County. Eslava said, “I just want to make sure that I give back what he gave me, an opportunity to perform and do what I love,” speaking about his high school music teacher and mentor who influenced his career path. “Mr. Todd Leighton. He was always very supportive and anytime I had a goal or a vision, he helped make sure that I succeeded with that goal or vision.”

Eslava’s dedication and leadership is being recognized in the music industry. The 36-year-old was recently named winner of the Manilow Music Project Music Teacher Award, a recognition he’ll receive from the music icon himself at Barry Manilow’s upcoming concert in Orlando. “I’ve been envisioning this big surreal adrenaline rush,” he said, “This award is not just about me as a teacher, it’s about the community, it’s about the students. It’s more than just one person, it’s about the whole team.”

Since being named band director in 2014, the high school has brought home numerous awards with ensembles that include marching band, color guard, brass choir, and wind ensemble. “The program has been very successful recently. In marching band, five of the seven shows that I’ve put together have been state finalists,” he said. Most importantly, it’s the personal reward he says he cherishes the most. “Band is so much more than just performing and playing notes on an instrument. It’s life lessons, its dedication, it’s teamwork, leadership, friendships,” he said.

Eslava said he hopes his music students will see the bigger picture and remember him for his encouragement. “I want them to think that I’m the person they can always count on. That I’m the person that pushed them to their limits to make them more successful in the future,” he said. “No matter what career you’re in, I want you to be the best in that field. I want you take all the hard work you learned here and place it in whatever career you wrote go in.”

As for what the future holds, Eslava proudly said, he isn’t going anywhere else. “I want to retire here. I want to make this my forever career, my end goal,” he said. “This is home to me, and I would never trade it for the world.” Eslava will receive a $5,000 cash reward and another 5,000 “Manilow bucks” to purchase musical instruments, which Lake Howell High School said they’re in need of.

January 15, 2023 Patch.com"The Manilow Music Teacher Award" by Danielle Fallon-O'Leary
Fine Arts Department Chair and Director of Bands at Savannah High School Reggie Mitchell received a big award on Sunday. Mitchell was recognized with The Manilow Music Teacher Award – recognition for the hard work and dedication he has to bringing music to his students' lives. Mitchell said, "Like I told my students, this award is nothing without the hard work and dedication of my staff, as well as the kids because the kids are the ones who actually put the work in and make my job easy each and every day."
January 15, 2023 Savannah Now"Barry Manilow to award Savannah High band director with $5,000 scholarship for music program" by Laura Nwogu
Iconic singer-songwriter Barry Manilow is rocking into Savannah on Sunday, but not before awarding Reggie Mitchell, the fine arts department chair and director of bands at Savannah High School, with The Manilow Music Teacher Award. The Manilow Music Teacher Award recognizes a deserving local music teacher who helps to bring music to life for his or her students. When Mitchell first heard he’d been nominated by Savannah High principal Gequetta Jenkins, he was shocked. “She was saying that with the work that you put in, the time that you put in, you are more than a worthy recipient for this prestigious award,” Mitchell recalled when Jenkins announced his nomination at the school’s winter recital. “She’s been in my corner since day one in helping me build this program.”

From being inspired to join the band by a Savannah middle school director to studying music education at Savannah State University by the urging of his high school and college director, Mitchell is now going on 23 years of bringing the same joy to his students. “I’m humbled to be nominated as one of the top educators, but even more so, winning this award is humbling. Like I told my students, this award is nothing without the hard work and dedication of my staff, as well as the kids because the kids are the ones who actually put the work in and make my job easy each and every day.” The teacher with the most public votes in each city of Manilow’s tour will receive $10,000 — a $5,000 cash prize and a $5,000 Manilow Bucks credit that can be used to purchase instruments for their classroom.

When Mitchell was first hired as the band director at Savannah High, he started with seven kids. That number has now increased to 91 students in the program, and he said the money is a need that will greatly help further the music education of his students. “Us being an inner city school, we have kids who cannot afford instruments and things of that nature. By having extra instruments on hand, I will be able to put an instrument in a scholar's hand versus turning a scholar away because I don’t have an instrument for them. This will make a big difference.”

As the winner, Mitchell was invited to the upcoming Barry Manilow concert and will be presented with the award in a special backstage meet and greet. “I'm thankful for my principal for the nomination … my support system as far as my mother, my aunts, my uncles and my mentors here in Savannah as well as in Jacksonville, Florida, who have supported me along my journey and pushed me to do the things that I do to become the educator that I am. It takes a village to become successful educators.”

January 15, 2023 Fox 13 Memphis"Barry Manilow awarding Georgia high school band director $5K for music program" by Bob D'Angelo
For a Georgia high school band director, this one’s for you. Grammy Award-winning singer Barry Manilow will award Reggie Mitchell, the fine arts department chair and director of bands at Savannah High School, with The Manilow Music Teacher Award on Sunday, the Savannah Morning News reported. Manilow, 79, who was nominated for 15 Grammy Awards and won in 1978 for “Copacabana (At the Copa),” awards a music teacher at every stop of his arena tour. The veteran singer appears Sunday night in Savannah.

According to Manilow’s website, The Manilow Music Teacher Award recognizes a deserving local music teacher who helps to bring music to life for his or her students. Mitchell will receive the award from Manilow during a meet-and-greet session at Sunday’s concert at Enmark Arena, the Morning News reported. “It is wonderful to partner with our concert venues to identify schools and music teachers in their neighborhoods that deserve this small token of my gratitude, Manilow said in a statement. “Many school music programs have either been terminated, or their funds have been severely depleted. I always want to do my part through The Manilow Music Project to keep music in schools.”

Mitchell, whose nomination was announced by Savannah High School Principal Gequetta Jenkins during the school’s winter recital, said he was shocked to learn he was in contention. “She was saying that with the work that you put in, the time that you put in, you are more than a worthy recipient for this prestigious award,” Mitchell told the Morning News. “I’m humbled to be nominated as one of the top educators, but even more so, winning this award is humbling. Like I told my students, this award is nothing without the hard work and dedication of my staff, as well as the kids because the kids are the ones who actually put the work in and make my job easy each and every day.” Mitchell will receive $10,000 -- a $5,000 cash prize and a $5,000 Manilow Bucks credit that can be used to purchase instruments for his classroom, according to the newspaper.

With 91 students in his music program, Mitchell said the award and cash prize are appreciated. “Us being an inner city school, we have kids who cannot afford instruments and things of that nature,” Mitchell told the Morning News. “By having extra instruments on hand, I will be able to put an instrument in a scholar’s hand versus turning a scholar away because I don’t have an instrument for them. This will make a big difference.”

January 14, 2023 UPIBarry Manilow Performs at the FLA Live Arena In Sunrise, Florida
Barry Manilow performed on stage during a one night only concert " Manilow: Hits 2023" at the FLA Live Arena in Sunrise, Florida, on Friday, January 13, 2023. Barry Manilow presented music teacher award and check to Michael Gabriel of Charles Flanagan High School at the FLA Live Arena in Sunrise, Florida, on Friday, January 13, 2023. Gabriel won the Manilow Music project award in Sunrise.
January 11, 2023 Creative Loafing Tampa Bay"Barry Manilow brings the 'Copacabana' back to Tampa this weekend: It's been 50 years since the release of his eponymous debut album" by Josh Bradley
Next July, the 79-year-old “Mandy” singer celebrates 50 years since the release of his eponymous debut album, and despite having already conducted a year-long farewell tour, which rolled into Tampa in 2016, Barry Manilow remains relatively active. He released a sequel to his 2014 album of Great American Songbook pieces right before COVID-19 lockdowns commenced, and still holds down hit-drenched residencies in Las Vegas. Tell your mom, because gigantic, full-scale tours are no longer in the cards for Mr. “Copacabana.” Tickets to see Barry Manilow play Amalie Arena in Tampa on Saturday, Jan. 14 are still available and start at $15.75.
January 10, 2023 The Charlotte Observer"Barry Manilow talks touring, turning 80, and making first original pop album in years" by Théoden Janes
“Retirement” almost seems like a dirty word to the man behind ’70s pop standards like “Copacabana (At the Copa)” and “I Write the Songs” (who also this year will celebrate the 50th anniversary of his self-titled debut album). On one hand, a reminder of the fact that Barry Manilow is celebrating his 80th year on the planet this June will probably make longtime fans of the legendary crooner a.) shake their heads in disbelief, and/or b.) feel pretty old themselves.

On the other? Well, imagine how he feels about the impending milestone. “I must say, this birthday is really crazy. It’s crazy! I never intended to be this old. But I don’t feel it!” Manilow says, laughing. The singer is on the phone from his home in Palm Springs, California, calling to promote the seven-show run through the Southeast this month that will include a stop at Charlotte’s Spectrum Center on Saturday, Jan. 21.

And, FWIW, those exclamation points — and the one below — aren’t exaggerations on our part; he really is exclaiming. “It’s just crazy,” he says again. “I think of people who are 80 ... they look older than I do. They’re retired. You know, that ain’t me! So I don’t know. Call me next year. I’ll tell you what it feels like.” On tap for this year alone: a new album of his own; his fingerprints on two more albums; this January’s “Manilow: Hits 2023” arena mini-tour; and 57 scheduled performances as part of his ongoing residency at the International Theater at Westgate Las Vegas in Nevada.

Manilow talked about all of this and more — including his on-again, off-again relationship with the accordion as well as what’s missing from pop radio these days — in his recent chat with The Charlotte Observer. (The conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.)

The Charlotte Observer (TCO): You spoke recently with my colleague Evan Moore about The Manilow Music Project Music Teacher Award (which, over the years, has given away more than $10 million to school music teachers and programs). Is there a music teacher that stands out to you as someone who — when you were young — helped point you in a direction that you might not have taken otherwise?
Barry Manilow (BM): No. I did that on my own. I come from the slums of Brooklyn, New York. And the last thing anybody cared about in the slums in Brooklyn, New York, was music. My family always knew I was musical, and the only thing they could afford was an accordion and an accordion teacher. And in Brooklyn during those years, every Jewish and Italian kid had to play the accordion. It was like the law. You couldn’t get out of Brooklyn if you didn’t play “Lady of Spain.” There was a guard at the Brooklyn Bridge. So you heard a bevy of accordions all over town. And I was one of those kids that played the accordion, and I liked it. The best part of it is that I learned how to read music. When my stepfather arrived, he threw out the accordion and got me a spinet piano. And I could actually play songs, ’cause I could read music. That was the big turning point. As soon as I hit the keys of that little spinet piano, even though I was 13 years old, I just knew that that was where I was gonna wind up. I didn’t know how that could possibly happen — because where I came from, that was a big dream — but I just knew I was going to wind up doing something in music. I just didn’t care about anything else.

TCO: Do you still have a soft spot for the accordion?
BM: I used to do a comedy sketch with my accordion. I used to play “Like a Virgin.” Today’s songs, on the accordion. It was really funny. But because I was doing that, I had to re-learn how to play the accordion. It’s a very complicated instrument. If you look on YouTube and you type in “accordion players,” you will see — these guys really are wizards at this instrument. It’s a much more complicated instrument than the piano, because of all those buttons on your left hand, and the keyboard on the right hand. And if you know how to play the accordion, you get some really nice sounds from it. So I don’t make fun of it anymore. I used to make fun of it. But if you can play the accordion well, then you’ve got my admiration.

TCO: So, tell me a little bit about this tour. What was the thinking behind stepping away from your Vegas residency for this short run of shows?
BM: Well, my band and my crew, we love each other. And we had the whole month of January off. I said, “Book us some dates, Gare (that being Garry Kief, Manilow’s manager and husband). Nobody wants to take off for a whole month.” So he booked us on this tour. We all love doing these shows. They’re so uplifting. These audiences are still so great to me. They love these songs. I’m one of the lucky guys that can fill up a whole evening of pop songs that people know. I don’t have to go into the album cuts. I don’t have to go to songs that no one’s ever heard of. Every song is something that — either you love it or you hate it, but you know it! It’s a really enjoyable evening for these audiences.

TCO: Is there a different kind of feeling you get from a tour like this, where you’re going into a different arena every night?
BM: Is it a different kind of energy for you? Yeah, it is. It’s even more exciting than the evenings in Vegas. The evenings in Vegas — I’ve started to take it for granted, because they’re so exciting. These audiences, you would really think that they’d be a little jaded, and would much rather go back out into the casino or something. But they’ve been great. But when we do these tours, they are there to see me and hear this music. It’s not like they happened to walk by the billboard where they see me in Vegas. Here, they saved their bucks and put away a Saturday night. So the whole vibe is different. They’re there because they want to be there. Because they’ve been waiting for this show. And I’m very, very lucky and very grateful that they’re still out there for me.

TCO: Tell me about your opening act, Gordie Brown (who is a musician and a singer but also a comedian and impressionist), and the idea of getting the audience warmed up by making it laugh.
BM: Yeah, years ago he opened for us and he killed every night. He killed. I don’t know how that could happen. It’s one thing to have a music act to open for me, but to have a comic and impressionist — and for it to work — they loved him. He’s got billboards all over Vegas these days. He’s headlining all over the place. So, I was so lucky to have him be available for these shows.

TCO: Would you say that the audiences at the shows that you’re doing this month in the Southeast are going to basically kind of get a Vegas-style show?
BM: No. I do my concert show when we go out. It’s still beautiful. Beautiful lights and very, very beautiful effects and all — but no. And even in the Vegas show, I don’t do a big production. With me, it’s really just me, the audience, and a lot of great songs and my great band. I think people walk away feeling really good after these shows. It’s really a very emotional evening. And I’ve never really been into the big production.

TCO: On the age thing one more time: Do you feel at all like at some point you’re gonna have to slow down?
BM: I’m just gettin’ started. I’ve always got “the next one.” There’s always “the next one” with me. I’m starting to produce an album for my friend (saxophonist) Dave Koz. I’ve never done anything like that. Then I’ve got the original cast album for my musical, “Harmony” (which is set to open on Broadway this year). We’ve finished doing that. “Harmony” is about to go up in New York, and when that opens up, that album will come out. I never really think about this age thing. I don’t feel it. Nothing seems to have changed. I look pretty much the same as I always do. I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop. But so far, so good.

TCO: And the album that you’re doing on your own, is that something that’ll come out this year?
BM: Yeah. It’s gonna either be this summer or for next Christmas. It’s my first original pop album in a long time. Usually I either have a concept — like “15 Minutes,” or “Paradise Café,” or “Singin’ With the Big Bands” — but in the beginning I used to just do pop songs. Albums of just pop songs that had nothing to do with each other. I’ve been working on this one for a couple of years. I wasn’t sure whether it was a good idea to do something like this, because the music that I make is totally different than the music that’s on the radio these days. But I like this stuff that I wrote. I think the audiences that like what I do will love this — depending on how many people are still out there. So we’ll see. It’s a gamble. I’ve never really been good at predicting hit singles. Even when I was having them, I was never very good at it. All I know is to make the best record I can make, and I listen back to it, and I say, “Well, that stinks,” or, “I really loved it.” So that’s where I’m at with this. It’s 12 new pop songs with something in it that we are missing. And that something is a melody! Really, we seem to have lost the melody on the radio. I mean, they’re still making great records. They’re all full of rhythm and loops and stuff. But I miss the melodies. If you go to country stations, you have a chance of getting some nice-sounding melodies, but on pop radio, you gotta search for it. So I’ve put together a pop album with beautiful melodies and great lyrics. Isn’t that something? What an interesting concept!

TCO: Would you say that it’s an evolution of your sound, or would you say it’s kind of a throwback, for people who are fans of the music you made in the ’70s and ’80s?
BM: I played a few of the cuts for a friend of mine, and I said, “Does this sound old-fashioned?” She said, “No! It’s you!” Well, that’s what it is. If you like what I did — what I do — I got 12 new ones for ya.

Barry Manilow in Charlotte. When: 7 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 21. Where: Spectrum Center, 333 E. Trade St. Tickets: $19.50 and up. Details: www.ticketmaster.com; barrymanilow.com.

January 12, 2023 Click Orlando"Barry Manilow to present music award to Seminole County high school band director: The singer will give Lake Howell High School’s Director of Bands José Eslava a $10K award" by Samantha Dunne
In the Seminole County school district, “Manilow bucks” go far. Grammy award-winning performer Barry Manilow is set to award Lake Howell High School’s Director of Bands José Eslava $10,000 at a one-night-only concert on Tuesday, Jan. 17. “It is wonderful to partner with our concert venues to identify schools and music teachers in their neighborhoods that deserve this small token of my gratitude,” Manilow said of the program in a statement. “Many school music programs have either been terminated, or their funds have been severely depleted. I always want to do my part through The Manilow Music Project to keep music in schools.”

Eslava was selected by Central Florida school boards and the Amway Center to receive a $5,000 cash award and another $5,000 in “Manilow bucks,” money presented by the singer so the recipient can purchase instruments for his school’s music program. In addition to the cash award, the band director received VIP tickets to Manilow’s concert at the Amway Center on Tuesday, where he will meet the performer. The Manilow Music Project, which distributes funding to local music teachers and programs across the U.S., has contributed over $10 million in funding and music instrument donations to date.

January 9, 2023 Williamson Source"Nolenville High Band Director Wins Manilow Music Award" by Michael Carpenter
Nolensville High band director Benjamin Easley is the winner of the Manilow Music Teacher Award for the Nashville area. Presented by the Manilow Music Project created by Barry Manilow, the award recognizes an outstanding music teacher who helps bring music to life for their students. As the winner in the Nashville area, Easley will receive a $5,000 cash prize and $5,000 Manilow Bucks credits that may be used to purchase instruments for his classroom. “I am honored to receive this award,” Easley said. “My music educator parents raised me with Manilow’s music, so I am especially grateful for the opportunity to both meet the artist and receive his support for Nolensville Band. As a newer band program, this generous award will facilitate new instrument purchases to positively impact our students’ music education experiences. Thanks to the community of Nolensville and all who voted to support us.”

Easley was one of 10 finalists in Nashville along with Centennial High’s Johnathan Vest and Franklin High’s Michael Holland. The winner was decided through community voting. In addition to the monetary prizes, Easley will also be invited to an upcoming Barry Manilow concert and be presented the award in a backstage meet-and-greet.

January 8, 2023 Tampa BeaconPop superstar Barry Manilow to play Amalie Arena
Music legend Barry Manilow is heading out on the road for a special seven-show arena tour. The “Manilow: Hits 2023 Tour” will kick off in South Florida before arriving in the Tampa Bay area for a performance Saturday, Jan. 14, 7 p.m., at Amalie Arena, 401 Channelside Drive, Tampa. Tickets start at $15.75. Visit www.ticketmaster.com. “I look forward to this upcoming amazing year celebrating my personal milestone with my fans that have been with me throughout these many wonderful years,” said Manilow.

In 2023, Manilow will mark his 50th anniversary as a recording artist. The tour will highlight the superstar’s greatest hits. Manilow, a Grammy, Tony, and Emmy Award winner, and whose success is a benchmark in popular music, will perform an array of his hit songs, including "Mandy," "I Write the Songs," "Looks Like We Made It," "Can't Smile Without You," and "Copacabana (At the Copa)." Having sold more than 85 million albums worldwide, Manilow is one of the world's all-time best selling recording artists. He has had 50 Top 40 singles including 12 No. 1s and 27 Top 10 hits. He is ranked as the No. 1 Adult Contemporary Artist of all time, according to Billboard and R&R magazines.

January 5, 2023 Broadway World"Gordie Brown Joins Barry Manilow on Limited Engagement Arena Tour Dates: The tour dates are set to begin this month" by Michael Major
Music icon Barry Manilow welcomes Las Vegas headliner Gordie Brown this winter for his special seven show arena tour presented by World of Westgate - MANILOW: HITS 2023 - set to begin this month. The exclusive run kicks off on January 13th at FLA Live Arena in Sunrise, FL stopping at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Enmarket Arena in Savannah, Amway Center in Orlando, State Farm Arena in Atlanta and Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, before before wrapping in Charlotte at the Spectrum Center on January 21st.

Gordie Brown always delivers an exhilarating show of music and laughs, making him one of the most sought-after impressionist comedians of our time. He began his career as a political cartoonist before he caught the entertainment bug after winning a local talent contest. Aside from Manilow, he has opened for renowned artists such as Jay Leno, Louie Anderson, Randy Travis, Kenny Rogers, and Celine Dion.

The Barry Manilow concerts will highlight the superstar's greatest hits. Manilow, a Grammy®, TONY®, and EMMY® Award-winning music icon and whose success is a benchmark in popular music, will perform an array of his hit songs, including "Mandy," "I Write the Songs," "Looks Like We Made It," "Can't Smile Without You," and "Copacabana (At the Copa)." "I am truly honored to be working with the legendary Barry Manilow" said Brown. "He is one of the greatest performers of all time and I can't wait to share my musical impressions with his incredible fans."

"Gordie is one of the most talented impressionist comedians I have ever seen," said Manilow. "I'm delighted he's going to be joining us for these shows."

MANILOW: HITS 2023 TOUR DATES:

  • Jan. 13, 2023 Sunrise, FL FLA Live Arena
  • Jan. 14, 2023 Tampa, FL Amalie Arena
  • Jan. 15, 2023 Savannah, GA Enmarket Arena
  • Jan. 17, 2023 Orlando, FL Amway Center
  • Jan. 19, 2023 Atlanta, GA State Farm Arena
  • Jan. 20, 2023 Nashville, TN Bridgestone Arena
  • Jan. 21, 2023 Charlotte, NC Spectrum Center

ABOUT BARRY MANILOW: Having sold more than 85 million albums worldwide, Barry Manilow is one of the world's all-time best selling recording artists. The GRAMMY®, TONY®, and EMMY® Award-winning musician has had an astonishing 50 Top 40 singles including 12 #1s and 27 Top 10 hits. He is ranked as the #1 Adult Contemporary Artist of all time, according to Billboard and R&R magazines.

ABOUT GORDIE BROWN: Born and raised in Montreal, Quebec, Gordie Brown began his career as a political cartoonist before he caught the entertainment bug after winning a local talent contest. He was soon opening in Los Angeles for renowned artists such as Jay Leno, Louie Anderson, Randy Travis, Barry Manilow, Kenny Rogers, and even joined Celine Dion on her North American tour "Taking Chances." He had his national television debut on A&E's Evening at the Improv and continued on to co-host NBC's Friday Night Videos, along with appearances on Hollywood Squares, Late Show with David Letterman, and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. Gordie starred in the lead role as 'Mr. Jones' in the dramatic TV series, "Twice in a Lifetime." He now is a Las Vegas headliner that delivers an exhilarating show of music and laughs, making him one of the most sought-after impressionist comedians of our time.

January 5, 2023 WCNC Charlotte"CMS band director to be presented with Barry Manilow music teacher award: Suggs was nominated by Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and the Spectrum Center for the award" by Anders J. Hare
A Charlotte band director is set to receive a music teacher award from award-winning singer Barry Manilow during a show in Charlotte later this month. On Wednesday, it was announced that Phillip O. Berry Academy of Technology's Walter Suggs the Manilow Music Project Music Teacher Award. The award is given to one teacher in each city that Manilow performs in, and it consists of $5,000 in cash as well as $5,000 in 'Manilow bucks' to purchase musical instruments for their school’s music program. Suggs was nominated by Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and the Spectrum Center for the award. “It is wonderful to partner with our concert venues to identify schools and music teachers in their neighborhoods that deserve this small token of my gratitude, Manilow. “Many school music programs have either been terminated, or their funds have been severely depleted. I always want to do my part through The Manilow Music Project to keep music in schools.” Since its inception, the Manilow Music Project has given away over $10 million worth of funds and music instrument donations. Suggs will meet the Grammy Award winner at the one-night-only set, happening Saturday, Jan. 21 at the Spectrum Center. Find more information about the performance here.
January 4, 2023 South Florida Theater"Manilow at Age 79 Stars in FLA Live Arena Concert in Sunrise" by Marvin Glassman
At age 79, singer/songwriter Barry Manilow is possibly the oldest performer to headline a concert at FLA Live Arena when he performs “Manilow Hits 2023” in Sunrise on January 13, along with six other venues in the American Southeast through January 21. Promoters normally would hesitate to book a singer at age 79 in a 20,000 seat plus arena, but that is not the case for Manilow, whose concerts have filled major arenas for over 45 years.

Barry Manilow is currently ranked by Billboard Magazine as the number one adult contemporary artist of all time, spanning a 50 year recording career selling 85 million albums, with 50 top 40 singles, such as “Copacabana”, “Can’t Smile Without You”, “I Write The Songs”, “Even Now” and “Weekend In New England”, all expected to be performed at his Sunrise concert. “I consider myself very lucky and fortunate to have so many fans coming to my shows for so many years,” said Manilow, who first became known for his first hit song “Mandy” recorded in 1974. “My only complaint was the constant touring that I had to do. I love performing for my fans, but I hated catching planes and staying in hotels far from my home (in Palm Springs, California), so I was able to do a permanent residency in Las Vegas”.

Manilow has performed in concerts mostly in Las Vegas since 2000. He has earned the Emmy, Grammy and Tony Awards for his numerous concerts and television specials.

Less well-known is Manilow’s contributions as a composer in the musical theater. Teaming with lyricist Bruce Sussman, the duo wrote both “Copacabana The Musical”, which was performed in regional theaters for over 25 years, and “Harmony”, performed off-Broadway in 2002.

Manilow is especially proud about writing “Harmony”, which won the Theatre Fans Choice Award as Best Off- Broadway musical in 2022. Harmony is a musical biography of the German based Comedian Harmonists group, who were popular in Europe in the 1920s and ‘30s. Three of the group members were Jewish, one being a Rabbi. “Writing ‘Harmony’ is the most important achievement I had in my career. The story is about how the group came together and later disbanded in Germany when the Nazis came to power. Although none of the members perished in The Holocaust, the group broke up following World War Two and the enthusiasm they once had for singing together was lost,” said Manilow. “The story is uplifting and means a lot to Bruce (Sussman) and me because we are Jewish. We wrote the songs in ‘Harmony’ after studying much of the music of the era, including Cantorial and Klezmer music.”

A local Ft. Lauderdale music teacher (to be named at the January 13 concert) will receive a $5,000 award, another $5,000 to purchase musical instruments for the teacher’s school district as well as VIP tickets to the concert through Manilow’s Foundation titled Manilow Music Project. “It is wonderful to partner with our concert venues to identify schools and music teachers that deserve this small token of my gratitude. I had my love of music nurtured by taking music classes when I was a teen. Many music school programs today have been either terminated or their funds have been severely depleted. I always wanted to do my part in keeping music alive in school through The Manilow Music Project”.

Manilow was raised by his mother Edna and his grandparents, (Jewish immigrants from Russia), in a small Brooklyn apartment. Although born as Barry Pincus, he changed his surname to Manilow out of love for his mother, who took her maiden name when she divorced his father. Manilow honed his music first on the accordion and then on the piano, which he received as a bar mitzvah gift at age 13. After studying music at Juilliard School, Manilow became adept at arranging and writing commercial jingles that eventually led to him becoming musical director for Bette Midler in 1972 prior to starting his solo career.

Unlike most songwriters, Manilow did not think of himself as a professional singer and was surprised when he was asked to sing and record in 1973. “To this day, I think of myself as a musician first, rather than as a singer. I was happy working with Bette (Midler), but when the opportunity came to record my first album, I became a singer.”

Manilow wrote an autobiography of his early days in the music business “Sweet Life: Adventures On The Way To Paradise” in 1987. Manilow has been married to his longtime manager Garry Kief since 2014.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Barry Manilow will be performing “Manilow Hits 2023” on January 13 at 7 pm at FLA Live Arena, 1 Panther Parkway in Sunrise. Tickets range from $14.75-335. To buy tickets, go to either ticketmaster.com or flalivearena.com or call 954-835-7000. To learn more about Barry Manilow, go to barrymanilow.com.

January 4, 2023 Patch.com"Barry Manilow To Present $10,000 Award To Newsome Orchestra Teacher: As part of his Manilow Music Project, music icon Barry Manilow will honor music teacher Christopher Allen at his Jan. 14 Tampa concert" by D'Ann Law
After winning the popular vote in The Manilow Music Project Music Teacher Award, Newsome High School director of orchestras Christopher Allen will be honored by music legend Barry Manilow on Saturday, Jan. 14, when Manilow performs in concert at Amalie Arena. The Grammy Award-winning musician and 2002 Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee will meet backstage with Allen to present him with a $5,000 cash award and $5,000 in "Manilow" bucks to purchase musical instruments for Newsome's music program.

To determine which music teacher would receive the honor, in December the Hillsborough and Pinellas County school boards in conjunction with the Amalie Arena nominated 10 school music teachers and then invited the public to vote for their favorite nominee. "I couldn't believe I'd even been nominated," Allen said. "I know every one of the other teachers and they're all phenomenal." Other teachers in the running for the honor were John Parris of Howard W. Blake High School; Revae Douglas of Sumner High School; Christopher Revett of Robinson High School; Cheri Sleeper of Strawberry Crest High School; Gerard Madrinan of Seminole High School; Katie Aucremann of St. Petersburg High School; Kamyl Alicea-Cordero of Dunedin High School; Rebekah Chambers of Tarpon Springs High School; and Nicholas Stefanic of Hollins High School.

On Wednesday, Manilow announced that the votes had been tallied and Allen, the orchestra director at Newsome High for 14 years, was the winner. "It's been a whirlwind since it was announced," Allen said. "People have been calling me and posting on my Facebook page all day, congratulating me. Anyone of those other teachers could have won. It made me feel so supported just to know people really hold me in regard." A product of the Pinellas County School District, Allen, 48, holds a bachelor of arts degree in French horn performance from the University of South Florida and, in his spare time, has performs with the Southwest Florida Symphony Orchestra in Fort Myers, the Walt Disney World Orchestra, the Sarasota Orchestra and the Florida Orchestra. He also directs the Sarasota Youth Orchestra.

Prior to joining the staff at Newsome, Allen taught in low-income Title 1 elementary schools for six years where he said kids were starving for a chance to learn to play an instrument or see a live musical performance. However, their parents couldn't afford a $5 band T-shirt much less the cost of a ticket to a concert. So Allen said he became adept at applying for grants to purchase musical instruments and fund field trips to satisfy his grade-school students' love of music. "It was challenging but also very rewarding," Allen said.

When he was appointed orchestra director at Newsome High School in Lithia, where he lives with his wife, Melissa, who also teaches music, funding continued to be a challenge. The performing and fine arts are the first programs to be cut when money is tight. "The school district only supplies so much funding. We have a double bass at the school that was purchased when the school opened 20 years ago," Allen said. "And with instruments being shared by hundreds of kids, you can imagine the wear and tear. I only have enough funding to repair one instrument a year."

He said the funding from the Manilow Music Project is desperately needed. "We're constantly trying to find more money for the music programs," he said. "To me, this really goes to show that the people in the Manilow camp understand the need to keep these music programs afloat. I wish more successful musicians would start these kinds of programs."

Manilow said it's been rewarding to help struggling music programs. "It is wonderful to partner with our concert venues to identify schools and music teachers in their neighborhoods that deserve this small token of my gratitude," said Manilow. "Many school music programs have either been terminated or their funds have been severely depleted. I always want to do my part through The Manilow Music Project to keep music in schools."

Since his nomination was announced in early December, Allen said he's enjoyed introducing his students to Manilow's music. Every school day he would play a different Manilow hit. Some, he said, they'd heard before like "Copacabana (At the Copa)," "Could It Be Magic" and "I Write the Songs." Others were new to them including "Mandy," Somewhere Down the Road" and "Can't Smile Without You." Allen has plenty of hits from which to choose. Manilow is one of the most prolific singer-songwriters in America. He has sold more than 85 million records worldwide, making him one of the world's best-selling artists. He has recorded and released 51 Top 40 singles including 13 No. 1 hits, 28 hits in the Top 10 and 36 in the Top 20.

Additionally, Manilow, now 79, has written and performed songs for musicals, films and commercials, for which he's received a Tony Award and was nominated for an Academy Award. He's also a Grammy Award-winning producer, producing albums for such stars as Bette Midler and Dionne Warwick. "And to think he began his career writing jingles for commercials," Allen said.

In 1971, Manilow was paid $500 for writing State Farm's jingle, "Like a Good Neighbor," according to the singer-songwriter's biography. He went on to write "Stuck on Band-Aid," for which he won a CLIO award in 1976, and McDonald's' "You Deserve a Break Today." He will present Allen with 20 times the amount of money he earned for his first jingle. "This is just great," Allen said. "I love that my program and my love of teaching music is getting recognition. And the money will be put to good use.

For tickets to Manilow's concert, click here.

January 4, 2023 ABC Action News"Hillsborough County music teacher honored by Barry Manilow" by Erik Waxler
HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — Chris Allen said some of the double basses at Newsome High School have been around for 20 years. “I can’t even count how many hundreds of students have used this one instrument,” said Allen. But the school will soon be able to buy new instruments thanks to a music legend. In each city where Barry Manilow performs, he picks his Music Project Music Teacher Award winner. It includes $5,000 for Allen and $5000 in Manilow bucks to go toward his school’s music program. When Allen got the nomination, he made sure his students knew just who Barry Manilow is. “As soon as I put the song on the stereo system in the classroom, everybody just sang “Copa, Copacabana.” Even if they don’t know who he is, they know that song and they sing along with it. It was really great," said Allen.

Through the years, the Manilow Music Project has given away more than ten million dollars to keep music alive in schools. Allen is a professional musician who’s played with the likes of Diana Ross, Peabo Bryson and Olivia Newton-John. He’s also been teaching for twenty years. His award-winning orchestra at Newsome even played at Carnegie Hall. “I always stress to my students it’s not really about the trophies. It’s really about the journey you took to get there. The practicing we’ve had to do. A lot of hours go into it. Really if we have a really amazing performance, it’s all we are looking for. And the trophies and ratings will all take care of themselves," said Allen.

Manilow performs at Amalie Arena on Jan. 14. Allen gets several tickets to the show and will get to meet Manilow backstage.

January 4, 2023 Osprey Observer"Newsome High School’s Christopher Allen Wins Barry Manilow Music Project Award" by Jennifer Hurst
Music icon Barry Manilow announced today Christopher Allen of Newsome High School has won The Manilow Music Project Music Teacher Award in Tampa. The Grammy award winner previously announced a one-night-only concert set for Saturday, January 14, at Tampa’s Amalie Arena. The Tampa School Board and Amalie Arena participated in the contest by suggesting schools and teachers in their area that they want to be considered for this award. In each city, the winning teacher will receive 5K cash award and another 5K in “Manilow bucks” presented by Barry Manilow to purchase musical instruments for their school’s music program. The winner will also receive VIP tickets to the concert. Christopher Allen of Newsome High School will meet Manilow at the show on January 14th for the award presentation. “It is wonderful to partner with our concert venues to identify schools and music teachers in their neighborhoods that deserve this small token of my gratitude, said Manilow. “Many school music programs have either been terminated, or their funds have been severely depleted. I always want to do my part through The Manilow Music Project to keep music in schools.” The Manilow Music Project has given away over ten million dollars’ worth of funds and music instrument donations.

Barry Manilow’s unparalleled career is made up of virtually every facet of music, including performing, composing, arranging, and producing. A 2002 Songwriters Hall of Fame Inductee, Manilow has triumphed in every medium of entertainment. He has received a Grammy®, Emmy®, and a TONY Award® and has been nominated for an Academy Award®. Having sold more than 85 million albums worldwide, Barry Manilow is one of the world’s all-time bestselling recording artists. He’s had an astonishing 50 Top 40 singles, including 12 #1s and 27 Top 10 hits, and is ranked the #1 Adult Contemporary Artist of all-time, according to Billboard and R&R magazines.

January 4, 2023 3 WBTV On Your SideCMS band director to be presented with singer Barry Manilow’s music teacher award: Phillip O. Berry’s Walter Suggs earned $5,000 each for both himself, and for the school to buy instruments
A local band teacher is set to be presented with an award from music icon Barry Manilow when he performs in Charlotte later this month. On Wednesday, it was announced that Phillip O. Berry’s Walter Suggs will receive ‘The Manilow Music Project’ music teacher award. The award, which is given to one teacher in each city that Manilow performs, consists of a $5,000 cash reward for the winning recipient, as well as an additional $5,000 for the winner’s school to purchase instruments. Suggs will be presented with the award backstage prior to Manilow’s show at the Spectrum Center on Jan. 21. He will also be given VIP tickets to the performance. “It is wonderful to partner with our concert venues to identify schools and music teachers in their neighborhoods that deserve this small token of my gratitude, said Manilow. “Many school music programs have either been terminated, or their funds have been severely depleted. I always want to do my part through ‘The Manilow Music Project’ to keep music in schools.” Suggs was nominated by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Board and the Spectrum Center as a deserving teacher from the area. According to Phillip O. Berry’s music program website, Suggs graduated from NCCU with a degree in music education in 1993, and then earned his master’s from Winthrop University in 2009. Since the award was created, ‘The Manilow Music Project’ has given away more than $10 million worth of funds and musical instrument donations.

When Where Articles/Reviews
December 28, 2022 Orlando Sentinel"Orlando-bound Barry Manilow asks public to help him honor local music teachers" by Matthew J. Palm
Hitmaker Barry Manilow feels passionately about music education — and the students who find a home in their school’s bands. “These classes are so important to them,” said the “I Write the Songs” singer in a phone call from Palm Springs, California. “They turn into their second family.” Manilow will perform Jan. 17 at the Amway Center in Orlando.

In the run-up to his concert, the singer’s Manilow Music Project will honor a music teacher with $10,000 — $5,000 to the teacher and $5,000 to the teacher’s school for instrument purchases — and the public will vote for the winner. The often sorry state of scholastic instruments weighs on Manilow’s mind.

Barry Manilow performs at the Amway Center in Orlando on Jan. 20, 2011. “Timpanis with wads of tape holding them together,” he said of what some students face. “The instruments they do have are from the 1940s or 1950s.” That’s if the schools have instruments at all. He was appalled when the daughter of a friend needed a saxophone because her high school didn’t have any on which to teach her. “We keep looking for things to make the public aware that music classes in high schools are on the verge of going down,” he said. “These teachers are heroes. They buy the kids instruments on their own, and they aren’t making that much money.”

To date, the Manilow Music Project has given away more than $10 million in funding and instrument donations to schools. On previous Central Florida visits over the years, the initiative has staged a used-instrument drive and donated pianos to area high schools. In 2018, the Manilow Music Project provided instruments to Orlando's Jones High School, where students had been using sousaphones that were more than 50 years old. This year, another school will benefit from the project's donations. For this year’s Orlando concert stop, the Amway Center worked with local school boards to identify teachers and schools who could benefit from the project. The nominees are: Monica Leimer, DeLand High; Bruce Green, Jones High in Orlando; Bradley Wharton, Lake Brantley High in Altamonte Springs; Bill Cunningham, Lake Buena Vista High; José Eslava, Lake Howell High in Winter Park; Jennifer Browne-Rolle, Ocoee High; William Molineaux, Osceola County School for the Arts; Lauren Martin, Spruce Creek High in Port Orange; Rhett Cox, Timber Creek High in Orlando; and Jon Brown, University High School in Orlando. Vote at on.barrymanilow.com/trk/voteMMP.

The winning teacher also receives VIP tickets to the concert — one of just seven stops on a January mini-tour, a change from Manilow’s more aggressive schedules of the past. “I would go on the road for months at a time,” said Manilow, 79. “Now it’s weeks at a time.”

Not that he’s slowing down. He has announced new 2023 dates for his Las Vegas residency at the Westgate Resort and Casino in the space that Elvis Presley famously made his Vegas performing spot. This year, he’ll break Presley’s record for number of concerts there. Barry Manilow's latest tour emphasizes the singer's hits, but also will help local music-education efforts in one lucky school. “I’m waiting for the shoe to drop, to wake up and look in the mirror and feel older and retire,” Manilow said with a laugh. “But so far, so good.”

Like many of today’s students, as a child in Brooklyn, New York, Manilow found a home in the arts: “There was no other place for me to go,” he said. He was lucky enough to have supportive — if confused - parents. “No one in my family had ever had a career in music,” he said. “They didn’t know what to do with me.” So his parents rented their musical child an accordion. “I was pretty good at it,” he remembers. More important: “I learned to read music.”

Eventually the family acquired “a little spinet piano” and “I became the piano player of the school.” Not looking for the limelight, he set his sights on becoming a conductor and music arranger. “I never sang, I never wanted to,” said the man who has sold 85 million albums worldwide and racked up 50 Top 40 singles including 12 chart-toppers and 27 Top 10 hits. “It’s still a surprise to me. It’s a surprise to me I’m still doing it. So many people I started out with are either retired or dead.”

It was only when he sang on his own demo records to promote the songs he was writing -- “I couldn’t afford to hire a real singer” -- that a record label offered him a contract. “That was the silliest thing I had ever heard in my life,” recalled Manilow, who is now the world’s No. 1 adult-contemporary recording artist, according to Billboard and Radio & Records magazines.

Barry Manilow's first record, a self-titled album, was released 50 years ago. With songs such as “Mandy,” “Looks Like We Made It” and “Copacabana” in his repertoire, Manilow’s concert will be stocked with hits - and that’s by design. “The audiences always loved to hear new material. Then it flipped about five years ago,” he said. “And suddenly they wanted to hear the songs they grew up with. I’m happy to do it.”

December 20, 2022 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution"INTERVIEW: Barry Manilow wants to work with Lady Gaga, doesn’t see himself as a singer" by Rodney Ho
About 15 years ago, Barry Manilow was concerned about school systems scrimping on music programs. So he started The Manilow Music Project to raise money to get more instruments in schools and spread the gospel of music education.

As part of his stop at State Farm Arena Jan. 19 (tickets still available), he will be rewarding a local teacher $5,000 plus another $5,000 credit to buy instruments for the school. To nominate a teacher through Dec. 28, you can go to barrymanilow.com. The winner also gets VIP tickets to the concert.

“Schools are always running out of instruments,” said Manilow, 79, in a recent phone interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution from Las Vegas, where he has a long-time residency at Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino. “It breaks my heart. So when we go on the road, I want to do something to show how important music is for children. When schools cut music classes, many kids stop coming to school.”

Manilow will perform his big hits on a brief six-city tour next month and his visit to Atlanta will be his first performance here in more than five years. He said he still hits the road every so often to help out his crew and musicians when he isn’t performing in Vegas. “They’ve got mortgages and kids,” he said. “My band and my crew are so important to me.”

Here are some other topics we broached over a 20-minute conversation:

Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC): How he keeps his voice in good order:
Barry Manilow (BM): “I don’t know. Every night, I cross my fingers. I don’t consider myself a singer. I never have. I’m a musician. I’m an orchestrator. I’m an arranger. I’m a songwriter. Those are the things I love doing. Performing was a big surprise. I had to learn how do it. I really enjoy doing it. The audiences are just wild. They’ve been on my side from the very beginning. But I pay no attention to the singing part of it. I’ve never had a singing lesson. I just go out and start singing. I cross my fingers and hope something decent comes out of my throat. I don’t warm up. Somehow my voice is there night after night.”

AJC: What he feels he can do well:
BM: “I can interpret a lyric. I come from that world where lyrics were very important to singers. They were storytellers. I love doing that ― even if it’s a dumb lyric. I can find the story in it. I do that real well. I really like doing that on the stage. Pop stuff it’s difficult to do that. Pop stuff isn’t very poetic. You’re stuck with I love you or miss you. That’s it! But the situations are always different.”

AJC: The misinterpretation of his 1977 No. 1 hit “Looks Like We Made It”:
BM: “I always wondered why schools use it as their theme song. What are they going to do on that second line [of the chorus]? It’s we ‘left each other on the way to another love.’ That’s always fun to sing. As I interpret the lyric I think the audience understands that this is not a love song. It’s a break up song!”

AJC: The surprise success of “Weekend in New England” in 1976:
BM: “It’s a waltz. It’s in three-quarter time. It never mentions the title in the song. It sounds like something that comes out of an operator. [Record executive] Clive [Davis], Arista and me were all shocked when that record hit the top 10 because, like I said, nothing in it would tell you radio would be comfortable with it.”

AJC: The song fans bring up to him the most:
BM: “‘Copacabana.’ That’s odd, too, because Clive didn’t like that song. And when we finished writing it and putting it on the album, Arista didn’t promote it at all. He thought it was just a novelty song that would fit more on the Sonny and Cher show or something. The public and radio stations loved it. They made it a hit, a big hit, a Grammy hit. I think I’ll be remembered for ‘Copa’ among all the other ones. That is the one people bring up all around the world. I’m very proud of it.”

AJC: The vagaries of 1976 No. 1 hit “I Write the Songs,” which was actually written by the Beach Boys’ Bruce Johnston:
BM: “That’s a rough one. I didn’t think the listeners would understand that the song was about the spirit of music. It wasn’t about how I write all songs in the world. I think listeners would understand that but it wasn’t made very clear in the song. That was a problem. But people just liked the song. That was great.”

AJC: Jingles he wrote still stick:
BM: “They still play Band-Aids [’I’m stuck on Band-Aid’]. In those days I was glad to get it. I was just a struggling musician. It’s so rare for a jingle to last this long!”

AJC: The current state of jingles is bleak:
BM: “I got a Clio award a few years ago. I sat through the entire awards ceremony. They played the most popular commercials that year. Not one commercial had a jingle. All the music was background music.”

AJC: His song “When the Good Times Come,” which charted on the adult contemporary chart in 2020:
BM: “That was right in the middle of lockdown. That came from an old album. [His husband and long-time manager] Garry [Kief] found it. We released it. Clive loved the idea. He’s still a part of my life. He called radio stations and said you have to play this record. And they did!”

AJC: His 2022 upbeat chart hit “Dancing in the Aisles”:
BM: “The young people discovered that on TikTok. They are dancing in the aisles of pharmacies, in the aisles of grocery stores. It’s the silliest, most adorable thing. It’s sensational. They’re giving me a hit record without me even putting a hit record out. I’m putting it on my next album. They discovered this song!

AJC: The future of Manilow’s musical “Harmony” which was tested at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta in 2013:
BM: “It’s the love of my life. Bruce Sussman, my collaborator, wrote the book and the lyrics. We’ve worked on it many years. It opened downtown in New York last April and got the most gorgeous reviews. Sold out audiences. We’re just waiting for a theater to open up uptown. ‘Harmony’ will finally make it to Broadway.”

AJC: Elton John has worked with Dua Lipa and Britney Spears. Who would Manilow like to collaborate with?
BM: “The only one I really love is Gaga. She is so talented. We all spotted that at the beginning with the first couple of songs. Those interviews were so beautiful. She seemed like a kind person, very smart. If the opportunity came along, I’d love to do that.”

IF YOU GO: Barry Manilow; 7 p.m. Jan. 19. $19.50-$249.50. State Farm Arena, 1 State Farm Drive, Atlanta. statefarmarena.com.

December 21, 2022 The Charlotte Observer"A CMS music teacher will get to meet Barry Manilow — and receive $5,000, too" by Evan Moore
Legendary singer Barry Manilow is returning to Charlotte for the first time in seven years to perform and provide support for CMS music students. The Manilow Music Project is giving away a $10,000 prize to a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools high school music teacher. The prize will include $5,000 for the teacher, and another $5,000 grant to be used for classroom instruments. One of 10 CMS teacher nominees, if selected as the winner, will also receive VIP tickets to Manilow’s show on Jan. 21 at the Spectrum Center, where he will present the award at a special backstage meet and greet.

Manilow, a Grammy, Tony and Emmy award-winning artist who has sold more than 85 million albums worldwide, said he started The Manilow Music Project 15 years ago when one of his neighbors was raising money for a saxophone for his daughter. “She wanted to learn how to play the saxophone, but her school didn’t have one,” Manilow said, adding that many schools reduce funding for music programs when they make budget cuts. “When I looked it up, I saw that schools around the country are running out of instruments because the music department is the first to go.”

Since then, Manilow has made it his mission to promote and raise money for music education, he said. To date, The Manilow Music project has donated more than $10 million in instruments and scholarships for students, according to the charity’s website. But music classes are more than just learning how to play an instrument, Manilow said. “It’s a second family for them,” he added. “These kids rely on music classes for more than just music. What I’ve heard is that if schools cut their music departments, these kids stop going to school. That’s how important it is.”

Manilow credits his high school orchestra class, where he went from being “a geek to musician,” for his half-century-long music career. But Manilow said he struggled to find a calling before getting into music. “I was a musical kid, and my family knew I was a musical kid,” Manilow said. “Coming from nowhere Brooklyn, New York, nobody knew what to do with me. Nobody in my neighborhood ever had a career in music. But my career chose me.” After receiving an accordion -- a rite of passage for all Jewish Italian kids in his neighborhood -- Manilow knew he was destined to become a musician, he joked. “I started to write songs, then I formed a band, then it just kept going,” said Manilow. “One thing followed another with demos and commercials, and it just took off.” During his interactions with aspiring young musicians, Manilow’s advice to them is to learn to read music because it can open the door to many career opportunities outside of performing on stage. He also called music a “difficult profession,” but said that shouldn’t stop kids from pursuing their dreams. “I think if a young person really believes in themselves and thinks they have talent, they should try it,” Manilow said. “You just have to keep going at it and don’t give up.”

The public can cast its vote for The Manilow Music Teacher Award at TradableBits.com for these CMS nominees: Chris Moreau, East Mecklenburg High School; Kathryn Heinen, East Mecklenburg High School; Cole Freeman, Myers Park High School; Stephanie Madsen, Northwest School of the Arts; Kristin Stonnell, Northwest School of the Arts; Erica Hefner, Northwest School of the Arts; Walter Suggs, Phillip O. Berry Academy of Technology; Quinten Wrenn, William Amos Hough High School; Kevin Herriman, North Mecklenburg High School; Whit Blount, Myers Park High. School Participants must be 13 years of age or older to vote. Voting ends on Dec. 28.

December 20, 2022 Tampa Bay Times"Barry Manilow will award a Tampa music teacher at his upcoming concert: Manilow plays Amalie Arena on Jan. 14, but you can vote until Dec. 28" by Maggie Duffy
When iconic singer-songwriter Barry Manilow brings his tour to Tampa’s Amalie Arena in January, he won’t just be playing the songs the whole world sings. He’ll also give one Tampa music teacher The Manilow Music Teacher Award. Presented by The Manilow Music Project, select music teachers in every city on the winter arena tour receive the award. In Tampa, the school board and staff from Amalie Arena suggested several teachers. Now, anyone can vote for their choice online at tradablebits.com/tb_app/480329. Voting ends Dec. 28.

The selected teachers receive a $5,000 cash award for personal use and $5,000 in “Manilow Bucks” to spend on instruments for their school’s music program. The winner also gets free VIP tickets to the concert and Manilow will award the recipient at a meet-and-greet backstage.

The Manilow Music Project has donated more than $10 million in instruments and scholarships over the past 34 years. Manilow was inspired to start the charity after an acquaintance came to him looking for a saxophone for his daughter, because the schools were running out of instruments and music programs were losing funding or had it cut altogether.“I can’t tell you how important for these young kids,” Manilow said during a recent phone interview. “These music classes ... become their second family. Music changes their lives, I see it happening over and over.”

Of the seven dates on the Manilow: Hits 2023 tour, three are in Florida, including in Sunrise and Orlando. This means that three music teachers in the state will have the opportunity to expand their school’s programs and expose children to the life-changing experience of music.

Tickets for the Jan. 14 concert are on sale now at ticketmaster.com and manilow.com. The limited engagement tour celebrates Manilow’s 50th anniversary as a performer.

While he doesn’t like to tour that often, Manilow has a residency at the International Theater at the Westgate Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. It’s beneficial for keeping Manilow and his band to keep working without the stress of going out on the road. When his residency resumes after his winter tour, he’s set to break Elvis Presley’s record for most shows at the venue, although Manilow humbly shrugs that off as an accolade. He said he’s a little embarrassed to break the King’s record because “nobody can come close” to his quality. But it’s safe to say Manilow is also an icon: As one of the world’s bestselling recording artists, he has 12 No. 1 hits and Grammy, Emmy and Tony awards.

At 79, Manilow joked that he “never intended to be this old,” but said he still has all the energy he’s ever had to perform.“I think if you slow down that is dangerous because ... you’ll eventually stop,” he said. “I think you’ve got to keep working. Keep your mind going, keep your body going. I think it’s working for me.”He’s looking forward to connecting with fans on the tour. “It’s going to be an evening of wonderful music,” he said. “You know what I have that no one has anymore? Melody ... And that’s what you’ll get when you come to my show.”

December 19, 2022 Tampa Beacon"Manilow Music Project to award $10K to a Tampa Bay area teacher" by Brittany O'Ruachainn
In January, celebrated American singer-songwriter Barry Manilow will take over Amalie Arena and one lucky Tampa Bay music teacher will get the VIP treatment. Nominations have been made for 10 Tampa Bay music teachers to win $10,000 from the Manilow Music Project, a VIP concert experience and a backstage award presentation with Barry Manilow on Jan. 14. Residents can help choose a winner by voting at https://on.barrymanilow.com/tb_app/480331. Voting will come to an end Dec. 28. Half of the prize money, $5,000, will go toward purchasing musical instruments for the school’s music program and the other $5,000 goes toward the teacher’s personal use. According to the Manilow Music Project website, the cost of instruments ranges from a tuba at $7,309, a French horn at $3,629, and a violin at $1,065.

Nominated Tampa Bay teachers are John Parris, Howard W. Blake High School; Revae Douglas, Sumner High School; Christopher Revett, Robinson High School; Christopher Allen, Newsome High School; Cheri Sleeper, Strawberry Crest High School; Gerard Madrinan, Seminole High School; Katie Aucremann, St. Petersburg High School; Kamyl Alicea-Cordero, Dunedin High School; Rebekah Chambers, Tarpon Springs High School; Nicholas Stefanic, Hollins High School.

In 2014, Kevin Fuller from Mann Middle School won $10,000 for his school from funds put together by the Manilow Music Project and the Tampa Bay Times Forum. Howard Blake High School’s music teacher, John Parris, is one of the hopefuls in the running, and for him, the nomination came out of the blue. Parris has taught classical guitar and music theory at Howard Blake High School for 25 years. “It’s an honor to be recognized among your peers as worthy of the nomination and it’s a really exciting opportunity for my school and my students,” Parris said. He added, “$5,000 goes a long way to buying new instruments, so that would be amazing.”

Howard Blake High School is the Fine Arts Magnet School for Hillsborough County, so the music students who attend have a passion and motivation to be there. Most students audition to come into the music program and are from all around the county, Parris noted. Some of the faculty are working artists themselves, and Parris has had multiple students go on to win national awards, including this year. Students have entered the All-State Guitar Ensemble and have gone on to winning local competitions. “I’m fortunate enough to watch the development of my students over a four-year period,” Parris said. “I’ve seen kids come into the program who just started playing, and to see a student like that go from ground zero to in their senior year playing concert-level music, it’s the growth of the students that’s special.”

Parris developed an appreciation for music early on, as both his parents were amateur musicians. He said he started studying music at 6 years old, and now at 60 music is just part of who he is. During his teenage years when Manilow’s music was playing everywhere, it was hard not to like some of his songs. “He’s an amazing well-rounded talent because he’s a great song-writer, a great arranger, a great producer, a great performer,” Parris said. “I think it’s phenomenal he is now using his fame, his fortune and his influence to make the world a better place.”

To learn more about the Manilow Music Project, visit www.manilowmusicproject.org.

December 16, 2022 WSOC-TV 9How you can help a Charlotte music teacher win $10,000 from singer Barry Manilow
Legendary entertainer Barry Manilow is bringing his winter tour to Charlotte’s Spectrum Center in January, and to coincide with the show, the singer-songwriter will award a deserving music teacher with $10,000. The Manilow Music Project, a program of the Manilow Fund, will recognize a music teacher in each city where the tour makes a stop. Each winner will receive $5,000 plus another $5,000 in “Manilow bucks,” which can be used to purchase musical instruments for their school’s music program. The winner will also receive VIP tickets to the concert.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg School Board and Spectrum Center suggested schools and teachers in the Charlotte area to be considered for the award. These are the teachers who were selected: Chris Moreau — East Mecklenburg High School; Kathryn Heinen — East Mecklenburg High School; Cole Freeman — Myers Park High School; Whit Blount — Myers Park High School; Kevin Herriman — North Mecklenburg High School; Stephanie Madsen — Northwest School of the Arts High School; Kristin Stonnell — Northwest School of the Arts High School; Erica Hefner — Northwest School of the Arts High School; Walter Suggs — Phillip O. Berry Academy of Technology High School; Quinten Wrenn — William Amos Hough High School

“It is wonderful to partner with our concert venues to identify schools and music teachers in their neighborhoods that deserve this small token of my gratitude,” Manilow said in a news release. “Many school music programs have either been terminated, or their funds have been severely depleted. I always want to do my part through The Manilow Music Project to keep music in schools.”

Online voting is open here through Dec. 28. Manilow will perform at Spectrum Center on Jan. 21. He will present the winner with their award backstage the night of the concert.

December 14, 2022 Savannah Business JournalBarry Manilow announces Music Teacher Award to coincide with Enmarket Arena appearance
Music icon Barry Manilow announced that his Manilow Music Project will once again award a deserving music teacher in each city of his winter arena tour, including Savannah. The Grammy award winner previously announced a one-night-only concert set for Saturday, Jan. 15, at Savannah’s Enmarket Arena.

The Savannah-Chatham County Public School System Board and Enmarket Arena participated in the contest by suggesting schools and teachers in their area that they want to be considered for this award. In each city, the winning teacher will receive a $5,000 cash award and another $5,000 in “Manilow bucks” presented by Barry Manilow to purchase musical instruments for their school’s music program. The winner will also receive VIP tickets to the concert. “It is wonderful to partner with our concert venues to identify schools and music teachers in their neighborhoods that deserve this small token of my gratitude, said Manilow. “Many school music programs have either been terminated, or their funds have been severely depleted. I always want to do my part through The Manilow Music Project to keep music in schools.”

The Manilow Music Project has opened voting to anyone who has ever been moved by the power of music to vote for their favorite music teacher. It has given away over ten million dollars’ worth of funds and music instrument donations. Nominated teachers in Savannah are Emily Graham, Islands High School; Chloe Washington, Windsor Forest High School; Lashon Leggett, Herschel V Jenkins High School; and Reginald Mitchell, Savannah High School. Visit on.barrymanilow.com/trk/voteMMP to vote.

December 14, 2022 Williamson SourceWCS Educators Nominated for Manilow Music Award
Three WCS educators are in the running for the Manilow Music Teacher Award, which comes from the Manilow Music Project created by singer-songwriter Barry Manilow. The award recognizes one outstanding music teacher in each city who helps bring music to life for their students. Centennial High’s Johnathan Vest, Franklin High’s Michael Holland and Nolensville High’s Benjamin Easley are among the top 10 finalists in Nashville. “I am honored to be nominated for the Manilow Music Teacher Award among such esteemed colleagues,” said Vest. “I remember listening to my parents’ Manilow records when I was a kid, and it’s really special to be recognized by his foundation.”

The top finalist will receive a $5,000 cash prize and a $5,000 Manilow Bucks credit to purchase instruments for the classroom. They will also get the opportunity to attend the Manilow Hits 2023 show at Bridgestone Arena on January 20. “l am honored to be nominated for this award,” said Easley. “I grew up with music educator parents who were total 'Fanilows.' Since our small beginnings as a new band program, we have experienced 450 percent growth. Our student musicians have represented WCS and the NHS community with performances at Nissan Stadium, Good Morning America Dove Awards, ABC World News Tonight and more. We are grateful to be considered for this unique opportunity for financial support and recognition.”

December 9, 2022 Williamson Home Page: The News10 Middle Tennessee High School music teachers nominated for Manilow Music Teacher Award
10 Middle Tennessee music teachers are in the running to win a cash prize, musical instruments and concert tickets from legendary Grammy Award-winning musician Barry Manilow, who will perform in Nashville on January 20, 2023. According to a news release, those 10 teachers are:

  • Nashville School of the Arts' Trey Jacobs
  • McGavock High School's John Hazlett
  • Antioch High School's Frank Zimmerer
  • Hillwood High School's Tyler Merideth
  • Franklin High School's Michael Holland
  • Hume-Fogg Academic High School's Anna Maria Miller
  • John Overton High School's Eleni Miller
  • Centennial High School's Johnathan Vest
  • Nolensville High School's Benjamin Easley
  • Mt. Juliet High School's Sandy Elliott

The Manilow Music Teacher Award is presented by The Manilow Music Project, a program of the Manilow Fund, and will see one music teacher from seven cities be recognized.

The winning teacher in each city will win a $5,000 cash prize and $5,000 in "Manilow Bucks" which can be used to purchase instruments for their classroom. The Manilow Music Teacher Award honoree will also be invited to an upcoming Barry Manilow concert and presented their award in a special backstage meet-and-greet.

Voting is open online until Dec. 28 to anyone 13-years-old or older. “It is wonderful to partner with our concert venues to identify schools and music teachers in their neighborhoods that deserve this small token of my gratitude," Manilow said in a news release. Many school music programs have either been terminated, or their funds have been severely depleted. I always want to do my part through The Manilow Music Project to keep music in schools.”

December 8, 2022 WCNC CharlotteVote now: Barry Manilow to honor music teacher at Charlotte concert
The legendary Barry Manilow is stopping here in Charlotte next month and wants to honor a local educator while he's here. Manilow announced that he would award a deserving music teacher with a VIP backstage experience during his Jan. 21 show at the Spectrum Center. “It is wonderful to partner with our concert venues to identify schools and music teachers in their neighborhoods that deserve this small token of my gratitude," Manilow said. “Many school music programs have either been terminated, or their funds have been severely depleted. I always want to do my part through The Manilow Music Project to keep music in schools.” The teacher will also receive $5,000 and funding towards instruments for their school's music program. You can vote on a list of nominees suggested by the CMS school board on Manilow's website.
December 2, 2022 Las Vegas Review-Journal"Manilow returns for Christmas show after heart episode" by John Katsilometes
The Kats! Bureau is at International Theater at the Westgate, where the holiday showman just strode onstage, sang a chipper tune, then said, “Well, last night sucked!” Yep, Barry Manilow is back. The superstar had spent some of Thursday hospitalized, relating “There I was, having a baby, and ... But I’m fine! I’m fine! You can tell I’m fine! Don’t worry about me! I was worried about you guys!” There was a cheer. Then Manilow turned it on for, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” stirred with, “I Can’t Smile Without You,” “I’ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm,” and “Singing To The World.”

This is “A Very Barry Christmas,” where Manilow delivers his hits alongside holiday classics. The set was set by a warm, video-projected fireplace; five Christmas trees; just enough poinsettias and snow that looks like piles of cotton. Oh, and more fake snow, falling gently from the balcony, a typical holiday experience in VegasVille. The 79-year-old superstar had missed Thursday’s holiday opener after suffering a case of atrial fibrillation (AFib), which is an abnormal heartbeat. Manilow actually made his own heart race. He was zapped with a defibrillator, and was back in his sequined red jacked by Friday’s 4 p.m. start.

Manilow was spot-on musically, even if not on always on his spot onstage. Early he grabbed a stool and moved toward the crowd, then stopped and said, “Wait. I’m on the wrong spot.” He moved and asked the crowd, “Is this the middle?” The crowd shouted, “Yes!” To the assembled Fanilows, he was in the right place.

Manilow returned to some hospital shtick later in the show. It’s an anecdote he recites every show, about the bookings he took when working his way through The Julliard School. “I played a gig in a hospital once, and I went over to an older guy in a wheelchair, and I said, ‘I hope you get better,’” Manilow recalled. “And he said, ‘I hope you get better, too.’”

December 1, 2022 Las Vegas Review-Journal"Manilow postpones Christmas show opener due to heart problem" by John Katsilometes
Barry Manilow has cancelled his Thursday night show at Westgate’s International Theater to treat atrial fibrillation (or, AFib), which is an abnormal heartbeat. The 79-year-old superstar’s condition is not considered serious. He is to be treated and released at a Las Vegas hospital on Thursday night.

Manilow was to open his annual “A Very Barry Christmas” holiday production, which runs through Dec. 10. Manilow has shifted Thursday’s performance to a 4 p.m. matinee, followed by his usual 7 p.m. show time. The 4 p.m. start is a first for Manilow at the International.

Manilow was to be treated at a Las Vegas hospital on Thursday night to re-set his regular heartrate. The hotel issued a statement: “Barry sends his most sincere regrets for any inconvenience and looks forward to seeing everyone at (Friday’s) shows.”

December 1, 2022 8-News Now"Barry Manilow’s ‘A Very Barry Christmas’ show canceled for medical reasons" by Linsey Lewis
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Barry Manilow’s “A Very Barry Christmas” show at the Westgate Las Vegas was canceled on Thursday due to medical reasons. The Thursday night show was canceled due to Manilow’s atrial fibrillation (Afib). Manilow is currently being treated and will be fine, according to Westgate. The Westgate said that Manilow was looking forward to tonight’s performance and to make it up to fans who were planning to attend the show, he will be doing a rare second show on Friday at 4 p.m. in addition to the 7 p.m. show, the Westgate said.

When Where Articles/Reviews
November 16, 2022 Yahoo! NewsWorld of Westgate Presents Manilow: Hits 2023
POP SUPERSTAR BARRY MANILOW ANNOUNCES EXCLUSIVE LIMITED ENGAGEMENT ARENA TOUR

NEW YORK, Nov. 16, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Music icon Barry Manilow today has announced dates for a special seven show arena tour presented by World of Westgate – MANILOW: HITS 2023 – set to begin this upcoming January. The exclusive run kicks off on January 13th at FLA Live Arena in Sunrise, FL stopping at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Enmarket Arena in Savannah, Amway Center in Orlando, State Farm Arena in Atlanta and Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, before before wrapping in Charlotte at the Spectrum Center on January 21st.

The tour will highlight the superstar's greatest hits. Manilow, a Grammy®, TONY®, and EMMY® Award-winning music icon and whose success is a benchmark in popular music, will perform an array of his hit songs, including "Mandy," "I Write the Songs," "Looks Like We Made It," "Can't Smile Without You," and "Copacabana (At the Copa)."

BM QUOTE: "We are going to kick off 2023 having fun. I can't wait to see everyone!" said Manilow.

TICKETS: Tickets open with a presale November 17th, 2022 (code: SMILE)/ All tickets go on sale Friday, November 18th, 2022 at 10 AM local time on Ticketmaster.

MANILOW: HITS 2023 TOUR DATES:

Jan. 13, 2023 Sunrise, FL FLA Live Arena
Jan. 14, 2023 Tampa, FL Amalie Arena
Jan. 15, 2023 Savannah, GA Enmarket Arena
Jan. 17, 2023 Orlando, FL Amway Center
Jan. 19, 2023 Atlanta, GA State Farm Arena
Jan. 20, 2023 Nashville, TN Bridgestone Arena
Jan. 21, 2023 Charlotte, NC Spectrum Center

ABOUT BARRY MANILOW: Having sold more than 85 million albums worldwide, Barry Manilow is one of the world's all-time best selling recording artists. The GRAMMY®, TONY®, and EMMY® Award-winning musician has had an astonishing 50 Top 40 singles including 12 #1s and 27 Top 10 hits. He is ranked as the #1 Adult Contemporary Artist of all time, according to Billboard and R&R magazines.

ABOUT WORLD OF WESTGATE: In 2022, Westgate Resorts launched the cutting-edge World of Westgate (WOW) Loyalty Program, a complimentary loyalty program that rewards Westgate Guests with prestigious perks and privileges at all Westgate locations nationwide. All guests can enroll for free in the program and gain benefits and experiences based on their tier level. Westgate Owners are eligible for the highest tiers of the World of Westgate Loyalty Program. Benefits vary by tier and include exciting items like annual resort credits, discounts on Spa Services and dining, and unmatched savings available locally and internationally on everyday household items, attractions, movies, sporting events and more! Other exciting benefits include discounted and complimentary resort & destination fees and resort waterpark admission, discounts on additional travel with Westgate of up to 40% off when booking direct and more. World of Westgate Loyalty Program Members who 'Vacation More, Get More.' All Loyalty members can enroll through WorldofWestgate.com, Westgate's Online Account Management portal or the Westgate Resorts Mobile App.

ABOUT OUTBACK PRESENTS: Outback Presents is the leading independent, full-service promoter of live entertainment. Based in Nashville, Outback Presents produces thousands of music and comedy shows, tours, and festivals annually across North America, connecting its diverse roster of artists with their fans.

November 17, 2022 Barry Manilow announces short 2023 arena tour
Barry Manilow is heading out on a short tour next year. The 79-year-old singer has announced a new tour, Manilow: Hits 2023, presented by World of Westgate. The seven-night, limited engagement arena tour will have Manilow performing some of his biggest tunes, including tracks like "Mandy," "I Write the Songs," "Looks Like We Made It," "Can't Smile Without You" and "Copacabana (At the Copa)." The tour is set to kick off January 13 in Sunrise, Florida, hitting Tampa, Savannah, Orlando, Atlanta and Nashville, before wrapping in Charlotte, North Carolina, on January 21. "We are going to kick off 2023 having fun,” Manilow shares. “I can't wait to see everyone!" Tickets for all shows go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. local time.
November 17, 2022 "Barry Manilow Kicks-Off 2023 Tour at the FLA Live Arena" by Sharon Aron Baron
Music icon Barry Manilow has announced dates for a special seven-show arena tour Manilow Hits 2023 starting on Friday, January 13, at the FLA Live Arena in Sunrise, FL. Having sold more than 85 million albums worldwide, Barry Manilow is one of the world’s all-time best-selling recording artists. “We are going to kick off 2023 having fun. I can’t wait to see everyone!” said Manilow.

2023 also marks Manilow’s 50th Anniversary as a recording artist. The tour will highlight the superstar’s greatest hits. Manilow, a Grammy, TONY, and EMMY Award-winning music icon and whose success is a benchmark in popular music, will perform an array of his hit songs, including “Mandy,” “I Write the Songs,” “Looks Like We Made It,” “Can’t Smile Without You,” and “Copacabana (At the Copa).”

Tickets open with a presale today (code: SMILE). All tickets go on sale Friday, Nov. 18, 2022, at 10:00 a.m. at Ticketmaster.com.

November 16, 2022 "Barry Manilow performing at Tampa’s Amalie Arena in January: It’s a miracle" by Josh Bradley
One of your mom's favorite showmen just announced a string of 2023 tour dates, including one in Tampa. Tickets to see Barry Manilow at Tampa’s Amalie Arena on Saturday, Jan. 14 are on sale now and start at a whopping $15.75.

The 79-year-old “Mandy” singer celebrates 50 years since the release of his eponymous debut album next July, and despite having already conducted a year-long farewell tour, which rolled into town in 2016, Manilow remains relatively active. He released a sequel to his 2014 album of Great American Songbook pieces right before COVID-19 lockdowns commenced, and still holds down hit-drenched residencies in Las Vegas.

Event Details -- Barry Manilow: Hits 2023; Sat., Jan. 14, 7 p.m.; Amalie Arena 401 Channelside Dr, Tampa

November 16, 2022 "Barry Manilow announces 2023 arena tour" by Buddy Iahn
Music icon Barry Manilow has announced dates for a special seven show arena tour called Manilow: Hits 2023. Presented by World of Westgate, the exclusive run kicks off on January 13th in Sunrise, FL stopping in Tampa, Savannah, Orlando, Atlanta and Nashville before before wrapping January 21st in Charlotte. The tour will highlight the superstar’s greatest hits. Manilow, a Grammy, Tony, and Emmy Award-winning music icon and whose success is a benchmark in popular music, will perform an array of his hit songs, including “Mandy,” “I Write the Songs,” “Looks Like We Made It,” “Can’t Smile Without You,” and “Copacabana (At the Copa).” “We are going to kick off 2023 having fun. I can’t wait to see everyone!” states Manilow.

Presales are underway now with the general on sale set for Friday, November 18th at 10 am local time via Ticketmaster. Manilow continues his Westgate Las Vegas residency with dates scheduled through December 2023. Manilow turns the show into A Very Barry Christmas between December 1st and December 10th. Manilow: Las Vegas – The Hits Come Home! launched in 2018 at the International Theater stage at Westgate Las Vegas. The spectacular show is unlike anything Manilow has ever done with massive video walls, sets, and special effects – a non-stop evening of Manilow’s impressive catalog of Top 40 Hits. He has been named a “Best of Las Vegas” Best Resident Performer/Headliner by the Las Vegas Review Journal and was among the first inductees in the inaugural Las Vegas Magazine Hall of Fame. With the addition of 105 show dates into 2023, Barry Manilow firmly establishes his place as one of the greatest entertainers of all time, surpassing the record number of performances on the International Theater stage previously held by the one and only Elvis Presley.

November 16, 2022 Orlando Sentinel"Barry Manilow marks golden anniversary with tour including Orlando stop" by Patrick Connolly
Barry Manilow marks his golden anniversary as a performing artist with a limited engagement seven-city tour, which includes a stop in Orlando. Some marriages and careers stand the test of time and cross the 50-year mark. Next year, music icon Barry Manilow is marking his golden anniversary by going on tour. The singer-songwriter’s limited engagement “Manilow: Hits 2023″ tour will hit arenas in seven cities, including Anway Center in Orlando on Jan. 17. Manilow will also perform two other Florida shows in Sunrise and Tampa. “I look forward to this upcoming amazing year celebrating my personal milestone with my fans that have been with me throughout these many wonderful years,” said Manilow in a news release.

Barry Manilow is marking his 50th anniversary as a performing artist next year with a limited engagement tour. In Manilow’s 50-year career, he’s garnered accolades from the Grammy Awards, the Tony Awards and the Emmy Awards. On his tour, the superstar will perform hits such as “Mandy,” “Can’t Smile Without You” and “Copacabana (At the Copa).” Tickets, which start at $18.50, go on sale to the public at 10 a.m. Nov. 18. The Barry Manilow Fan Club presale begins at 1 p.m. Nov. 16 and other presales begin at 10 a.m. Nov. 17. For more information and tickets, visit amwaycenter.com or barrymanilow.com.

November 16, 2022 WSAV-TV"Barry Manilow to perform at Enmarket Arena in January" by Joseph Leonard
SAVANNAH, Ga. (WSAV) — Another big-name singer and songwriter is coming to the Hostess City next year. Barry Manilow will perform at the Enmarket [Arena] on Jan. 15, 2023. Tickets go on sale Friday Nov. 18. The concert is a part of the 79-year-old pop legend’s “MANILOW HITS 2023” tour. The Enmarket Arena opened it’s doors on Feb. 6 and has been booking high-caliber celebrity performers ever since. Some of those notable performers include the Eagles, Bon Jovi, Pitbull, Adam Sandler, Jason Aldean, DaBaby and more.
November 15, 2022 "Barry Manilow Coming To North Carolina In 2023" by Phil Harris
If the words “Her name was Lola, she was a showgirl” mean anything to you, then you’re about to buy some concert tickets. WBTV reports Barry Manilow is launching a limited-engagement tour called “Manilow: Hits 2023” to celebrate his 50th anniversary as a performing artist and Charlotte is on his list. Manilow will be wrapping up the seven-date tour at Spectrum Center on January 21, 2023. Fans can look forward to hearing some of Manilow’s most famous songs including “Mandy,” “I Write the Songs,” “Can’t Smile Without You,” Weekend in New England,” “Looks Like We Made It” and, of course, “Copacabana (At the Copa).”

The ticket presale begins Thursday, November 17 with code SMILE. General public tickets go on sale at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, November 18 at ticketmaster.com or spectrumcentercharlotte.com. Here’s a complete list of his tour dates in January:

  • Jan. 13, 2023 – Sunrise, FL @ FLA Live Arena
  • Jan. 14, 2023 – Tampa, FL Amalie Arena
  • Jan. 15, 2023 – Savannah, GA @ Enmarket Arena
  • Jan. 17, 2023 – Orlando, FL @ Amway Center
  • Jan. 19, 2023 – Atlanta, GA @ State Farm Arena
  • Jan. 20, 2023 – Nashville, TN @ Bridgestone Arena
  • Jan. 21, 2023 – Charlotte, NC @ Spectrum Center
November 15, 2022 Atlanta Journal-Constitution"Barry Manilow coming to Atlanta for first time since 2017" by Rodney Ho
The Copa is open again as Barry Manilow hits the road in early 2023, including a stop at State Farm Arena on Thursday, Jan. 19. This will be his first visit to Atlanta since a stop at the Fox Theatre in 2017. Tickets will be available first in a presale Thursday, Nov. 17 (code: SMILE). All tickets go on sale 10 a.m. Friday at Ticketmaster.com.

The 79-year-old crooner had a long run of huge pop hits in the 1970s and early 1980s including “Mandy,” “I Write the Songs,” “Looks Like We Made It,” and “Copacabana,” all of which will be played at the concert. He has hinted in the past at doing a “final” tour but hasn’t indicated this tour will be his last. In 2015, he named his tour “One Last Time!” and stopped at what is now Gas South Arena. But he keeps on chugging along. He is currently doing a residency at Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino. Here are the dates he announced Tuesday - MANILOW: HITS 2023 TOUR DATES:

Jan. 13, 2023 Sunrise, Florida, FLA Live Arena
Jan. 14, 2023 Tampa, Florida, Amalie Arena
Jan. 15, 2023 Savannah, Georgia, Enmarket Arena
Jan. 17, 2023 Orlando, Florida, Amway Center
Jan. 19, 2023 Atlanta, State Farm Arena
Jan. 20, 2023 Nashville, Tennesee, Bridgestone Arena
Jan. 21, 2023 Charlotte, North Carolina, Spectrum Center

November 15, 2022 Get ready! Barry Manilow coming to Charlotte for quick early 2023 tour: The tour will mark his 50th year as a recording artist
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) - Music icon Barry Manilow is hosting a seven-show tour that will end in Charlotte. The tour starts on January 13, 2023, in Florida and ends on January 21, 2023, at the Spectrum Center. It will mark his 50th anniversary as a recording artist. “I look forward to this upcoming amazing year celebrating my personal milestone with my fans that have been with me throughout these many wonderful years,” said Manilow in a press statement. He is behind hits like “Mandy,” “I Write the Songs,” “Looks Like We Made It,” “Can’t Smile Without You,” and “Copacabana (At the Copa).”

Having sold more than 85 million albums worldwide, Barry Manilow is one of the world’s all-time best-selling recording artists. The Grammy, Tony, and Emmy Award-winning musician has had 50 Top 40 singles including 12 #1s and 27 Top 10 hits. Tickets go on presale on Nov. 17 with code SMILE. General public tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. on Nov. 18 spectrumcentercharlotte.com or ticketmaster.com.

November 15, 2022 "Barry Manilow is playing Tampa in January: Tickets for the Jan. 14 show at Amalie Arena go on sale Friday" by Maggie Duffy
He writes the songs, and in January, Tampa Bay Fanilows will have the chance to hear Barry Manilow sing them. The Grammy-, Tony- and Emmy Award-winning musician comes to Amalie Arena on Jan. 14. “I look forward to this upcoming amazing year celebrating my personal milestone with my fans that have been with me throughout these many wonderful years,” Manilow said in a news release.

Known for hits including “Mandy,” “Looks Like We Made It” and the infectious “Copacabana (At the Copa),” Manilow is celebrating his 50th anniversary as a performer with a limited engagement arena tour. With just seven dates, the Manilow: Hits 2023 tour makes three stops in Florida in Tampa, Sunrise and Orlando.

Manilow is one of the world’s bestselling recording artists and is ranked number one Adult Contemporary Artist of all time, according to Billboard magazine. Tickets range from $15.75-$345.75 and go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday at ticketmaster.com.

November 15, 2022 "'Manilow Hits 2023!' tour coming to Savannah's Enmarket Arena in 2023: The Grammy, Tony and Emmy-award winning Barry Manilow is coming to Savannah in 2023" by Graham Cawthon
With 50 Top 40 credits to his resume, Barry Manilow is one of the world's all-time best selling recording artists. And he'll bring all his hits with him when the Grammy, Tony and Emmy-award winning musician comes to Savannah in 2023. The 'Manilow Hits 2023!' tour stops by the Enmarket Arena on Jan. 15. Tickets go on sale to the general public Friday, November 18 at 10 a.m. Having sold more than 85 million albums worldwide, Manilow is ranked as the #1 Adult Contemporary Artist of all time, according to Billboard and R&R magazines.
November 15, 2022 "Barry Manilow's bringing 50th-anniversary tour to Amalie Arena: Fans can look forward to performances of some of Manilow's most famous songs in January 2023" by Claire Farrow
TAMPA, Fla. — Calling all Barry Manilow fans — you know "music and passion" are "always in fashion," so "why not ask for more" of the pop superstar's performances? And if you live in the Tampa Bay area, you're in luck — Manilow is launching a limited-engagement tour "Manilow: Hits 2023" to celebrate his 50th anniversary as a performing artist and Amalie Arena in Tampa is on his list.

Fans can look forward to performances of some of Manilow's most famous songs including "Mandy," "I Write Songs," "Looks Like We Made It," "Can't Smile Without You" and "Copacabana (At the Copa)." He'll be in Tampa on Jan. 14 at Amalie Arena. If you can't catch him in Tampa, he will also have performances on Jan. 13 in Sunrise and Jan. 17 in Orlando.

To make sure you don't get "sent away," you can get your tickets starting at 10 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 18. Tickets start as low as $16 and go up to $346. You can find more information and ticket prices by clicking here.

Here's a complete list of his tour dates in January -- MANILOW: HITS 2023 TOUR DATES:

Jan. 13, 2023  Sunrise, FL -- FLA Live Arena
Jan. 14, 2023 -- Tampa, FL  Amalie Arena
Jan. 15, 2023 -- Savannah, GA -- Enmarket Arena
Jan. 17, 2023 -- Orlando, FL -- Amway Center
Jan. 19, 2023 -- Atlanta, GA -- State Farm Arena
Jan. 20, 2023 -- Nashville, TN -- Bridgestone Arena
Jan. 21, 2023 -- Charlotte, NC -- Spectrum Center

November 15, 2022 "Barry Manilow’s 50th anniversary tour coming to Tampa’s Amalie Arena" by Athina Morris
TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Barry Manilow is marking his 50th anniversary as a recording artist with a new tour that will come to Tampa in January. The soft-pop king has announced the dates for his seven-show “Manilow: Hits 2023” tour, which includes a stop at Tampa’s AMALIE Arena on Jan. 14. With hits like “Copacabana,” “Mandy,” and “Dancing in the Aisles,” the Grammy, Tony and Emmy Award-winning artist has sold more than 85 million albums worldwide, making him one of the world’s top-selling artists.

Tickets to his Tampa show will go on sale Nov. 18 on Ticketmaster.com, and cost between $15.75 and $345.75. Parking passes are available at ParkWhiz.com. For more information about the show, visit amaliearena.com or call 813-301-2500.

November 15, 2022 "Barry Manilow to perform at Bridgestone Arena next year" by Brittney Baird
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Hitmaker Barry Manilow will perform in Nashville next year as part of his limited-engagement arena tour to mark his 50th anniversary as a performing artist. Manilow will play Bridgestone Arena on Jan. 20, 2023. His tour includes only seven performances with three shows in Florida, two in Georgia and one in North Carolina. “I look forward to this upcoming amazing year celebrating my personal milestone with my fans that have been with me throughout these many wonderful years,” said Manilow.

Manilow is one of the world’s all-time best selling recording artists, having sold more than 85 million albums worldwide. He has 50 Top 40 singles including 12 #1s and 27 Top 10 hits. He is ranked as the #1 Adult Contemporary Artist of all time, according to Billboard and R&R magazines. Tickets open with a presale Nov. 17 (code: SMILE) and all tickets go on sale Friday, Nov. 18 at 10 a.m. local time on Ticketmaster.

When Where Articles/Reviews
November 4, 2022 Las Vegas Magazine"Barry Manilow is the new king of Las Vegas" by Ken Miller
I was never able to see Elvis Presley when he performed at the International, and so I can’t begin to imagine the energy level from the crowd at just one of his shows. But I have seen Barry Manilow, who performs in the same space as the King did those many decades ago. And I’m here to tell ya: I’ve seen a lot of concerts in a lot of venues, and nothing in my experience matches the electricity generated by a Manilow crowd.

I’d go so far as to say it’s what keeps Manilow going. The man is 79 years old! He has nothing left to prove; he’s earned the right to retire and rest on his many laurels. But yeah, if I was in his shoes and got the reaction he does every time he steps onto a stage, I’d probably be performing into my golden years, too!

Ask any Manilow fan who’s been to countless Manilow performances, and they’ll all say the same thing: Barry is the ultimate showman, a consummate entertainer who leaves everything on the field every single time. He may be pushing 80, but this dude’s stamina is legendary. And his fans are with him every step of the way, waiting for hours sometimes after a show to pose with him for photographs and autographs. We’ve all seen those concerts where entertainers point into the audience as if they spotted someone they know; at a Manilow concert, it’s a pretty good bet Manilow actually does!

And good news: Manilow is guaranteed to still be hard at it into next year, announcing 2023 dates, which, for those Elvis fans out there, will break his Las Vegas concert record! Manilow, in a statement, said, “I am honored and humbled to be performing on the same stage that the King once graced. Setting a new record for concerts at the Westgate Las Vegas International Theatre is a true privilege.”

That means at least one more year of favorites such as “Mandy,” “I Write the Songs,” “Copacabana”... more than I can realistically list in one writeup. Time to update the Las Vegas history books.

Westgate Las Vegas, Nov. 10-12, 17-19, ticketmaster.com

October 18, 2022 KTNV-13 ABCBarry Manilow extends Las Vegas residency
Barry Manilow is staying in Las Vegas for at least one more year. "Manilow: Las Vegas — The Hits Come Home!" will run through 2023. The upcoming year will mark Manilow's 14th year at the Westgate Resort & Casino and will set a new record for the number of concert performances in Las Vegas. 2023 will also mark his 50th anniversary as a recording artist. Pre-sales begin Wednesday at 10 a.m. with general sales starting Friday at 10 a.m.
October 15, 2022 Las Vegas Review-Journal"Barry Manilow closing in on Elvis’ Las Vegas show record" by John Katsilometes
Barry Manilow never met Elvis Presley. But the two are forever linked by the theater Elvis made famous and where Manilow is on schedule to break the King’s record for total performances.

International Theater at Westgate Las Vegas is the place, 636 is the number. Manilow has just released a new spate of dates in 2023, a total of 57 dates over 19 weekends starting Feb. 16 and carrying through to Dec. 9 (tickets range from $54.75 to $354.99, not including fees, on sale at 10 a.m. Friday at ticketmaster.com, barrymanilow.com or westgatelasvegas.com).

The record-breaking show should come in late September, after the Sept. 14-16 run but not yet booked. The superstar who made “Could It Be Magic” a classic will be feeling it that night. “It’s a very big moment for me, such an honor to have been working on a stage that he was on,” Manilow says during a phone chat. “Elvis was so before my time, you know. I was in high school, but of course you couldn’t get away from Elvis.”

Not then, and not now.

“Being in this room that he sat down in for a residency, just like I have, and to see my name in the same sentence is so amazing to me,” says Manilow, who turns 80 in June. “It’s a privilege. He invented a style of music, which is still popular today. How many people can say that?”

Manilow says he brings up Elvis to other artists and remains astonished at how deep his influence is. “You know, Billy Joel, one of the great songwriters, who doesn’t sound anything like Elvis, you mention Elvis to him and he just goes off,” Manilow says. “Elvis was one of his idols. It just goes on and on, with people you never would have expected to have connected with Elvis’ music and style.”

Manilow has studied the Presley career, even weathering his film career, movies that Manilow describes as, “Terrible. He was so much better than those movies.” But Manilow says of the Baz Lurhmann “Elvis” movie, “I loved it. Austin Butler played him beautifully; it was beautiful work.”

Manilow actually showed Lurhmann around the International Theater in pre-production (a replica for the film was rebuilt in Australia). “It looked just like it must have looked, with the banquettes back in the room and returned to the whole Elvis era.”

Manilow is considering a shuffle of the set list to include an Elvis classic, or a two-song medley. “I covered 'Are You Lonesome Tonight' on my 'Greatest Songs of the '50s' album, which I like a lot,” Manilow says. “I did my own arrangement on it. I could do that. I also do a pretty interesting arrangement of 'If I Can Dream,' another great one. I used to do it here when the hotel was the Hilton, and it went over great. I might do one or both of them.”

Apart from the new dates at Westgate, Manilow continues to navigate his passion project, “Harmony,” toward a Broadway run. The musical ran from April to May at “Harmony” at the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene in New York. “We’re in limbo, just waiting for a theater to open up,” Manilow says. “The Shuberts are going to give us a theater. It looks pretty good for us this spring, in April-May. But we had such a successful run, we got great reviews, and we’re hoping it can happen again for us.”

Manilow’s Christmas show is also being re-set at Westgate. “A Very Barry Christmas” is exactly that, a gush of holiday cheer running Dec. 1-10. “Oh, we have a Christmas show,” Manilow says with a laugh. “I love doing it. It’s a whole different show than we do year-round. I’ve got, I think it’s three Christmas albums. It’s great fun, and I have a whole bunch of Christmas songs ready to go.”

Manilow recalls his road schedule from years past. It was common for him to spend months on tour. Those memories make the Westgate series even more fulfilling. “We were on flights, not private planes, but commercial flights, for months at a time,” Manilow says. “We were very successful, but you know, it just finally got to me. I didn’t want to tour like that anymore. I’ll do 6-7 shows at a time, but I don’t want to do 16. Now me and the band get to play music and be with each other, and then go home and play with the dogs and actually have a life.”

As any Fanilow can recite, this is Manilow’s second run at the International Theater, dating to his original series that ran from 2005-2010, when the hotel was branded Las Vegas Hilton. He moved to Paris Theater for two years, closing in December [2011]. He returned to Westgate in May 2017.

His is the latest superstar residency where Barbra Streisand, Liberace, Wayne Newton, Tony Bennett and Bobby Darin, among many other legends, join Elvis as legendary headliners. “There has been so much entertainment history made on this property in the International Theater and we are so excited about the history Barry Manilow will be making in the coming year,” Westgate President and General Manager Cami Christensen says. “What is really special is watching and feeling the magic he brings to his audience and Westgate Las Vegas.”

Manilow is happy to bust out the 3D glasses, glow sticks and “Copacabana” boas through next year. Having spent 14 years total at the Hilton/Westgate resort, Manilow says he’s found his comfort zone. “I’ll tell you, when I was at the Paris, I had the most beautiful and expensive thing I’ve ever had anything to do with,” he says. “But I didn’t have as much fun as I’m having at Westgate. This is the right room for me. I like the size of it. I love doing shows in an intimate room, where I am connecting with people.”

When Where Articles/Reviews
September 2, 2022 Las Vegas Magazine"Barry Manilow returns to his hit Las Vegas residency" by Matt Kelemen
Everyone had their own way of dealing with lockdown lethargy. Barry Manilow, of course, expressed himself through song. “When Good Times Come Again” was released July 31 of last year, at the height of pandemic fatigue, with Manilow effectively making a lyrical vow to his loyal Fanilows, who faithfully attend his headlining residency at Westgate Las Vegas, which began in 2018.

“In this high and mighty world we live in/ Sometimes we have to break/ Sometimes we have to bend/ Until the good times come again,” he sings in the 2021 single, delivering another uplifting composition with lyrics that get imprinted in memory. He was back onstage within two months. The Fanilows rejoiced.

Manilow, who returns to Vegas to perform Sept. 15-17, has delivered many uplifting messages, some of which he didn’t write, but made memorable through his impassioned delivery. Baby boomers who read the lines, “I remember all my life/ Raining down as cold as ice” are likely to hear Manilow singing the chorus to “Mandy” in their heads in a voice that was ubiquitous on AM radio in the ’70s.

As far as his own songwriting, Manilow learned how to create melodic hooks when he was a jingle writer, before he began a life-altering gig as Bette Midler’s pianist. It’s impossible to think of “I am stuck on Band-Aid/ ’cause Band-Aid’s stuck on me” or “Like a good neighbor/ State Farm is there” without thinking of the melodies.

Manilow recorded solo before producing Midler’s first two albums, but he was far more bankable afterward. He re-recorded “Could It Be Magic,” a song he had co-written with Tony Orlando that was based on a Chopin prelude for his self-titled debut album. It would become the beginning of a long-running relationship with producer Ron Dante, and the song would become a hit upon re-release several years later, but in January 1975 “Mandy” from Manilow II became his first No. 1 song. Arista Records executive Clive Davis had convinced a reluctant Manilow to record it.

Manilow found himself in possession of another No. 1 single in 1975 after releasing “I Write the Songs” by Bruce Johnston of the Beach Boys. Manilow’s 1978 album Even Now generated more hits, including “Can’t Smile Without You” and co-written “Even Now” and “Copacabana (at the Copa).” The latter would turn out to be his most iconic hit and is a celebratory high point of his live shows. (For his Westgate show, this song includes a stage that descends from the ceiling, allowing Manilow to dance into the audience.) Manilow plays all his hits, with special segments devoted to his jingles and the very first recording he ever made as a child.

That’s a story for Manilow to tell himself at his shows. He comes back after a summer touring the Northeast and England, so he’s all warmed up for the Fanilows who would make it through any rain to catch their favorite star who promised he’d see them then, when the good times came again.

August 15, 2022 The Rhode Show"The Manilow Music Project" by Will Gilbert
We’ve all heard the stories of music programs in schools being cut. That is where The Manilow Music Project steps in. One local teacher received a check for $10,000 five of which will go to him and the other to the classroom.

When legendary singer and songwriter Barry Manilow was a high school student in Brooklyn, his school was ranked the most dangerous in all of America. Barry found a home in his high school orchestra class, which he credits for changing his life and molding him into the icon he is today.

The Manilow Music Project supports music education in a variety of ways, having donated thousands of instruments including hundreds of brand-new Yamaha pianos to hundreds of schools nationwide. In addition to instrument grants The Manilow Music Project also supports young musicians by offering merit and need-based scholarships to universities all over the US. To date, The Manilow Music Project has distributed more than $10 million in instruments and funds.

August 13, 2022 The Morning Call"Parkland High School's band director won a local contest to meet Barry Manilow at his Allentown tour stop" by Jenny Roberts
Born the son of a trumpeter and a former majorette, Jason Lerew’s career as a high school band director was predestined. Lerew recalls growing up in a “band family” in Boiling Springs, Pennsylvania, and watching his older brother, eight years his senior, play as a percussionist in the high school marching band. His parents regularly chaperoned band trips, he said, and as a young boy, he could hardly wait his turn to choose an instrument and join the band one day, too.

Now, decades later, Lerew, 54, is an avid clarinetist and saxophonist who has been Parkland High School’s band director for more than 30 years. The school community recently showed its appreciation for Lerew’s many years of service by helping him win the Barry Manilow Music Teacher Award. Lerew competed against eight other Lehigh Valley teachers from districts such as Allentown and East Penn. He came away with the most community votes, and as part of his prize, Lerew attended Barry Manilow’s concert at PPL Center Friday to watch the show and meet the man himself. “He is just such a classy guy,” Lerew said after meeting Manilow. “For as big of a superstar as he is, he was just really down to earth, and it’s refreshing to see that, and just so generous for him to do this.”

Manilow has sold more than 85 million albums worldwide and is best known for songs, like “Copacabana,” “Mandy” and “Could It Be Magic.” Lerew said he remembers growing up in the ‘70s listening to Manilow’s greatest hits and hearing classic jingles Manilow wrote, like “You Deserve a Break Today” for McDonald’s.

Lerew said Manilow’s stage presence encouraged the crowd to sing along Friday night, and he enjoyed hearing the backstories to some of Manilow’s popular songs. “When he sang, ‘I Write the Songs,’ he really explained where that came from,” Lerew said. “He got his start by his grandfather taking him to this booth in Times Square, where you could record yourself singing ... and they actually showed a video of him as a young child with his grandfather ... so that was really cool to get that background.”

The PPL concert was one stop on Manilow’s special six-show arena tour, “Manilow: Hits 2022.” A local music teacher, like Lerew, was chosen as a winner at each tour stop based on local voting. Lerew and the other winners will each receive $5,000 in “Manilow bucks” to buy instruments for their school’s programs, and an additional $5,000 cash prize. He was up against some real stiff competition,” Greg MacGill, the former Liberty High School band director and a friend of Lerew’s, said about the Lehigh Valley teachers who participated in the contest. “All those folks are quality individuals that he was competing against, so I think it’s a real feather in his cap.”

The tour contests were run through The Manilow Music Project, which Manilow created in order to donate instruments to high schools and to give university scholarships to students throughout the country. “I really see this as an award for our band program, more than anything else,” Lerew said, noting some instruments he purchases for the school can cost up to $8,000. He added that some of the marching band instruments, such as the sousaphone, which is a member of the tuba family, and the mellophone, the marching band version of a French horn, can suffer wear and tear more quickly from being played outside regularly.

Since Lerew started at Parkland, he has seen the number of students in the band more than double from 70 students when he first started to 180 today. Lucy Schilling, a 2022 Parkland graduate, had Lerew for band class and said her mother Sue Schilling also had him as a teacher when she went to Parkland in the 1990s. Lucy Schilling, her mother and younger sister, who is also in the Parkland band, all voted for Lerew in the Manilow competition, she said. “The best decision I’ve made was to stick with band, and Mr. Lerew was a big part of that,” said Lucy Schilling, who will attend Penn State University in the fall. She is currently in the process of auditioning to play the trumpet in the Penn State Blue Band. “He was a great teacher, and if the teacher isn’t right, it’s hard to stay in something, even if you enjoy it,” she said.

“It’s really the teacher that makes it what it is.” Meredith Schmoyer, a rising senior at Parkland, plays clarinet in the band, and said Lerew’s guidance helped her earn first chair in the district competition last year for bass clarinet. He taught her what finger positions to use on the instrument and the importance of posture to breathing properly, she said. “Mr. Lerew is great,” Schmoyer said. “He is very welcoming to everyone new and really wants everyone to have fun and do band and be passionate about band.”

Carole Lutte, the former band director at Easton Area High School, plays with Lerew in the Allentown Band, along with MacGill. Lutte and MacGill both said they’ve seen Lerew’s success in growing Parkland’s band program throughout the years, as former band directors themselves, and added he’s a talented musician in his own right with the ability to sight read and fill in wherever the band needs him. Lutte, who plays the clarinet, said she and Lerew often talk about their instruments, such as which mouthpiece they’re currently using. Lutte also said she appreciates how Lerew regularly asks for feedback. “What keeps him in it, is that he knows that he’s got to keep learning as well,” Lutte said. “Jason has stayed in the pocket, because he’s constantly learning as well. Kids feel that, and they respect that.”

Lerew said his favorite part about his work is encouraging his students to keep music in their lives whether they pursue a professional music career like Manilow or not, he said. “Music is a part of life and living,” he said. “If you really pay attention, it’s all around us, and if you would take that away, take that music out of our lives, I think it would be a very dull and dry life.”

August 5, 2022 News 12 Long IslandBarry Manilow performs in Newark; donates $10K to East Side HS music program: A musical icon brought his hits to New Jersey, as well as a donation for a local high school
A musical icon brought his hits to New Jersey, as well as a donation for a local high school. Barry Manilow performed at the Prudential Center in Newark on Friday. He also donated $10,000 to the music department at Newark’s East Side High School. Half of the funds will go to music teacher Thaddeus Expose as part of a prize, while the rest will be used to purchase musical instruments. “I knew I was going to be in music as soon as I hit the keyboard on somebody's piano when I was a kid. I knew it. The music was going to get me out of the slums of Brooklyn, and it gave me a whole life,” Manilow says.

Manilow made Newark the second stop on his summer arena tour and at each of the cities he's visiting, he will present a local music educator with a donation. Manilow says music opened countless doors for him, and now it can do the same for the students. “Fans, strangers who love what I do, they gave me what I have. And I'll always be grateful to them for that. But music started the whole thing,” he says.

The donation came from the Manilow Music Project. The Prudential Center also matched the amount, bringing the total donation for East Side High School to $20,000. "It's obviously to give back to the students in the arts, to give them the opportunity to purchase instruments and that's much needed," says Sean Saadeh, executive vice president of entertainment at Prudential Center." Expose was among several nominated New Jersey teachers and was selected through an online vote.

When Where Articles/Reviews
August 3, 2022 The Morning Call"Barry Manilow, set to play Allentown, reveals secrets behind the songs and personal triumphs" by James Wood
Ranked by Billboard as the No. 1 Adult Contemporary Artist of all time, Barry Manilow’s unparalleled career involves performing, recording, arranging, and producing virtually every style of music. With more than 85 million albums sold, he is ranked as one of the world’s all-time best-selling artists, with timeless classics including “Mandy,” “I Write The Songs,” “Could it Be Magic,” “Looks Like We Made It,” “Weekend In New England,” and “Copacabana (At The Copa).”

On August 12, Manilow will bring his musical legacy and arsenal of hits to Allentown’s PPL Center as part of his “Hits 2022 Tour.” On every stop on the hitmaker’s East Coast jaunt, he will recognize an outstanding educator with the Manilow Music Project’s Music Teacher Award. Each honoree will receive a $5,000 award plus another $5,000 in “Manilow Bucks” to purchase instruments for their school’s music program. The winning teacher for the Lehigh Valley performance is Parkland High School’s Jason Lewrew. I spoke with Manilow about his new tour, music, and some of the most memorable moments of his career.

James Wood for The Morning Call (TMC): What can fans expect from your performance at PPL Center in Allentown?
Barry Manilow (BM): There were years that I was out doing shows with medleys of big band songs and show tunes and album cuts. These days, I know what people want. They want to hear the songs they know and I’m happy to give it to them. I’m very lucky that I’ve got 90 minutes of hit records that I can go to. Every song is familiar to audiences. They sometimes sing even louder than I do at these shows and we all have a great time together. With the world the way that it is being an entertainer is a big responsibility. So, the lights will go down, the doors will close, and I’ll get to take them into a place that feels safe, joyful, and full of music. That’s my job and I love doing it.

TMC: After so many years of touring, how do you approach the songs and lyrics in order to keep them fresh, both to you and to the audience?
BM: I’ve always been able to interpret a lyric instinctively, but when I went to acting classes I found rules on how to keep a lyric fresh every night by using a different person in the audience and singing to them. So I might sing “This One’s For You” to Grandpa and I’ll imagine his face in front of me. I do that with all the songs. Every night is different and every night is fresh because I never know who’s going to come up in my mind. If I just had to sing the lyric every night I do think they’d eventually become tiresome, but because I do it this way they never become stale.

TMC: Next year marks the 50th anniversary of your debut album. When you look back at it now with so much perspective, what thoughts come to mind?
BM: It was exciting and thrilling. During those years singer-songwriters were the big deal and every record label was looking for their own James Taylor or Carole King. Bell records heard my demo and me singing my songs and offered me a record deal as a singer-songwriter and not just as a songwriter, which is what I thought they would want. They wanted me to sing so I said, “Sure” because I’d be able to get my music out there, but I never thought in a million years that I’d wind up being on a stage performing. It was exciting to make that first record because it had “Could It Be Magic” and other songs I really believed in. I thought I’d make the album and that would be the end of it, but it wasn’t.

TMC: What can you tell me about the Music Teacher Awards you’re giving out via the Manilow Music Project?
BM: Whenever cuts are made in schools, the music department is always the first thing to go. I started the Manilow Music Project when I found out that schools were running out of instruments. A few years ago we did a contest for the best band where we had videos of high school bands. It was exciting but also horrifying to see the shape these instruments were in that these kids have to play. This year we’re looking for the best music teacher in every city we’re performing in. We’ve been getting a lot of suggestions. Whoever gets the most votes will get five thousand dollars for themselves and another five thousand to purchase instruments. I hope it inspires people to send instruments to their schools because they’re running out of them.

TMC: This fall you’ll be returning to Las Vegas for residency engagements. How did it all come about?
BM: I stopped touring regularly a few years ago because I was away from home more than I was at home and it eventually caught up to me. We were going out for months at a time and I sometimes didn’t even know where I was [laughs]. It’s a young person’s gig now. I stopped touring but I didn’t want to retire, and by luck we got an offer to do a residency at The Westgate, which allowed me to keep my band and crew and to continue to write and perform. Now and again, we put together a small tour like this one and I do go out and it’s a lot of fun.

TMC: Are there any new projects you’re working on?
BM: We’ve got a new album coming out in the next few months. I’ve been making albums lately that have concepts to them, like big bands, showstoppers, and decades. This one is an all-original album of material like the Even Now or This One’s For You album. I haven’t done one like this in years. They’re pop songs that my collaborators and I have written and they have something in them that’s missing on the records on the radio today, and that something is a melody [laughs]. It’s a Barry Manilow album from the old days, and I loved making it.

TMC: Of all the highlights of your career is there anything that stands out to you as most memorable?
BM: Meeting Princess Diana when she had just gotten married was a big one. I remember we did a benefit for one of their charities. The two of them [Charles and Diana] were there and she was so young and was such a fan. It was like meeting one of the 18-year-old fans. She couldn’t look at me or say anything and kept looking at the ground. She was so shy and he [Charles] was so surprised that she’d be so gob-smacked for an American singer like me. They were both young, beautiful and in love. I can still remember exactly where we were and what they looked like. I’ll never forget that meeting. It’s one of my top five memories.

When Where Articles/Reviews
July 27, 2022 Broadway World"Grammy-Nominated Saxophonist Dave Koz to Join Barry Manilow's Summer Arena Tour MANILOW: HITS 2022 - Manilow and Koz last performed together in 2014 on Manilow's ONE LAST TIME tour" by Chloe Rabinowitz
Music icon Barry Manilow will welcome chart-topping, GRAMMY nominated saxophonist Dave Koz this summer for MANILOW: HITS 2022. The exclusive run kicks off on August 4th at TD Garden in Boston, MA stopping at Prudential Center in Newark, UBS Arena in Belmont Park, PPL Center in Allentown, PA and Dunkin' Donuts Center in Providence, before wrapping in Philadelphia at Wells Fargo Center on August 14th. Manilow and Koz last performed together in 2014 on Manilow's ONE LAST TIME tour.

Koz met Manilow over 20 years ago when Manilow asked him to play on one of his albums, "Here at the Mayflower" (2001). Koz later invited Manilow to sing on his album "At the Movies" (2007) on the song "Moon River," and when Koz received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Manilow was there.

"Dave Koz is one of the most gifted musicians and entertainers in the music business," said Manilow. "Everyone who knows him will agree, he is also one of the most beautiful human beings. No doubt we are going to have a great time this summer."

"I am so thrilled Barry asked me to join him on his arena tour this summer," said Koz. "When we tour together, we always have such a blast, and there is nothing like Barry Manilow fans; they always come to have a great time, and no doubt it's going to be a party!"

The tour will highlight the superstar's greatest hits. Manilow, a Grammy, TONY, and EMMY Award-winning music icon and whose success is a benchmark in popular music, will perform an array of his hit songs, including "Mandy," "I Write the Songs," "Looks Like We Made It," "Can't Smile Without You," and "Copacabana (At the Copa)."

MANILOW: HITS 2022 TOUR DATES:

  • Thu August 4th - Boston, MA - TD Garden
  • Fri August 5th - Newark, NJ - Prudential Center
  • Sat Aug 6th - Belmont Park, NY - UBS Arena
  • Fri August 12th - Allentown, PA - PPL Center
  • Sat August 13th - Providence, RI - Dunkin' Donuts Center
  • Sun August 14th - Philadelphia, PA - Wells Fargo Center

About Barry Manilow: Barry Manilow's unparalleled career is made up of virtually every facet of music, including performing, composing, arranging, and producing. A 2002 Songwriters Hall of Fame Inductee, Manilow has triumphed in every medium of entertainment. He has received Grammy, Emmy, and TONY Award and has been nominated for an Academy Award. Having sold more than 85 million albums worldwide, Barry Manilow is one of the world's all-time bestselling recording artists. He's had an astonishing 50 Top 40 singles, including 12 #1s and 27 Top 10 hits, and is ranked the #1 Adult Contemporary Artist of all-time, according to Billboard and R&R magazines.

About Dave Koz: In a recording career that spans three decades, saxophonist Dave Koz has racked up an astoundingly impressive array of honors and achievements: nine GRAMMY nominations, 12 No. 1 albums on Billboard's Current Contemporary Jazz Albums chart, numerous world tours, performances for multiple U.S. presidents, a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and more. A Platinum-selling artist, Koz is also known as a humanitarian, entrepreneur, radio host and instrumental music advocate.

For more information on Barry Manilow please visit: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Tik Tok

July 14, 2022 Yahoo! FinanceBARRY MANILOW ANNOUNCES MUSIC TEACHER AWARD TO COINCIDE WITH HIS SUMMER ARENA TOUR 'MANILOW: HITS 2022': Each Tour City Nominating Their Favorite Music Teacher for VIP Experience to Show Including Tickets and Back Stage Award Presentation with Barry Manilow
NEW YORK, July 14, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Music icon Barry Manilow announced today his Manilow Music Project will once again award a deserving music teacher in each city of his summer arena tour.

The Grammy award winner previously announced a special six-show arena tour run that kicks off on August 4th at TD Garden in Boston, MA stopping at Prudential Center in Newark, UBS Arena in Belmont Park, PPL Center in Allentown, PA, and Dunkin' Donuts Center in Providence, before wrapping in Philadelphia at Wells Fargo Center on August 14th.

Every venue on Manilow's tour has participated by suggesting schools and teachers in their area that they wish to be considered for this award. In each city, the winning teacher will receive a 5K cash award and another 5K in "Manilow bucks" to purchase music instruments for their school's music program.

"It is wonderful to partner with our concert venues to identify schools and music teachers in their neighborhoods that deserve this small token of my gratitude, said Manilow. "Many school music programs have either been terminated, or their funds have been severely depleted. I always want to do my part through The Manilow Music Project to keep music in schools."

The Manilow Music Project is pleased to open voting to anyone who has ever been moved by the power of music to vote for their favorite music teacher. It has given away over ten million dollars' worth of funds and music instrument donations.

MANILOW: HITS 2022 TOUR DATES, TEACHERS, AND VOTING LINK -- https://on.barrymanilow.com/tb_app/476124

Thu August 4th – Boston, MA – TD Garden: Hilary Bridgen of Littleton High School, David Carkner of The English High School, Mary Costello of Winchester High School, Mariana Green-Hill of Boston Arts Academy, Adam Grossman of Newton North High School, Teresa Herfindahl of Josiah Quincy Upper School, Krystal Morin of Boston Green Academy, Guillermo Nojechowicz of Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, Dr. Sonya White-Hope of Boston Latin Academy.

Fri August 5th – Newark, NJ – Prudential Center: Mario Banks of Science Park High School, Latasha Casterlow-Lalla of Passaic Prep, Joseph Dolahan of New Jersey Regional Day, Ishwann Dixon of University High School, Thaddeus Expose of East Side High School, Ariel Fiekowsky of Eagle Academy, Veronica Lawrence of Barringer High School, Lawrence Liggins of Arts High School, Andre Robinson of West Side High School.

Sat Aug 6th – Belmont Park, NY – UBS Arena: Aisha Ali of Metropolitan Expeditionary Learning School (Queens), Anissa Arnold of Herricks High School (Long Island), Marino Bragino of Long Beach High School, Chris Doherty of Sewanhaka High School (Long Island), Karl Himmelmann of Southold Junior-Senior High School (Long Island), Clare Jackson of Harborfields High School, Christopher Mandato of East Hampton High School (Long Island), Thérèse Mannino of Farmingdale High School, Michael Schwartz of Great Neck High School (Long Island), Barry Wyner of Lynbrook High School.

Fri August 12th – Allentown, PA – PPL Center: Lawrence Flynn of Louis E. Dieruff, Allen Frank of Liberty, Edward Hong of Whitehall, Jason Lerew of Parkland, Mike Moran of Freedom, Eric Moser of William Allen High School, Julia Wallace of Emmaus High School, Rachel Reinecke of Salisbury, John Shilanskas of Easton Area High School.

Sat August 13th – Providence, RI – Dunkin' Donuts Center: Morgan Bott of Kizirian Elementary School, Emerson Brown of Classical High School, Andrew Mangini of Lima Elementary School, Suzanne Doiron of Gilbert Stuart Middle School, Michael Fitzgerald of Hope High School, Emily Holleman of Broad Street Elementary School, Virginia Jacobs of Fogarty Elementary School, Wayne Kilcline of Sackett Elementary School, Danielle Lucini of Mount Pleasant High School, Chad Mazzarella of George W. West Elementary School, Steve Toro of Moses Brown School.

Sun August 14th – Philadelphia, PA – Wells Fargo Center: Ted Blohm of Archbishop Ryan, Michael Borton of Waldron Mercy Academy, Brian Cox of Central Bucks High School South, Charlie DiCarne-William, of William Tennet High School, Krisnoel Jennings of Spring-Ford Area Schools, Jeff McCoach of Methacton High School, Kim Phillips of Carl Sandburg Middle School, Rachel Sandhaus of Foundations Charter School, Jon Timmons of Souderton Area High School, Kimberly Yocum of Grover Washington Jr. Middle School.

Barry Manilow's unparalleled career is made up of virtually every facet of music, including performing, composing, arranging, and producing. A 2002 Songwriters Hall of Fame Inductee, Manilow has triumphed in every medium of entertainment. He has received a Grammy®, Emmy®, and a TONY Award® and has been nominated for an Academy Award®. Having sold more than 85 million albums worldwide, Barry Manilow is one of the world's all-time bestselling recording artists. He's had an astonishing 50 Top 40 singles, including 12 #1s and 27 Top 10 hits, and is ranked the #1 Adult Contemporary Artist of all-time, according to Billboard and R&R magazines.

When Where Articles/Reviews
June 11, 2022 3News (Las Vegas)Barry Manilow receives key to the city on 'Barry Manilow Day'
June 10 will now be known as 'Barry Manilow Day' in Las Vegas. Las Vegas mayor Carolyn Goodman announced on Saturday that singer Barry Manilow had recently received a key to the city.
27 June 2022 Ilkley Gazette"Barry Manilow: A feel-good event of the year | Review: Barry Manilow at first direct arena, Leeds, June 25, 2022" by Sara Jane Perovic
As fast as rain clouds gathered over a bustling Leeds city centre, so too did faithful fans, off to spend the evening with their favourite global superstar at undoubtedly one of the best feel-good events in years. Barry Manilow made a show-stopping appearance at Leeds City Centre Arena on Saturday 25 June and the 79-year-old superstar wowed an adoring audience of fans young, old and in-between with a joyful journey through his most memorable music proving the old songs really can bring back the old times.

It is a surreal experience to be in the presence of such a prolific performer and for many his songs have been the soundtrack of their lifetimes with more than 85 million records sold world-wide. Manilow is one of the biggest-selling artists of all time and hyping the crowd was a mega-mix of his most celebrated music. Fans danced, cheered and applauded the much-loved star with befitting standing ovations and he most certainly wrote the songs that made the whole crowd sing.

Manilow’s music has stood the test of time and hearing these marvellous melodies made for an emotional evening. An exhilarating shot of pure unbridled entertainment that proved to be the perfect antidote to the troubled times of today.

With a career spanning seven decades and Manilow classic crowd-pleasers such as Mandy, Could it Be Magic and Copacabana, the soon-to-be octogenarian belted out the best of his ballads from Even Now to Weekend in New England. This was a polished performance delivered in an affable style with a set-list that showcased his inimitable and unparalleled talent.

Flanked by three foxy backing singers and a world-class ten-piece band, this consummate professional bedazzled the star-struck concert-goers as the stage was set ablaze with a coruscating kaleidoscope of colour. Manilow’s presence radiated from the stage and his personality sparkled almost as much as the stunning jewels that adorned his multiple jacket changes.

Highlights included technical wizardry that enabled Manilow to duet with his 1970’s self and an endearing tale of how his grandfather was instrumental in his future musical career. Technical issues took out the sound at one point but the star carried on like a true trouper and his seven decades of experience shone through.

American jazz singer Curtis Stigers supported Manilow and his gravelly distinctive voice cut through the crowd with a set list that included I Wonder Why and All That Matters to Me.

Manilow most definitely succeeded in brightening everyone’s day but now it already seems light years away as the greatest showman heads home to the USA for his up-coming Las Vegas residency.

27 June 2022 LeedsLive"Barry Manilow 'smitten with Britain' on emotional final night of tour which turned Leeds into Las Vegas: The superstar pulled out all the stops, and all his extravagant jackets, to delight buzzing Leeds fans" by Lucy Marshall
When you're looking for a night of powerful iconic music performed by the greatest showman, look no further than Mr. Barry Manilow. For the last show of his 2022 tour, the 79-year-old lugged his hundreds of sparkly suit jackets, and band to Leeds. Fans were eager to get inside First Direct Arena on Saturday (June 25) to see the superstar after Covid left them waiting months and months for the show.

Barry himself was struck down by Covid not so long ago but showed no signs of any lingering illness as he was up on his feet all night and sung his heart out to an animated audience smiling from ear to ear last night.

The crowds of fans, waving their glow sticks high in the air, were singing from the start to the end of the show along with him. He kicked off with It's A Miracle, boasting a bright red sequin jacket, and accompanied by an incredible band who put on a grand show that transported the audience to the likes of a Las Vegas show. "He is having the time of his life up there", one fan pegged. Barry had a glint in his eye as his sang with passion which amplified into the audience.

He played old clips of his first rise to fame but now, despite his age, his singing is more powerful and smooth than ever before, as the years have made his voice stronger and stronger. He referenced when he first began performing and came to the UK. "I'm smitten with Britain", he said as he spoke about his love for Brits and nights on stage in London during the '80s.

The audience offered a standing ovation after every song, and towards the end of the show fans were seen stood up for the rest of the show dancing and waving their arms in the air. Could It Be Magic delighted fans, and their eyes lit up as the set changed into an exotic paradise for Bermuda Triangle.

But of course everyone waited with bated breath for Copacabana. The singers came on stage with beautifully colour costumes with bright yellow feathers attached. And of course Barry changed his jacket - this time to a bright orange one dazzled with sparkles. Fans chuckled as the charismatic showman turned around and the words 'COPA' were written in crystals on the back of his jacket.

The show was full of surprises and the atmosphere was exhilarating from the very start to the end of the show. Barry's fans were taking through a whole host of emotions, and transported into Las Vegas and Bermuda.

The singer became emotional as he spoke about it being the final night of the much-anticipated show. He left the stage with a beaming smile, and his generosity beamed through.

24 June 2022 The Scotsman"Music review: Barry Manilow, Hydro, Glasgow" by Fiona Shepherd
Barry Manilow likes to shake his stuff with the best of them. For some years now, his intro music has been a curveball megamix of Underworld and Fatboy Slim rave faves. But essentially a Manilow extravaganza is a trip back to the Seventies, a time when melody was king. Presumably this is what he hears in the music of his special guest Curtis Stigers, though Stigers’ wide-ranging set encompassed works by Gershwin, Nick Lowe, gospel blues standard John the Revelator and his own Nineties power ballads given a jazz quartet treatment.

Stigers might have the blues but Manilow in his late 70s has now acquired a gruffer vocal tone of his own which agrees with his old school material, from the Vegas pzazz of the opening It’s A Miracle to the lovely weathered nostalgia of Stay.

There was not an ounce of excess fat on Manilow or his utterly pro show, a slick non-stop cavalcade of hits which featured the fastest costume changes in showbiz yet felt unhurried, which allowed for regional variations (telling a delighted audience that "you put a tilt in my kilt”) and some nostalgic indulgence with a lovely story about his grandfather's glowing support, which squeezed in some deeper cuts, including the Ian Hunter song Ships, and some time-honoured impish audience banter during Weekend in New England.

Along with his impeccable band, Manilow was as committed to the ultimate cheese of Bermuda Triangle and a suitably feathered Copacabana as to the overwrought dramatic balladry of I Made It Through the Rain and I Write the Songs, the peerless Mandy and the Chopin-inspired classic Could It Be Magic. Mindful of his Russian Jewish heritage, he gave Let Freedom Ring a Ukrainian spin and, at the last gasp, was joined by a gospel choir for a reprise of It's a Miracle.

23 June 2022 ChronicleLive"Barry Manilow pauses Newcastle concert after 'rude' reaction to lyric: Music legend Barry Manilow pulled in a very enthusiastic crowd at Newcastle's Utilita Arena on Wednesday night" by Simon Duke
Barry Manilow was briefly thrown off his stride at his Newcastle show on Wednesday night after some very vocal fans reacted enthusiastically to a particular song lyric. Barry was last in Newcastle in 2016 on his One Last Time tour, but, thankfully for his fans, that tour's title didn't prove to be correct as, after his latest string of UK dates were significantly postponed due to the Covid pandemic, he is finally back in Britain performing all his many hits.

With a career spanning over five decades, the now 79-year-old has built up a huge following and there was a lot of love for him in Tyneside, from the moment he walked onto the stage, through to the moment he waved goodbye. Early crowd pleasers included show opener It's A Miracle, I Can't Smile Without You, which came complete with sing-a-long lyrics on screen and soaring and inspiring ballad Looks Like We Make It.

While he's very much at ease when he's front and centre of the stage in his more up-tempo numbers Barry is also very inch the showman when he's sat at his grand piano and it was when he was tinkling the ivories to another one of his classics, Weekend In New England, that things took a rather suggestive turn. The chorus of the hit song begins: 'When will; our eyes meet? When can I touch you?' and it was the second line that instantly sparked wild screams from some of the Geordie crowd. Looking slightly flustered, Barry was momentarily speechless, before letting out a little chuckle and commenting: "My hands are busy now!"

Ever the consummate professional, Barry continued on with the song, with an impressive key change as it reached its crescendo. Other highlights of a hits filled set, included recent single Dancing in the Aisles, Could It Be Magic and the anthemic I Write The Songs. As the clock ticked down to the end of proceedings, Barry cheekily asked 'does anyone want to hear Copacabana?' Of course they did and that one went down a storm, before Let [Freedom] Ring and a reprise of It's A Miracle rounded things off.

22 June 2022 ChronicleLive"Barry Manilow brings Las Vegas to Newcastle and proves why he's still the greatest showman: Barry Manilow was on top form as he performed all the hits at Newcastle's Utilita Arena on Wednesday night" by Simon Duke
When you try and think of someone who is a consummate and charismatic showman you truly need to look no further than Barry Manilow. Six years after he last graced the stage at Newcastle’s Utilita Arena, the man who had given us so many classic songs over the years, was finally back on Geordie soil, albeit significantly delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Barry himself was struck down by Covid not so long ago but showed no signs of any lingering illness as he delighted his captive audience from the get-go on Wednesday night.

Starting with fan favourite It’s A Miracle, Barry was quickly into his stride, pulling out one of his calling cards early doors in the shape of Can’t Smile Without You, which sparked a mass sing-along. While Barry is now 79-years-old, he still has a magical glint in his eye and a youthful vigour that comes through in his performance with real exuberance. And, as well as being commanding all the attention with his performance, Barry warmed hearts with a story about how his grandad got him into singing from a young age, before poignantly dedicating Song for You in his memory. Another note perfect number from the opening part of the show came courtesy of Even Now, which saw Barry go through the octaves with effortless ease.

One of the highlights of his set, preceded by a stylish and sax-drenched support set from Curtis Stigers, was a medley of his more recent single and unlikely TikTok smash Dancing in the Aisles, delivered alongside fool-proof crowd pleasers Dancing in the Streets and Let’s [Hang] On. From then on in it was anthem after anthem after anthem. Could it be Magic proved its pop pedigree yet again, with one of Barry’s finest ballads I Made It Through the Rain following it as the man of the hour showcased the versatility and talent that has led to him having such a long lasting and illustrious career.

The hairs on the back of your neck can’t fail to stand up at the way Barry delivers I Write The Songs; as far as anthemic ballads go, it’s up there with the best. In complete contrast to that track, but just as emphatic in the reaction it ALWAYS receives, Copacabana was a feather laden fabulous affair, which saw the already well hyped crowd, dancing like they were at a Rio carnival. The security at the arena definitely earned their wages as some of the over zealous ‘Fanilows’ kept trying to get closer to their idol the whole way through the gig.

Many fans might have assumed that Copacabana would be the last song of the night, but instead that honour went to Let Freedom Ring, which saw Barry flanked by a local gospel choir, the American flag and, in a heartfelt gesture, and an apt one given the political inspiration behind the lyrics, the Ukrainian colours as well.

He might be close to being an Octogenarian but Barry’s vocals are as impressive as ever and his stage presence and passion for his craft are still totally top notch. Wednesday was the night Las Vegas came to Newcastle and, in Barry, his fans hit the jackpot with the main attraction.

20 June 2022 The Telegraph"Barry Manilow: Britain’s love affair with easy listening’s greatest showman blazes on: The 79-year-old pop icon is as cheesy as they come, but the mutual affection between him and the O2 Arena crowd was something to behold" by James Hall
Harry Styles wasn’t the only sequinned pop icon wowing his generation in London on Sunday night. Across town from his Wembley Stadium show, Barry Manilow served up a series of evergreen hits in a concert that resembled a karaoke party in a retirement home. The New Yorker may be 79 and cheesier than a slice of pizza pie, but his sweet-toned songs demonstrated music’s alchemic ability to form seams in people’s memories, spread joy and bond a crowd, whatever their age.

There wasn’t a word left unhollered by his 20,000 fans at the O2. When they changed the line in 1985’s Sweet Heaven (I’m In Love Again) from “I’ll sing it on the radio” to “We love you Barry Manilow”, the roof nearly came off the place. The chunky neon glow sticks that attendees were given on arrival were waved aloft throughout, the rave-up vibe helped by the fact that Manilow’s entrance music was – bizarrely – Underworld’s Born Slippy.

Manilow walked to the centre of the stage and struck a “ta-da” arms-out pose, at which point the lights burst on and we were off. Wearing a brown satin sparkly jacket (the first of many throughout the show), he played upbeat mid-Seventies easy listening track It’s A Miracle. This was precisely the kind of song from which disco emerged – just add a funkier rhythm guitar and heavier four-on-the-floor drum beat, and you’d be there. And it was when disco was at its zenith in 1978 that Manilow broke through in the UK with Even Now, the album which contained his infectious, Latin-infused track Copacabana. “We met in 1978. I fell in love with you guys,” Manilow told the audience, addressing them like a long-lost partner. “And from then on I was smitten with Britain.”

Manilow grew up in post-war Brooklyn (“rough... kind of like Slough, but without the charm”). On Saturdays, his grandfather would walk him to a 25-cent record-your-own-song booth in Manhattan’s Times Square; in a poignant moment, we got a snippet of one of these recordings. He attended the New York College of Music, wrote jingles and became pianist – then producer – for Bette Midler. He achieved fame with his cover of Scott English and Richard Kerr’s song Brandy, changing the title to Mandy.

In 2017, Manilow came out as gay and said he’d been in a relationship with his manager (now his husband) since 1978. He’d kept his sexuality secret for fear of disappointing his fans. He really needn’t have worried. Can’t Smile Without You sounded like a mutual manifesto. Looks Like We Made It, This One’s For You and I Write The Songs were big, brassy ballads for which Manilow sat at a grand piano. Unlike other touring musicians his age, his voice is still strong.

Mandy and Could It Be Magic – slower than Take That’s 1992 cover version – saw the glow sticks raised even higher. For Copacabana, Manilow donned a bright orange jacket while his backing singers wore yellow feather carnival outfits. It was manna from heaven for the ecstatic crowd. He ended with the stirring Let Freedom Ring, backed by a choir and in front of a vast Ukrainian flag. “America and Britain have a lot in common,” Manilow said at the start of the song. “We both love democracy. We both love freedom. And we both love me.” The roar from the crowd suggested that easy listening’s greatest showman wasn’t wrong.

17 June 2022 Manchester Evening News"Could it be Magic? Barry Manilow puts on a show at the AO Arena: Barry Manilow belied his years with a singing, dancing bonanza - as well as making a show of solidarity with Ukraine" by Louisa Gregson
As a self confessed indie girl my idea of musical heaven would probably be watching an as yet undiscovered band in a Camden pub. So never did I think I would find myself queuing up at the AO Arena to watch Barry Manilow. But as it was one of only two acts on my mum's 'bucket list', there was no way I was passing by an opportunity to go with her and make it happen, even if it meant reviewing by proxy. As Manilow made his entrance, in a red sparkly jacket and black pants with sparkles down the side I was impressed with a 78-year-old man being so trim and so uber energetic.

It became clear why Manilow has been labelled as 'the showman of our generation' as his charm, charisma and comedic quality was as abundant as his sequined blazers. The atmosphere at the AO Arena was as warm as the beautiful summer night and Manilow may have been on to something when he said: "England has so much in common with America. They both love freedom, they both love democracy... and they both love me." There was certainly a whole lot of love in the arena and Manilow cranked up the nostalgia and the sentimentality as on the screen behind him appeared images of past album covers and pictures of him in his younger days.

Barry Manilow's career encompasses performing, composing, arranging and producing. With worldwide record sales exceeding 85 million, he is ranked as the top Adult Contemporary chart artist of all time with over 50 Top 40 hits including 12 no 1s and 27 Top 10 Hits.

The audience listened, gripped, to his sweet story of his grandfather taking him as a small child to a booth where for 25 cents you could make your own record - and trying to get him to sing. A reluctant Manilow was captured on record being coerced by his grandfather who later led Manilow's first standing ovation at the Carnegie Hall - just feet away from the booth, and played out to the audience before he launched in to a song in his memory: This One's For You.

The GRAMMY®, TONY®, and EMMY® Award-winning musician’s career skyrocketed to superstardom when his mega hit song, Mandy, topped the charts in 1975 and the audience watched footage of a young Manilow in a pale blue shirt singing the hit at the piano, before Manilow took to the piano on stage, wearing a jacket of the same colour, to perform it live all these years later. The nostalgia and emotion had my mum in floods of tears.

Other highlights included Could It Be Magic, Can't Smile Without You and Dancin' In The Aisles and Manilow continued to engage with the audience, cracking jokes, telling stories - including the time he met The Queen - and declaring himself "Smitten with Britain." He also thanked the audience for being there not just following his career since the 70s but for returning to see him after Covid had delayed his planned performances. As the show drew to a close three flags dropped down - the American flag, a Union Jack and the Ukrainian flag - to cheers from the crowd.

Everyone was up on their feet dancing for the finale song of Copa Cocabana, complete with backing singers wearing yellow feather boas and Manilow in a glittering orange jacket with Copa emblazoned on the back. My mum, singing away, said she had loved every minute and never thought she would ever have been watching Barry Manilow. Neither did I....but I am glad I did.

June 16, 2022 Press Release
(SOURCE: STILETTO Entertainment)
STILETTO Entertainment Presents Barry Manilow Tonight at Manchester's Sold Out AO Arena
MANCHESTER, United Kingdom, June 16, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Barry Manilow is currently on tour in the U.K. For tour dates in the U.K. and the U.S., please visit www.barrymanilow.com. "The US and UK have something in common. We love democracy. We love freedom. We love Ukraine. Let Freedom Ring!" – Barry Manilow.

When Where Articles/Reviews
June 11, 2022 3News (Las Vegas)Barry Manilow receives key to the city on 'Barry Manilow Day'
June 10 will now be known as 'Barry Manilow Day' in Las Vegas. Las Vegas mayor Carolyn Goodman announced on Saturday that singer Barry Manilow had recently received a key to the city.

When Where Articles/Reviews
May 16, 2022 Broadway WorldBarry Manilow, Bruce Sussman & Warren Carlyle at Curtain Call for the Final Performance of HARMONY: Mentions were made of the show transferring to a larger Broadway stage
Last night, Off-Broadway saw the closing night of the new musical Harmony at the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene. Joining the cast on stage at the curtain call were the creators, Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman, along with the director/choreographer Warren Carlyle. The evening also celebrated the announcement of the original cast recording, which was recorded this past weekend. Surprising the audience, Manilow appeared on stage with his co-creators and said, "I'm Barry Manilow...the Composer," and the house went wild. Cheers also erupted when mentions were made of the show transferring to a larger Broadway stage by a team of commercial producers led by Ken Davenport, with Sussman saying, "I'd like to think of today as only the end of the beginning!"

The musical today received a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Musical as well as eight Outer Critics Circle Award nominations, including Outstanding New Off-Broadway Musical, Outstanding Score of a Musical, Outstanding Book of a Musical and Outstanding Director and Choreographer of a Musical, among others.

Starring Chip Zien and Sierra Boggess, the cast included Sean Bell, Danny Kornfeld, Zal Owen, Eric Peter, Blake Roman, Steven Telsey, Jessie Davidson, Ana Hoffman. The ensemble included Elise Frances Daniells, Zak Edwards, Abby Goldfarb, Eddie Grey, Shayne Kennon, Kolby Kindle, Benjamin H. Moore, Matthew Mucha, Tori Palin, Barrett Riggins, Kayleen Seidl, Andrew O'Shanick, Dan Teixeira, Nancy Ticotin and Kate Wexler.

The NYTF off-Broadway production of Harmony was co-produced by Ken Davenport and Sandi Moran with Garry Kief, Amuse, Inc., Patty Baker, Tom and Michael D'Angora, Susan DuBow, Michelle Kaplan, Mapleseed Productions, Harold Matzner, and Neil Gooding Productions in association with Wilfried Rimensberger and Stiletto Entertainment.

May 15, 2022 Playbill.com"Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman’s Harmony Ends Off-Broadway Run May 15: Warren Carlyle directs and choreographs the musical about the Comedian Harmonists" by Andrew Gans
The Off-Broadway production of Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman's Harmony, which officially opened April 13, ends its limited engagement May 15. National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene presents the musical, which began previews March 23 in the newly renovated Edmond J. Safra Hall at the Museum of Jewish Heritage–A Living Memorial to the Holocaust. Tony winner Warren Carlyle directs and choreographs the production. Read the reviews here.

The Manilow and Sussman musical, recently nominated for eight Outer Critics Circle Awards, including Outstanding New Off-Broadway Musical, will get an original cast recording produced by Manilow and Lawrence Manchester. The cast headed into the recording studio this weekend with a release date to be announced. Jill Dell’Abate is the production manager for the recording.

The cast features Sierra Boggess (The Phantom of the Opera, School of Rock, The Little Mermaid) as Mary with Chip Zien (Falsettos, Into the Woods) as the elder Rabbi. Playing the six Comedian Harmonists are Sean Bell (A Bronx Tale: The Musical), Danny Kornfeld (Rent), Zal Owen (The Band’s Visit), Eric Peters (Motown: The Musical), Blake Roman (Newsies), and Steven Telsey (The Book of Mormon). Jessie Davidson is Ruth, with Ana Hoffman (Dreamgirls) as Josephine Baker. Kenny Morris (Hairspray) is the standby for Zien’s Rabbi. The ensemble includes Elise Frances Daniells, Zak Edwards, Abby Goldfarb, Eddie Grey, Shayne Kennon, Kolby Kindle, Benjamin H. Moore, Matthew Mucha, Tori Palin, Barrett Riggins, Kayleen Seidl, Andrew O’Shanick, Dan Teixeira, Nancy Ticotin, and Kate Wesler.

The musical tells the true story of the Comedian Harmonists, an ensemble of six young men in 1920s Germany who took the world by storm with their blend of sophisticated close harmonies and uproarious stage antics, until their inclusion of Jewish singers put them on a collision course with history.

The production has scenic design by Beowulf Boritt, costume design by Linda Cho and Ricky Lurie, lighting design by Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer, sound design by Dan Moses Schreier, video design by batwin + robin productions, inc., casting by Jamibeth Margolis, associate direction and choreography by Sara Edwards, general management by Roy Gabay/Jumpstart Entertainment, wig and hair design by Tom Watson, and music direction and additional vocal and music arrangement by John O’Neill.

Harmony is co-produced by Ken Davenport and Sandi Moran with Garry Kief, Amuse, Inc., Susan DuBow, Mapleseed Productions, Michelle Kaplan, and Neil Gooding Productions in association with Wilfried Rimensberger and STILETTO Entertainment. Miranda Gohh is associate producer. Visit NYTF.org.

May 12, 2022 Broadway World"HARMONY: A NEW MUSICAL Original Cast Album Set To Be Recorded: The original cast album will be produced by Barry Manilow and co-produced by Lawrence Manchester" by A.A. Cristi
Harmony: A New Musical, starring musical theatre icons Chip Zien (Into the Woods, Caroline, Or Change) and Sierra Boggess (The Little Mermaid, The Phantom of the Opera), has announced the recording of their original cast album, to be produced by Barry Manilow and co-produced by Lawrence Manchester. Jill Dell'Abate is the Production Manager.

The Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman hit has also been nominated for eight Outer Critics Circle Awards, tied with Kimberly Akimbo for most musical nominations. Nominations:

Outstanding New Off-Broadway Musical
Outstanding Actor in a Musical - Chip Zien
Outstanding Director of a Musical - Warren Carlyle
Outstanding Choreography - Warren Carlyle
Outstanding Book of a Musical - Bruce Sussman
Outstanding Score - Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman
Outstanding Orchestrations - Doug Walter
Outstanding Sound Design (Play or Musical) - Dan Moses Schreier

The sold-out production runs through May 15th.

Elisabeth Vincentelli of The New York Times said, "In case you were wondering what it feels like to cry under a mask, there is a good chance you will find out."

A.D. Amorosi of Variety said, "Every element of "Harmony" clicks in place like a gorgeous puzzle," and "'Harmony' feels like a mega-watt Broadway musical, but in Battery Park."

David Finkle of New York Stage Review called the musical "crackling-good."

And Chris Jones of the New York Daily News praised the production, reporting, "The show is superbly sung throughout... the numbers are rich and stylish and the story quite enveloping...Manilow and Sussman's inherent optimism as songwriters gives the show that freedom. It should grab it and find its way to Midtown."

Written by the legendary Barry Manilow and his longtime collaborator Bruce Sussman and directed and choreographed by Tony Award-winner Warren Carlyle, Harmony tells the true story of the Comedian Harmonists, an ensemble of six talented young men in 1920s Germany who took the world by storm with their signature blend of sophisticated close harmonies and uproarious stage antics, until their inclusion of Jewish singers put them on a collision course with history.

For tickets to Harmony, visit NYTF.org or call 855-449-4658. Contact 212-655-7653 for all other inquiries.

May 12, 2022 Playbill.com"Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman’s Harmony Will Get Original Off-Broadway Cast Recording: Warren Carlyle directs and choreographs the musical about the Comedian Harmonists" by Andrew Gans
The current Off-Broadway production of Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman's Harmony, which officially opened April 13, will get an original cast recording, produced by Manilow and Lawrence Manchester. The cast will head into the recording studio the weekend of May 13 with a release date to be announced. Jill Dell’Abate is the production manager for the recording.

National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene presents the musical, which began previews March 23 in the newly renovated Edmond J. Safra Hall at the Museum of Jewish Heritage–A Living Memorial to the Holocaust. Tony winner Warren Carlyle directs and choreographs the production. The Manilow and Sussman musical, which continues through May 15, was recently nominated for eight Outer Critics Circle Awards, including Outstanding New Off-Broadway Musical.

The cast features Sierra Boggess (The Phantom of the Opera, School of Rock, The Little Mermaid) as Mary with Chip Zien (Falsettos, Into the Woods) as the elder Rabbi. Playing the six Comedian Harmonists are Sean Bell (A Bronx Tale: The Musical), Danny Kornfeld (Rent), Zal Owen (The Band’s Visit), Eric Peters (Motown: The Musical), Blake Roman (Newsies), and Steven Telsey (The Book of Mormon). Jessie Davidson is Ruth, with Ana Hoffman (Dreamgirls) as Josephine Baker. Kenny Morris (Hairspray) is the standby for Zien’s Rabbi.

The ensemble includes Elise Frances Daniells, Zak Edwards, Abby Goldfarb, Eddie Grey, Shayne Kennon, Kolby Kindle, Benjamin H. Moore, Matthew Mucha, Tori Palin, Barrett Riggins, Kayleen Seidl, Andrew O’Shanick, Dan Teixeira, Nancy Ticotin, and Kate Wesler.

The musical tells the true story of the Comedian Harmonists, an ensemble of six young men in 1920s Germany who took the world by storm with their blend of sophisticated close harmonies and uproarious stage antics, until their inclusion of Jewish singers put them on a collision course with history.

The production has scenic design by Beowulf Boritt, costume design by Linda Cho and Ricky Lurie, lighting design by Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer, sound design by Dan Moses Schreier, video design by batwin + robin productions, inc., casting by Jamibeth Margolis, associate direction and choreography by Sara Edwards, general management by Roy Gabay/Jumpstart Entertainment, wig and hair design by Tom Watson, and music direction and additional vocal and music arrangement by John O’Neill.

Harmony is co-produced by Ken Davenport and Sandi Moran with Garry Kief, Amuse, Inc., Susan DuBow, Mapleseed Productions, Michelle Kaplan, and Neil Gooding Productions in association with Wilfried Rimensberger and STILETTO Entertainment. Miranda Gohh is associate producer.

Visit NYTF.org.

May 9, 2022 People"Barry Manilow Announces 'Manilow: Hits 2022' North American Arena Tour Dates" by Jack Irvin
Barry Manilow is getting ready to hit the road! The 78-year-old legendary musician has announced a string of North American tour dates billed as "Manilow: Hits 2022," which will span six arenas across the country in August with jazz saxophonist Dave Koz appearing as an opening act.

Kicking off Aug. 4 at Boston's TD Garden, the tour will make stops in Newark, New Jersey; Belmont Park, New York; Allentown, Pennsylvania; Providence, Rhode Island; and wraps Aug. 14 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newly announced dates follow Manilow's United Kingdom tour, which features seven arena concerts set to occur in June. Fans can purchase tickets for Manilow's US tour dates through Live Nation's presale beginning Thursday, May 12 using the code FINALE. General on-sale tickets will become available Friday, May 13 at 11 a.m. EST via Ticketmaster.

Last week, Manilow spoke to PEOPLE about his upcoming tour and said despite not always enjoying the exhausting life on the road, he's excited to reconnect with fans onstage. "I am looking forward to maybe not the road, but to be playing for big groups of people. I don't know why, but my music seems to be holding up," Manilow said. "There are big audiences that really love hearing 'Can't Smile Without You' and 'Copacabana' and 'Mandy' and 'I Write the Songs,' so I'm a very grateful guy that they're still out there."

Elsewhere in the interview, the musician revealed he's working on a new album. "I'm hoping that there's an audience out there for songs like I make," Manilow told PEOPLE. "What you listen to on the radio... There's a lot of great rhythm, but there's no melodies on the radio. My albums, of course, are filled with melody, and so is this new album. There's still melodies," he continued. "Maybe there's an audience out there for that."

See below for Manilow's 2022 tour dates.

June 16 - Manchester, UK - AO Arena
June 17 - Birmingham, UK - Resorts World Arena
June 19 - London, UK - The O2
June 20 - Cardiff, UK - Motorpoint Arena Cardiff
June 22 - Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK - Utilita Arena Newcastle
June 23 - Glasgow, UK - OVO Hydro
June 25 - Leeds, UK - First Direct Arena

Aug. 4 - Boston, MA - TD Garden
Aug. 5 - Newark, NJ - Prudential Center
Aug. 6 - Belmont Park, NY - UBS Arena
Aug. 12 - Allentown, PA - PPL Center
Aug. 13 - Providence, RI - Dunkin' Donuts Center
Aug. 14 - Philadelphia, PA - Wells Fargo Center

May 7, 2022 The Valley LedgerEngagement Arena Tour: 'MANILOW: HITS 2022' Coming to the PPL Center August 12th
Grammy award winner and music icon Barry Manilow has announced a special six show arena tour – MANILOW: HITS 2022 – taking place this August with special guest David Koz. Produced by Live Nation, the exclusive run kicks off on August 4th at TD Garden in Boston, MA stopping at Prudential Center in Newark, UBS Arena in Belmont Park, PPL Center in Allentown, PA and Dunkin’ Donuts Center in Providence, before wrapping in Philadelphia at Wells Fargo Center on August 14th.

TICKETS: Tickets go on sale starting Friday, May 13th at 11am local time on Ticketmaster.com. PRESALE: American Express® Card Members can purchase tickets before the general public beginning Monday, May 9th at 10AM local time through Thursday, May 12th at 10PM local time.

MANILOW: HITS 2022 TOUR DATES:

Thu Aug 04 – Boston, MA – TD Garden
Fri Aug 05 – Newark, NJ – Prudential Center
Sat Aug 06 – Belmont Park, NY – UBS Arena
Fri Aug 12 – Allentown, PA – PPL Center
Sat Aug 13 – Providence, RI – Dunkin’ Donuts Center
Sun Aug 14 – Philadelphia, PA – Wells Fargo Center

Having sold more than 85 million albums worldwide, Barry Manilow is one of the world’s all-time bestselling recording artists. He’s had an astonishing 50 Top 40 singles including 12 #1s and 27 Top 10 hits and is ranked at the #1 Adult Contemporary Artist of all-time, according to Billboard and R&R magazines.

About Live Nation Entertainment: Live Nation Entertainment (NYSE: LYV) is the world’s leading live entertainment company comprised of global market leaders: Ticketmaster, Live Nation Concerts, and Live Nation Sponsorship. For additional information, visit www.livenationentertainment.com.

About PPL Center: PPL Center (pplcenter.com), nominated by Pollstar as Best New Major Concert Venue, is a state-of-the-art multipurpose venue in downtown Allentown, PA. The arena seats more than 10,000 for concerts and more than 8,500 for Lehigh Valley Phantoms professional hockey games, making it the region’s largest events venue. The amenities-packed PPL Center will host more than 150 events each year, offering something for everyone, including the Phantoms, the AHL affiliate of the NHL Philadelphia Flyers, live concerts, family shows, trade shows, figure skating events, youth sports, high school and collegiate events, Disney on Ice, conferences, graduations and many more events. PPL Center is currently the main catalyst to the revitalization and growth of downtown Allentown. Oak View Group provides the Venue Management, Food Services & Hospitality, and Corporate Partnerships at PPL Center.

May 6, 2022 Broadway World"Barry Manilow Announces Exclusive Limited Engagement Arena Tour 'Manilow: Hits 2022': Tickets go on sale starting Friday, May 13th at 11am local time" by Michael Major
Today, Grammy award winner and music icon Barry Manilow has announced a special six show arena tour - MANILOW: HITS 2022 - taking place this August with special guest David Koz. Produced by Live Nation, the exclusive run kicks off this August, including UBS Arena at Belmont Park on Saturday, August 6.

UBS Arena at Belmont Park  is  made for music and built for hockey. New York's newest premier entertainment and sports venue and home of the New York Islanders is developed in partnership with Oak View Group, the New York Islanders and Jeff Wilpon. Providing a significant boost to the regional economy, the world-class entertainment venue, with its timeless and classic design, bridges its iconic past with today's advanced technology and amenities. The $1.1 billion multi-purpose, state of the art arena opened in November 2021 and has welcomed top artists including Harry Styles, Sebastian Maniscalco, Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa, Genesis and TWICE.

The venue will host more than 150 major events annually while delivering an unmatched live entertainment experience including clear sightlines and premier acoustics. UBS Arena is designed to accommodate 19,000 people for concerts and 17,255 for NHL games. In an effort to build a greener future, UBS Arena intends on being carbon neutral for operations before 2024, which will make it the first arena to do so on the eastern United States seaboard.

Tickets go on sale starting Friday, May 13th at 11am local time on Ticketmaster.com. American Express® Card Members can purchase tickets before the general public beginning Monday, May 9th at 10AM local time through Thursday, May 12th at 10PM local time.

MANILOW: HITS 2022 TOUR DATES

Thu Aug 04 - Boston, MA - TD Garden
Fri Aug 05 - Newark, NJ - Prudential Center
Sat Aug 06 - Belmont Park, NY - UBS Arena
Fri Aug 12 - Allentown, PA - PPL Center
Sat Aug 13 - Providence, RI - Dunkin' Donuts Center
Sun Aug 14 - Philadelphia, PA - Wells Fargo Center

When Where Articles/Reviews
May 5, 2022 "Barry Manilow's New Dr Pepper Ad Made Him Nostalgic for His Jingle-Writing Days: 'It Paid the Rent' - The superstar opens up to PEOPLE about Dr. Pepper's new Dark Berry flavor campaign, bringing his musical Harmony to New York for the first time, and when Fanilows can expect a tour and new music" by Jack Irvin
Barry Manilow didn't realize what he was getting into when Dr. Pepper approached him to be the face of the campaign for the soft drink's limited edition Dark Berry flavor. "I thought it was going to be the commercial that I did years ago," the 78-year-old "Copacabana" icon tells PEOPLE, referencing a 1974 advertisement that saw Manilow perform the first-ever Dr. Pepper jingle -- "The most original soft drink ever in the whole wide world" -- written by Randy Newman. Instead, the beverage brand asked him to star in a commercial for Dark Berry, in which he jokingly claims only people named "Barry" are permitted to drink the fan-favorite black currant, blackberry, and black cherry flavored soda — which is back in stores for a limited time this Spring. "They sent me this very flattering presentation about why they wanted Barry Manilow to do this," he says of the campaign. "I would've said yes even if it was terrible -- but it wasn't terrible. It was very witty and fun."

It makes sense for Manilow to assume Dr. Pepper would want to reuse the jingle he originated for the brand, as the prolific singer-songwriter wrote and/or performed several memorable commercial jingles prior to his pop music career. Many of them are still in circulation today, including tunes he wrote for State Farm ("Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.") and Band-Aid ("I am stuck on Band-Aid brand, 'cause Band-Aid's stuck on me.") "I lucked into doing commercials back when I was a starving musician," says Manilow, who knows how popular his jingles remain to this day. "They have been airing 'State Farm is there' for over 40 years. It's my greatest hit!"

Collaborating with Dr. Pepper again 50 years after performing the brand's first jingle evoked feelings of nostalgia for Manilow and served as a reminder of just how long he's been successfully working in the entertainment industry. "When I walked onto the set and I saw the Dr. Pepper logo behind me, it took me right back to the '70s… I didn't expect it to hit me that hard," he says. "It brought me right back to those years when I was a struggling songwriter and I lucked into writing commercials. It paid the rent for many years."

With a catalog of hit songs under his belt and the support of his many "Fanilows," luckily he no longer has to worry about paying rent. These days, Manilow's much more focused on Harmony, the musical he wrote over 25 years ago with longtime collaborator Bruce Sussman that's finally made its way to New York City's National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, where it's running through May 15.

Harmony tells the true story of a singing group called the Comedian Harmonists, who formed in 1920s Germany and earned international fame through live performances and several released albums and films. But a few of its members were Jewish, and as their popularity increased, so did the presence of Nazis, who opposed the group and its values. "They forbid them to sing. They forbid anybody to sell their albums. They destroyed everything that they had done," details Manilow. "They were totally obliterated from our world. Bruce and I watched the documentary on them and said, 'Who are these people, and why don't we know them?'"

Over the years since the musical was written, Manilow and Sussman have held productions of Harmony in San Diego, Los Angeles, and Atlanta, but never on stage in the coveted theater capital of New York City -- until now. Minutes before leaving his home to attend the show's opening night, however, Manilow tested positive for COVID-19 and had to miss out. "It was like a cruel joke that after all these years I couldn't go to my own opening night, but I'm feeling great now," he says. "Everything got better the morning after because we got beautiful reviews."

Manilow's currently making plans to see Harmony before it closes, but even without seeing the musical in the flesh, he's feeling the love — it's received eight Outer Critics Circle Nominations and "with a little luck" will hopefully move to an on-Broadway theater following its current run. "I'm knocking on everything I can find now," he quips after sharing the info.

After nearly three decades in the making, the positive response and accolades received by Harmony so far have been validating. "All I can tell you is when you elieve in something, don't give up," says Manilow. "We believed in it for all these years. Now that we've landed in New York in this beautiful theater, it just goes to show that if you stick with it, maybe it'll work for you. We couldn't be more grateful."

On the horizon, Manilow's working on an official cast recording of the musical's songs to be released soon, as well as a brand-new album of original songs created amid pandemic lockdown. "I'm hoping that there's an audience out there for songs like I make. What you listen to on the radio... There's a lot of great rhythm, but there's no melodies on the radio," he details. "My albums, of course, are filled with melody, and so is this new album. There's still melodies. Maybe there's an audience out there for that."

Fanilows can also look forward to catching the superstar perform live throughout the UK in June as well as on a soon-to-be-announced six-date North American arena tour, set to occur later this summer. He's generally not a fan of the exhausting life on the road, but after a couple of years away from traveling due to the pandemic, he's ready to reconnect with his audience. "I am looking forward to maybe not the road, but to be playing for big groups of people. I don't know why, but my music seems to be holding up," Manilow says humbly. "There are big audiences that really love hearing 'Can't Smile Without You' and 'Copacabana' and 'Mandy' and 'I Write the Songs,'" so I'm a very grateful guy that they're still out there."

When Where Articles/Reviews
April 21, 2022 Playbill.com"Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman’s Harmony Extends Off-Broadway World Premiere Run: Warren Carlyle directs and choreographs the musical about the Comedian Harmonists" by Logan Culwell-Block
Off-Broadway's Harmony, which opened at the newly renovated Edmond J. Safra Hall at the Museum of Jewish Heritage–A Living Memorial to the Holocaust via National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene April 13, has extended its New York premiere run. The production will now continue through May 15.

Harmony tells the true story of the Comedian Harmonists, an ensemble of six young men in 1920s Germany who took the world by storm with their blend of sophisticated close harmonies and uproarious stage antics, until their inclusion of Jewish singers put them on a collision course with history. The cast features Sierra Boggess (The Phantom of the Opera, School of Rock, The Little Mermaid) as Mary with Chip Zien (Falsettos, Into the Woods) as the elder Rabbi.

Playing the six Comedian Harmonists are Sean Bell (A Bronx Tale: The Musical), Danny Kornfeld (Rent), Zal Owen (The Band’s Visit), Eric Peters (Motown: The Musical), Blake Roman (Newsies), and Steven Telsey (The Book of Mormon). Jessie Davidson is Ruth, with Ana Hoffman (Dreamgirls) as Josephine Baker. Kenny Morris (Hairspray) is the standby for Zien’s Rabbi.

The ensemble includes Elise Frances Daniells, Zak Edwards, Abby Goldfarb, Eddie Grey, Shayne Kennon, Kolby Kindle, Benjamin H. Moore, Matthew Mucha, Tori Palin, Barrett Riggins, Kayleen Seidl, Andrew O’Shanick, Dan Teixeira, Nancy Ticotin, and Kate Wesler.

The production has scenic design by Beowulf Boritt, costume design by Linda Cho and Ricky Lurie, lighting design by Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer, sound design by Dan Moses Schreier, video design by batwin + robin productions, inc., casting by Jamibeth Margolis, associate direction and choreography by Sara Edwards, general management by Roy Gabay/Jumpstart Entertainment, wig and hair design by Tom Watson, and music direction and additional vocal and music arrangement by John O’Neill.

Harmony is co-produced by Ken Davenport and Sandi Moran with Garry Kief, Amuse, Inc., Susan DuBow, Mapleseed Productions, Michelle Kaplan, and Neil Gooding Productions in association with Wilfried Rimensberger and STILETTO Entertainment. Miranda Gohh is associate producer. Visit NYTF.org.

April 13, 2022 Playbill.com"Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman’s Harmony Opens Off-Broadway April 13: Warren Carlyle directs and choreographs the musical about the Comedian Harmonists" by Andrew Gans
The long-awaited New York debut of Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman's Harmony officially opens Off-Broadway April 13. National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene presents the musical, which began previews March 23 in the newly renovated Edmond J. Safra Hall at the Museum of Jewish Heritage–A Living Memorial to the Holocaust. Tony winner Warren Carlyle directs and choreographs the production, currently scheduled to run through May 8.

The cast features Sierra Boggess (The Phantom of the Opera, School of Rock, The Little Mermaid) as Mary with Chip Zien (Falsettos, Into the Woods) as the elder Rabbi. Playing the six Comedian Harmonists are Sean Bell (A Bronx Tale: The Musical), Danny Kornfeld (Rent), Zal Owen (The Band’s Visit), Eric Peters (Motown: The Musical), Blake Roman (Newsies), and Steven Telsey (The Book of Mormon). Jessie Davidson is Ruth, with Ana Hoffman (Dreamgirls) as Josephine Baker. Kenny Morris (Hairspray) is the standby for Zien’s Rabbi.

The ensemble includes Elise Frances Daniells, Zak Edwards, Abby Goldfarb, Eddie Grey, Shayne Kennon, Benjamin H. Moore, Matthew Mucha, Tori Palin, Barrett Riggins, Kayleen Seidl, Andrew O’Shanick, Nancy Ticotin, and Kate Wesler.

The musical tells the true story of the Comedian Harmonists, an ensemble of six young men in 1920s Germany who took the world by storm with their blend of sophisticated close harmonies and uproarious stage antics, until their inclusion of Jewish singers put them on a collision course with history.

The production has scenic design by Beowulf Boritt, costume design by Linda Cho and Ricky Lurie, lighting design by Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer, sound design by Dan Moses Schreier, video design by batwin + robin productions, inc., casting by Jamibeth Margolis, associate direction and choreography by Sara Edwards, general management by Roy Gabay/Jumpstart Entertainment, wig and hair design by Tom Watson, and music direction and additional vocal and music arrangement by John O’Neill.

Harmony is co-produced by Ken Davenport and Sandi Moran with Garry Kief, Amuse, Inc., Susan DuBow, Mapleseed Productions, Michelle Kaplan, and Neil Gooding Productions in association with Wilfried Rimensberger and STILETTO Entertainment. Miranda Gohh is associate producer. Visit NYTF.org.

April 8, 2022 The New York Sun"They Write the Songs - This Time for the Musical ‘Harmony’ -- Barry Manilow is closer than ever to finally realizing one of his youthful ambitions: composing Broadway musicals" by Elysa Gardner
Once upon a time, a Brooklyn boy dreamed of composing Broadway musicals. Barry Manilow got sidetracked, though - first as a jungle writer, arranger, and pianist for other artists (including a young Bette Midler), then as one of the biggest pop stars of the 1970s.

Nearly half a century on, Mr. Manilow is closer than ever to finally realizing his youthful ambitions. The National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene production of “Harmony,” which pairs his music with a book and lyrics by longtime collaborator Bruce Sussman, opens April 14 at the Museum of Jewish Heritage at Battery Park City.

Although the venue may not be quite Times Square, the staging is helmed by a Tony Award-winning director/choreographer, Warren Carlyle — currently represented uptown by the blockbuster revival of “The Music Man” — and includes two other Broadway veterans in its cast: Chip Zien, whose many credits include the original productions of “Into the Woods” and “Falsettos,” and Sierra Boggess, whose silvery soprano and winsome presence have been featured in shows ranging from “The Phantom of the Opera” to “School of Rock.”

“Harmony” boasts the kind of ambitious storytelling that began distinguishing much of musical theater during its Golden Age. The show traces the rise and fall of the Comedian Harmonists, a German vocal group consisting of six men — three of them Jewish — who enjoyed great success in the late 1920s and early ’30s. The rise of the Third Reich made its existence increasingly untenable, and then dangerous, and ultimately forced its dissolution.

Mr. Sussman says he was inspired after watching Eberhard Fechner’s black-and-white documentary of the group at a Public Theater screening in the early ’90s: “It was such a compelling story. I called Barry from a pay phone in the street, and I said, ‘I think I’ve found the piece we’re looking for, to musicalize.’”

Mr. Manilow had previously written music and lyrics for “The Drunkard,” a musical that enjoyed 48 performances at the Street Theatre off-Broadway in 1970. Years before that, as a kid growing up in Williamsburg - “when Williamsburg was a dump,” he points out - he had learned to play both Jewish folk songs and show tunes on the accordion. “I memorized the overture to ‘The Most Happy Fella’ on the accordion, and that’s a complicated score: That’s how much I loved that show, and all the others I was listening to as a teenager.”

Manilow and Sussman also collaborated on a musical theater adaptation of the hit song “Copacabana,” staged at London’s West End in 1994; Mr. Carlyle was featured in the production, as the lead bolero dancer, and kept in touch with its creators.

“Then a few years ago, Bruce and Barry called and asked if I would consider reading or listening to ‘Harmony,’” Mr. Carlyle recalls. “I knew of it, because it has this theatrical folklore” — conceived more than two decades ago, the musical has been workshopped since, and earlier incarnations have been staged at Los Angeles’s Ahmanson Theatre and Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre — “and I just loved the book and lyrics. I found them very evocative, easy to create to. And nobody writes a melody line like Barry; he writes these long, beautiful, aching lines.”

After Covid struck, the three men wound up meeting regularly on Zoom, and the show evolved substantially. “We figured, we’ll be off for a year and a half; let’s just try something new, see if there’s another angle,” Mr. Sussman says. “And we came up with something very different.”

Mr. Zien’s character, for instance, is a new addition; an elder version of one of the Harmonists — called “Rabbi,” in a nod to his former occupation — he provides narration and reflection. (Ms. Boggess plays the younger Rabbi’s sweetheart, Mary.) Mr. Carlyle was inspired by a screen adaptation of another musical set in the same era: “Bob Fosse’s brilliant film of ‘Cabaret’ was in my head — the idea of this dark, chaotic world with beautiful art being created in the middle of it.”

Different parallels to current events have also emerged during the development and rehearsal process. With the onset of war in Ukraine, for instance, Mr. Carlyle realized that “a lot of our second act is staged with suitcases, with people running across Europe.”

As Mr. Sussman notes, though, the musical “is also about harmony, in the broadest sense of the word. These young men found harmony by being collaborators. Barry and I met 50 years ago this May 31, and what we do best is collaborate.”

Mr. Manilow agrees. “When Bruce sends me a lyric, I hear the melody before I get to the piano. We could have written three more hours of song for this show, because the story is so deep. It just moves me, the humanity of it.”

April 6, 2022 Jewish Standard"Harmony: The Folksbiene presents an English-language, history-based musical by Manilow and Sussman" by Joanne Palmer
For a few glorious years, the Comedian Harmonists, a German singing group that logically enough merged comedy and harmony -- “they were a cross between Manhattan Transfer and the Marx Brothers,” Barry Manilow, the singer and songwriter, said -- were internationally famous and wildly successful.

Starting in the late 1920s, they made movies, they filled theaters, and they went and they toured and they conquered. And then Hitler came to power. Half of the group was Jewish, which made it entirely undesirable. Their way down was fractured and sad; all of the singers survived, which of course was a massive accomplishment, but their music died, and pretty soon the world’s memory of them died as well.

In 1997, a German filmmaker made a movie about the Comedian Harmonists. That film, also called “Comedian Harmonists,” did very well in Europe -- according to Wikipedia, then-President Bill Clinton said that it was one of his favorites that year -- but it didn’t do particularly well in the United States. But some Americans saw it. One of them was Bruce Sussman, a lyricist and frequent collaborator of Barry Manilow’s - Mr. Manilow would write the melodies and Mr. Sussman would contribute the lyrics - who, perhaps coincidentally, perhaps not, was a Long Island Jew, born in 1949. Mr. Manilow was born in 1943, in Brooklyn. Mr. Sussman presented the idea of making a musical about the Comedian Harmonists to Mr. Manilow, and they started to work on it. That’s how “Harmony” was born, more than 20 years ago.

Much has happened since then; the musical’s production originally was stopped by the September 11 terrorist attacks. The show was too dark, and there were no dark-skinned terrorists in it, for either fear or comic relief. So, for a while, that was that. “Harmony” was revived a few times, but it never really went anywhere. Until now.

The show is in previews at the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, way at the tip of lower Manhattan; it will open on April 14 and run through May 8. It’s been rewritten to adapt to the present moment, although of course its story has not changed. As always, the Folksbiene balances between tradition and change.

Zalmen Mlotek of Teaneck, the Folksbiene’s artistic director, had talked about bringing “Harmony” to the theater before, but those discussion had petered off. “But a few years ago I thought about it again, and I had Barry Manilow’s contact information, so I called him, and asked him if it was something that he still was interested in doing,” Mr. Mlotek said. “And he said, ‘Well, it’s funny that you should ask.’”

Big-name Broadway producer Ken Davenport had bought the option for it, Mr. Mlotek said, “and he was looking for a smaller theater to try it out in New York first.” As it happened, Mr. Mlotek had exactly the right kind of theater at hand. So the talks restarted, and “we ultimately made a deal where we would present it here, with Ken Davenport co-producing it, and meanwhile he got several other producers involved as well. We started reading it two years ago, and we did readings for invited guests, and we got excited about it. And then the pandemic happened.” The pandemic still is not over, but for now it’s abated. All sorts of work on “Harmony” happened while everyone still was on Zoom, including auditions. And now it’s about to open.

“Harmony” is different from most of the Folksbiene’s other productions in that it’s in English, although, as Mr. Mlotek pointed out, “The Garden of the Finzi-Continis” also had been in English. And “it’s huge. It’s the biggest production we’ve ever done. It’s bigger than ‘Fiddler.’” That’s the widely acclaimed Yiddish-language version of “Fiddler on the Roof” that the Folksbiene created, produced, and kept on stage for an unprecedentedly long time before it moved to off-Broadway, and was about to begin tours both in North America and around the world before the pandemic shut everything down.

It’s not that it has more actors than “Fiddler,” Mr. Mlotek continued; it has about the same number of people onstage. There are about 25 in the cast, and nine in the orchestra. But “it’s a bigger production, with more elaborate sets. They use a lot of projections, and it’s quite beautiful. Hundreds of costumes were created for it.”

Many of the people working on the production, both onstage and behind the scenes, are well known on Broadway. “We are blessed to have Warren Carlyle as director and choreographer.” Mr. Carlyle choreographed the Hugh Jackman “Music Man” that’s playing on Broadway now, as well as the pre-pandemic “Kiss Me Kate”; he won a Tony for choreography in 2014, as well as many other awards, for both choreography and direction. “He gathered a design team of Tony award winners and it’s quite a who’s who in the Broadway world. Our theater has never looked like this before.”

As for the content of “Harmony,” “It tells a unique story,” Mr. Mlotek said. “I don’t know Manilow and Sussman’s level of observance, I don’t know to what extent they are practicing Jews, and I don’t think they’ve ever undertaken anything like this before. I don’t think they’ve written anything overtly Jewish like this before, and I find it compelling for that reason as well.”

The musical leaves audiences thinking; musicals don’t always do that, but Folksbiene productions do. “You’ll come away, I hope, with a sense of the historical moment,” Mr. Mlotek said. “Hitler’s Germany, prior to the atrocities, did a major destruction of what it called degenerate art. So here were artists who made hundreds of records and 13 movies and were popular all over the world.” But because some of them were Jewish, their work was devalued and then destroyed.

“That’s the serious takeaway,” Mr. Mlotek said. “But from the entertainment point of view, you will come away having heard a brand-new score by Manilow and Sussman, and wonderful performances.” And then, of course, there is the knowledge of Ukraine “that hangs now over everything we do,” he continued. It hangs over this production too, and is on the minds of everyone involved with it.

“We just did a Purim show online where we contributed money to HIAS,” the agency formerly known as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. “Everyone in the Jewish world and beyond is doing whatever they can. We Jews have always had a responsibility for our brethren,” he continued. “In my generation, that was the Soviet Jewry movement. Before that, my grandparents raised money for the refugees in Europe in the 30s. The world came together for the Six-Day War.” But it’s not just about Jews.

“Now, when you talk to people of a certain age, they equate the Ukrainians with the Cossacks,” he said. “But we are talking about a different period. A different time. A different world. Ukraine has a Jewish president, and it has one of the largest Jewish communities in the world today. How can you not help them? And from a Jewish point of view, the scariest thing we can imagine is having a madman with so much power. Who knows what his intentions are?” Everything ties together, he continued. “I think of my Yiddish ‘Fiddler.’ It takes place in Ukraine. Sholem Aleichem hailed from Ukraine.” Everything connects.

Zal Owen plays Harry Frommermann, who founded the Comedian Harmonists. He grew up in Westfield, and now he, his wife, and their baby live in Maplewood, along with “a ton of other actors and artists,” he said. “Harmony” shows how “the group started to become famous -- it took a little time -- and then they became world famous. They toured Europe, and came to America. “Act I is a Golden Age musical,” the kind of happy show where characters sing and dance and make the audience purr with content as the actors bumble their way to happily ever after. “It does have some dark spots. And then Act II has some comedy, but it’s darker, as they’re forced to stop performing.”

There’s a message to the show, Mr. Owen said, “like other works of art have. Perhaps different people will take it differently - it might be never forget, or hope or anger or sadness. “It’s not just a story about the Holocaust. It’s about real people.” The show moves from period to period; the framing device presents it as the memories of the last of the troupe to die, as he reacts to the death of the next to last of them to go. That’s played by Chip Zien, a Broadway regular who’s been the Baker in Stephen Sondheim’s “Into the Woods” and Mendel in William Finn’s “Falsettos.” He’s been on too many television shows to list.

Mr. Owen is young, but he already has an impressive list of credits. His Broadway debut was in “The Band’s Visit,” and he played Motel the tailor in national tours of “Fiddler,” opposite both Harvey Fierstein and Theodore Bikel, among many other parts. He’s also deeply Jewish. “I feel an obligation to tell this story,” he said. He’s not the direct descendant of a Holocaust victim or survivor, but some of his great-great-aunts and -uncles, who did not leave when his great-great grandfather did, were murdered by the Nazis. “Right before the pandemic, my father and I went to the town in Poland where my family came from,” he said. “I had an unbelievably powerful trip.”

That does inform the way he plays the role, he said. “The characters in ‘Harmony’ didn’t know where they were going when everything started going bad. The real people couldn’t have foreseen the actual horrors. I think that something I took from my trip, from having visited Auschwitz and Treblinka and Majdanek, is that it is happening now in the world. How did things get that bad? How did no one stop it? “I know where my character would have ended up if he hadn’t left.”

Mr. Owen went to school at Solomon Schechter in Cranford; that school was folded back into Schechter in West Orange and then became the Golda Och Academy. His family belongs to Temple Beth Ohr in Clark, where his father, Howard Spialter, was president of the congregation, and his mother, Elise Spialter, was the president of the sisterhood. Both he and his sister, Kayli, were presidents of their USY chapter, and now he and his wife belong to Congregation Beth El in South Orange. “We’re so honored to be able to tell the story of the Comedian Harmonics,” Mr. Owen said. “And at this theater, and to these audiences that are coming to see it. We are so honored.”

At an interview at the museum, sitting in front of windows that framed the Statute of Liberty, Mr. Manilow and Mr. Sussman both talked to CBS’s Peter Haskell. Mr. Sussman talked about how the film about the Comedian Harmonics made it clear to him that he had to write a musical about them. “I told Barry that this was the story we’ve been looking for,” he said.

“It was about the quest for harmony in the broadest sense of the word, in what turned out to be the most discordant chapter in human history,” Mr. Manilow said. “And I said, ‘Let me at it.’ Their success was meteoric - they sang with Marlene Dietrich and Josephine Baker,” he continued. “And they were on a collision course with history.”

“We wrote the first act as a golden age musical, and then we deconstructed it in the second act,” Mr. Sussman said. “And this building, which was built as a place to encourage remembering - we knew we had the right place, and now we have the right time. People are telling us that it is resonating more than ever. It might be construed that we were writing it to the headlines, but it’s more the other way around. I wrote it years ago, and now the headlines are mirroring what I wrote.”

Information about tickets is on the Folksbiene’s website, nytf.org.

April 5, 2022 NJ.com"Barry Manilow Las Vegas residency 2022: How to buy tickets, schedule, new musical" by Matt Levy
His name is synonymous with Las Vegas. Pop singer Barry Manilow has been performing in the “Entertainment Capital of the World” since 1988 wowing crowds with his stable of hits that include smashes like “Copacabana,” “Mandy” and Dancing in the Aisles” to name just a few. Now, he’s got just 15 more concerts scheduled at the Westgate Las Vegas Casino and Resort as part of his “The Hits Come Home!” residency on his 2022 calendar. So, if you consider yourself a “Fanilow” and want to see the timeless entertainer who has 50 Top-40 Hits to his name live in Vegas this year, here’s everything you’ll need to know.

Where can I buy tickets to see Barry Manilow? Tickets to see the Emmy, Grammy Award and Tony Award winning artist are available on all major ticketing platforms. We suggest looking into StubHub, Vivid Seats, Ticketmaster, SeatGeek and MegaSeats to compare prices.

When is Barry Manilow playing at Westgate? Manilow’s upcoming 15 Westgate Las Vegas Casino and Resort shows will be spread out from April through June. To keep things simple, we’ve listed them below with dates, show times and links to buy tickets.

  • Thursday, April 7 at 7 p.m.
  • Friday, April 8 at 7 p.m.
  • Saturday, April 9 at 7 p.m.
  • Thursday, April 21 at 7 p.m.
  • Friday, April 22 at 7 p.m.
  • Saturday, April 23 at 7 p.m.
  • Thursday, May 5 at 7 p.m.
  • Friday, May 6 at 7 p.m.
  • Saturday, May 7 at 7 p.m.
  • Thursday, May 26 at 7 p.m.
  • Friday, May 27 at 7 p.m.
  • Saturday, May 28 at 7 p.m.
  • Thursday, June 9 at 7 p.m.
  • Friday, June 10 at 7 p.m.
  • Saturday, June 11 at 7 p.m.

“Harmony” musical: Manilow wrote the music for “Harmony: A New Musical,” the true story of six, young comedian harmonists in 1920s Germany. Both Jewish and Gentile, the group took the world by storm with their signature blend of sophisticated close harmonies and uproarious stage antics. The popular show is set to run at New York’s National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene at the Museum of Jewish Heritage through May 8. Tickets for all shows can be purchased here.

April 3, 2022 amNY"At last, New York finds 'Harmony' with Barry Manilow" by Matt Windman
After a quarter century of development and countless delays, Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman’s original musical “Harmony” is finally receiving its New York debut in an Off-Broadway production produced by the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Battery Park City. “Harmony” dramatizes the real-life story of the Comedian Harmonists, a vocal group in Weimar Germany consisting of six Jewish and gentile young men, whose success was shattered by the Nazi rise to power. We spoke with Manilow (music) and Sussman (lyrics and book) about the show during a break in rehearsals.

amNY: Why is this story worth telling right now, and why as a musical?
Barry Manilow: I think it’s a good story about six incredibly talented, innovative, creative musicians who created a sound and an act that no one had ever done before, and who nobody’s ever heard of. However, these days, this seems to have hit us smack in the face. It is as contemporary as ever, sadly.
Bruce Sussman: When we were invited by the National Yiddish Theatre to do the show in this building, every stone of which is dedicated to remembering, we knew that this was the perfect place to do it. But now people are telling us that not only is this the perfect place, we seem to have hit upon the perfect time, and I’m not happy to say that. The fact that the show is resonating the way it is makes me nervous. I fear that people think we’ve written to the headlines and it’s the other way around. Those lines were written three, five, or seven years ago and it is just resonating more and more today. But the story always sang to us. It occurred to us that this was the musical we always wanted to write, and it had a thematic line in place, which was this is a show about the quest for harmony, in what turned out to be one of the most discordant chapters in human history, and that to us was most definitely a musical.

amNY: I remember writing about “Harmony” back in 2003. How did you get through all the show’s numerous stops and starts?
Barry: It just wouldn’t leave us alone. It wouldn’t go away. We have believed in this story and what we’ve done so deeply. And even though it hurt every time the show didn’t make it, it kept coming back to us. We wouldn’t have done it again if the Yiddish Theatre hadn’t offered us the place.How could we ever say no to that? So we dived in again.
Bruce: There were periods when it did hurt too much and we put it in a drawer. But then a producer would approach us. This happened three, four, five times. People would approach us and say “the show needs to be done. The story needs to be told and I’d like to do it.” And so we said “okay.” We opened the drawer and went ahead with it again.

amNY: Do you expect the show to transfer to Broadway?
Barry: We’ve got ambitions for Broadway, and it’d be very nice to wind up uptown the way it’s supposed to. But right now, we’re very happy where we are, creating our show and making it the best “Harmony” we can. I’m not thinking about the future. We are totally invested in this version of “Harmony.”
Bruce: We’re deep in the weeds right now. We’re in rehearsal during the day, putting in fixes and cuts, and watching the performances. We’ve got blinders on right now. We need to get the job done.

amNY: How do the songs in “Harmony” compare with your pop songs?
Barry: Everything in this show is filled with melody. I’m a melody guy. And in the pop world, melody seems to have taken a nosedive. They don’t write melodies anymore. That’s the only thing I can say I took from the pop world to the Broadway world. But the fact is I started off wanting to be in the Broadway world, and I took the stuff I learned from Broadway and put it into the pop songs.

amNY: Are there any musicals that “Harmony” takes inspiration from?
Bruce: The concept of our show is that the first act is written in the style of a golden age musical that would have been written about this group had the events of the second act not occurred. So in the first act, we are drawing from those golden age shows. In the second act, that process deconstructs, and ultimately we wind up with just one man talking with no musical accompaniment at all.

amNY: How has “Harmony” evolved over the years?
Barry: You know, it was already great. Ask the people who saw it at La Jolla Playhouse (in 1997). They said “don’t touch it. It’s the greatest thing.” It’s always been a solid musical. Yes, we’ve made changes. God knows we’ve made so many changes that if you saw it at La Jolla, you might not even recognize it today. But it’s still “Harmony,” and it’s still what I consider to be a solid musical.
Bruce: During the pandemic, Barry and I and (our director) Warren (Carlyle) met every Tuesday and Friday on Zoom and we said “we have another year or year and a half. Why don’t we just shake it up and see if there’s another version of this show we like better than the one we have. And if we don’t, nothing lost. We just go back to what we have.” Well, we tried. We made a bold change, and we liked it, and that is the version that we’re putting up, and it is very different from what preceded it.

amNY: What qualities do you look for in the actors who play the Comedian Harmonists?
Bruce: Authenticity. This is a very difficult show to cast, particularly the six guys. They have to be triple threats. But the six we have now, I think Barry will agree it’s the most authentic Comedian Harmonist sound we’ve ever had. And it’s thrilling to us to see them do this.
Barry: They’re so young and talented. They sound like the Backstreet Boys. And the Comedian Harmonists were the Backstreet Boys of their day. It’s six-part harmonies for each of these songs. Do you know how difficult it was for them to learn this?

amNY: A lot of really exceptional actors have appeared in earlier productions of the show.
Bruce: We pretty much discovered Patrick Wilson. He came off a tour of “Carousel” ,and we cast him at La Jolla and his career just went through the roof after that. And Danny Burstein and the late, great, wonderful Rebecca Luker. Kate Baldwin. Brian d’Arcy James. Aaron Lazar. We’ve been blessed in our casts over the years.

amNY: What do you hope people will take away from the show?
vThat these six extraordinary people were there. And that in this very dark and troubled time, these six diverse human beings found harmony.

“Harmony” runs through May 8 at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, 36 Battery Place, nytf.org.

April 1, 2022 Observer"After 25 Years, Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman Bring 'Harmony' to New York: Their musical biography of the Comedian Harmonists is now at the Museum of Jewish Heritage" by Harry Haun
Barry Manilow’s longtime wordsmith, Bruce Sussman, can tell you exactly when he and the pop composer first crossed paths. "May 31st, 1972," he said recently with a certainty not to be doubted. Underlining this emphatic fact, he added, “We’re approaching our 50th anniversary in a month.”

More than 200 songs have resulted from that meeting, including 1978’s “Copacabana,” a hit so big and lasting it blossomed into a musical in 1994, running for two years in London’s West End. But for half of their half century the pair has been writing and revising a deeply personal project: Harmony, their musical biography of The Comedian Harmonists. The show world-premiered at the La Jolla Playhouse in 1997, and over the years there have been various versions at Atlanta’s Alliance Theater and Los Angeles’ Ahmanson.

It’s a 25th anniversary version of the show that is finally reaching New York. If the goal was ever Broadway, they’ve radically overshot the runway, landing in the Battery at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, a production of the National Yiddish Theater Folkbiene, which staged the recent Jewish Fiddler on the Roof. Now in previews, it opens April 13 and will run until May 8.

Sussman clarified that Broadway has never really been the target, per se. “People are always talking Broadway. That’s for somebody else to figure out. Barry and I keep the blinders on. We put in 11 minutes of cuts last night. We’ve got some more going on today. Our focus is to make this show the best it can be.”

It’s a true story they tell. Three Jews and three gentiles come together, via a want-ad, in 1920s Germany and form The Comedian Harmonists, a phenomenally successful song-and-slapstick group. (“Think Manhattan Transfer meets the Marx Brothers,” advises Sussman) Act One tracks their success—millions of records, a dozen films, packed houses in prestigious concert halls around the world. Act Two finds them tragically paying the price for their ecumenical DNA.

Harmony actually opens with the one week the group did in New York,” Sussman said. “They performed for the U.S. Naval fleet that was in the Hudson. They performed on one of the ships, and it was piped in to all the other ship. When they finished, all the ships sounded their horns, scaring everybody in Manhattan half to death. It was broadcast on NBC. Then, they did Town Hall and Carnegie Hall.”

The genesis of the project was a New York Times review of a documentary that caught Sussman’s eye. “It was a very compelling review and a beautiful photograph of six young men in white tie and tails, with their hair brilliantined,” he remembered. “The Public Theater used to have a screening room where they showed documentaries and art films, so I went down there and watched four hours of German documentary-making with subtitles. That should have put me off, but, instead, it was absolutely gobsmacking. I went straight to a payphone and called Barry and said, ‘I think I’ve found it. I think I’ve found the piece that we’ve been looking for to musicalize.’”

Despite his pop-tune turn-out, it happens Manilow always wanted to write for the theater, but success got in the way. “I always remind him how his pop career ruined that,” Sussman said.

True, Manilow affirmed. “I wanted to be an arranger like Nelson Riddle and a composer like Richard Rodgers—that’s where I was going. I did arrangements for Bette Midler, then commercials, then arranging for records and producing records. Never, never in a million years did I even consider being a performer. My big love was the Broadway musical, and that’s what I wanted to do.”

At the time of the initial Barry-and-Bruce connection, Manilow was making baby steps toward the legitimate theater. “When we met,” Sussman recalled, “he had already written a successful show called The Drunkard, which ran down at the 13th Street Playhouse for 110 years. I said, ‘Oh, I got myself a theater composer. This is what we were aiming to do—quite literally—then something called ‘Mandy’ happened. Barry went off on another path and dragged me with him.”

As a team, they song-write more like Rodgers & Hart (words first) than Rodgers & Hammerstein (music first). “When Richard Rodgers was asked which comes first, he said, ‘The contract,’ Sussman injected. If Manilow were asked that question, he said his answer would be, “The idea.”

“When I wrote the first draft of Harmony, there was no score,” Sussman said. “If I got to where I felt a song should go, I wrote a paragraph of stage direction which described the song. Maybe there was a title idea, maybe there was a phrase. I sent this enormous draft to Barry to see if he could make any sense of it, and he sent me back 17 melodies. Fourteen are still in the show.”

Sussman’s notes push the right musical buttons for Manilow. “They sing to me,” the composer said. “That’s why I like working with Bruce. They just sing to me, off the page. He writes so musically that it’s really easy. I mean, when he sends me ‘Her name was Lola UH/ She was a showgirl UH,’ you gotta be an idiot not to be able to put a melody to that. He writes as a musician would write. When I’ve worked with other lyricists, I don’t even know where the chorus begins. Where’s the verse? Is the chorus coming back? They just write and write and write, but Bruce writes music like he writes a scene. I hear it. It jumps right off of the page.”

Before beginning the show, both did an atmosphere soak in Germany. “When Bruce went to Germany, he actually saw one of those Beatlemania-like shows on The Comedian Harmonists,” Manilow noted. “I went to Germany on tour and stopped by a Tower Records store where I was shocked to see a whole wall was the catalog of The Comedian Harmonists. I didn’t really know that world of music, but in this Tower Records, they had what they call ‘the schlager parade’ -- the hit parade of every year, starting in the ‘20s and going to the ‘40s. The schlager parade of 1931 and the schlager parade of 1932 -- I bought every single CD, two shopping bags of CDs, and took them home. I studied what they were playing and how they were writing. That’s how I began, with the music. I was soaking in German music a full year before starting to write anything.”

Every incarnation of Harmony had a different director. Currently calling the shots is Warren Carlyle, a Tony-winning choreographer and an old friend. “Twenty-eight years ago, he was a chorus boy in our other show, Copacabana, at the Prince of Wales Theater in London,” Sussman said. “There was a big bolero number that ended Act One, and Warren was the lead bolero dancer. We knew his career was going to take off. He met Susan Stroman, became her assistant and then went out on his own and came to America. I’d bump into him all the time in the Broadway district and say, ‘Warren, we have to find something to work on together.’ And here it is. We finally did it. What’s great about working with Warren is there’s no getting-to-know-you. We knew each other for so long we already knew who we are, how we agree and disagree, so we hit the ground running.

“During the pandemic, Barry, Warren and I met every Tuesday and Friday. Because it looked like we were going to be out of work for a while, we decided to see what else we could come up with, try something new and bold and different, so we committed to doing a new draft. The big change was to put in Cantor Roman Cykowski and have him playing different characters as well.”

Because the Grammy committee knew that Manilow was doing a musical on The Comedian Harmonists, he was asked to present an award to Cykowski. Manilow agreed, then asked, “‘Where does he live? Israel? New York?’ They said, ‘He lives in Palm Springs.’ Turns out, he lived two blocks from my house. I was walking the dogs in front of his house all those years while I was writing songs for his character, and I didn’t know he was there. It was just too much!”

One thing all three collaborators agree on: Harmony is well placed at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, a temple of remembrance -- and The Comedian Harmonists are men to remember.

When Where Articles/Reviews
March 31, 2022 NY Jewish Week"10 minutes with Barry Manilow: The iconic singer dishes on bringing his Nazi-era musical to NYC" by Jacob Henry
Barry Manilow could fill a stage just by showing up with a piano, and he has: Starting in 1977, his stints on Broadway have nearly always sold out. With 13 multi-platinum albums, 28 top ten hits, and a famously devoted fan base, he might be forgiven if he wanted to rest on his laurels.

But at 78, the Brooklyn-born singer/songwriter and his writing partner Bruce Sussman are, well, ready to take a chance again: Their musical “Harmony,” which is being produced by the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, is being staged in New York for the first time. It’s a musical about the Comedian Harmonists, a performing troupe of Jews and gentiles who combined close harmonies and stage antics in Germany during the 1920s and '30s.

Their success was a counterpoint to the rise of the Nazis, who eventually banned performances featuring work by Jewish composers, which had been a huge part of their repertoire. In 1934, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported at the time, the Harmonists were prohibited from giving public concerts because two members of the group were Jewish.

Manilow and Sussman have been working together for decades, with a catalog that includes everything from pop hits to musical theater spectacles. “Harmony” was first staged in 1997; Sussman learned about the group thanks to a lengthy German-language documentary that first aired in 1977. “We couldn’t believe that we didn’t know these people,” Manilow said of the Harmonists.

Before the show officially opens on April 14 at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Lower Manhattan, the New York Jewish Week (NYJW) caught up with Manilow and Sussman to talk about musical theater, their Jewish upbringings in New York City, and how to create harmony in an ever discordant world.

NYJW: Barry, before you were one of the biggest pop stars on the planet, you started in theater, both you and Bruce. You had to sneak into the second act of “Company” when that show first premiered on Broadway because you couldn’t afford the tickets. Now, you’ve played on Broadway and “Harmony” is opening this year in New York. When you look back at it all, how does it feel seeing your career go full circle like this?
Barry Manilow: I’m not sure it’s exactly full circle, but it’s exciting to be in New York, I’ll tell you that. We’re doing what we’ve wanted to do forever, which is bring “Harmony” to New York. This theater in particular is very moving. It just really resonates with this show, and with me and Bruce. It’s a very big impact on the audiences, being in this theater.

NYJW: You had a Jewish upbringing, in one of the most Jewish places in the world, Brooklyn. Do you have any specific memories of what it was like growing up Jewish in Brooklyn? Were any of these memories used to shape the songs from the show?
Barry: My one answer is the accordion. Every Jewish kid had to play the accordion before they would let you over the Williamsburg Bridge. I kid, but I was good at the accordion. They only teach you Yiddish folk songs. I loved those Yiddish songs. The family would sing a lot. I got a very musical Yiddish upbringing. When I left Williamsburg, I knew that world of Yiddish folk songs. I played them, I sang them, I arranged them, I knew everything about them. Jumping into “Harmony” was just a big familiar musical experience for me.

NYJW: Barry, you’ve performed on Broadway for years, including the 1977 “Barry Manilow on Broadway” show that earned you a special Tony Award. Is there anything you can say about producing and creating theater now when compared to when you first started?
Barry: It’s still the same. It’s an incredibly difficult thing to do, only it’s even more expensive as the years go by. I don’t know how these shows get up.
Bruce Sussman: Also, I think what is deemed commercial is a more narrow number of pieces. When we first started, there were situation comedies on Broadway. There were all kinds of musicals. And I think now, a lot of that stuff is no longer feasible to produce on Broadway. It’s either off-Broadway or regional theaters, but not on Broadway. It’s just harder to finance. The original production of “Follies” that Barry and I saw in 1971 was budgeted at $700,000 [approximately $5 million in today’s money]. And that was the most expensive show produced to date. You can barely do a workshop for that amount of money now. The finances are staggering, and then that puts pressure on the producers to make sure that they have something that’s financially viable. So that narrows the number of shows that are going to qualify.

NYJW: So in this world of “The Lion King” and “Aladdin,” how were you able to bring this show, a show about Jewish singers facing oppression, to life?
Bruce: We wrote the show we wanted to write, and we hoped that people would like it and that we would find a home for it. It was just a matter of getting it to New York. And now, National Yiddish Theatre stepped forward with this beautiful, gorgeous building that I’m in, and here we are.

NYJW: “Harmony” is a show set in a time where Jewish people faced a great deal of oppression and had to fight against that. Did you see any parallels between this story and life right now, or maybe within your own lives?
Bruce: I’m from Queens and Barry is from Brooklyn. We both grew up in something of a bubble. Being Jewish was kind of the norm. It wasn’t until I went to college in western Pennsylvania that I realized, oh my goodness, I’m the minority. I grew up in Jackson Heights. Every school I went to, on the Jewish holidays, nobody went to school. Everybody was off. I was always among my own. The story from “Harmony” was something I knew just from history, but it wasn’t anything I experienced personally in my life.
Barry: It’s really not about my life at all. The only parallel is that I’m a musician, and they were musicians. And they were very inventive, so inventive that they were the first people to do the kind of harmonies we hear now. Now, we’ve got the high notes, we’ve got Backstreet Boys, nobody did that, plus they were [like] the Marx Brothers. And then all their records, all their music, all their movies, it was destroyed. They were the inventors of a style of music and comedy that had never been before them.
Bruce: And when we realized why we didn’t know them, that was the story. That became very compelling to us. One of the parallels too is that Barry and I, first and foremost, are collaborators. And this show is about “Harmony” in the broadest sense of the word. And one of the ways these guys found harmony was by finding the ability to successfully collaborate with each other. That’s something that Barry and I can relate to very strongly. A lot of people don’t know how to collaborate. And it is very important to us. It’s the thing that Barry and I do best.

NYJW: My editors are going to kill me if I don’t ask about “Copacabana.” It’s one of your most beloved songs. Do you feel the same way about it? Do you still get the same thrill out of performing your most classic hit today?
Barry: I do. I would stop doing it if I didn’t. These audiences are lighting themselves on fire with every hit I’ve been lucky enough to have. By the time we get to “Copa,” that’s the last straw for them. In my shows, there are so many hits and songs that they know, that by the time we get to “Copa,” they’ve forgotten I haven’t done “Copa” yet. When those drums start, it’s the last straw for these audiences.

NYJW: You’ve both hit every music milestone in the industry. What else is there to accomplish?
Barry: As far as what’s on the horizon, we don’t know yet. We’ve gotta finish this. It’s taken a long time. Whether we make it uptown or it ends at the Yiddish theater, I will be very happy. We’ll have an original soundtrack soon. That will be great. It would be so wonderful if we could move this uptown. Right now, we’re just in the weeds making sure that this version of “Harmony” is the best one we’ve ever had.

March 31, 2022 Digital Journal"Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman talk about their new musical ‘Harmony’" by Markos Papadatos
Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman opened up about their new musical “Harmony,” which opens on April 13. The show began its previews on Wednesday, March 23, and once it officially opens, “Harmony” will run for seven weeks only (April 14 through May 8). It is produced by National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene. It is being presented Off-Broadway at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Battery Park. “It is the perfect place for this show,” Manilow said. “When they told us they were interested in ‘Harmony’ we just couldn’t say no.”

“Every stone in this building has been put there to encourage remembering. Our play is about remembering and this is the perfect home for this piece,” Sussman added.

“This place is inspiring for us. Every time we look out the window there is something deep and you are looking at history,” Manilow said.

It is directed and choreographed by Tony winner and Emmy-nominated director Warren Carlyle. It is based on the book and lyrics by Bruce Sussman with music by Barry Manilow. The silver lining during the pandemic for both Manilow and Sussman was the ability to work on this musical. “We met every Tuesday and Friday on Zoom with our director, Warren Carlyle. We shook things up and saw what we came up with,” Sussman said.

On the title of the current chapter of their lives, they both said in unison, “Harmony... At Last.”

Synopsis of ‘Harmony’: “Harmony: A New Musical” tells the true story of the Comedian Harmonists, six talented young men, Jewish and gentile, that came together in 1920s Germany and took the world by storm with their signature blend of sophisticated harmonies and wild stage antics. The Comedian Harmonists sold millions of records, starred in a dozen films, and packed the houses of the most iconic concert halls around the globe until the world they knew changed forever.

Their incredible story inspired music industry living legends, Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman, to create a 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 based in part on The Comedian Harmonist Archive as curated by the late Dr. Peter Czada.

Manilow and Sussman are both firm believers that their new music is very timely and relevant, especially during these trying times that the world is going through. “This is true,” Manilow said. “A lot of things might seem like we are copying the headlined but a lot of these things we wrote five or six years ago and yet it feels like we wrote it yesterday.”

“It is resonating like crazy. I am happy that audiences are finding it satisfying though I wish it wasn’t as relevant as it is because that means that the world has gone to hell,” Sussman added.

Key to their working relationship: Particularly impressive about Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman is that they have collaborated together for over five decades.

On the secret to their working relationship, they said, “Knowing how to collaborate. Knowing how to let a bad idea live and breathe because a good idea might be born from it. A lot of people don’t know how to collaborate. Our show is about these six diverse guys that found ‘harmony’ because they knew how to collaborate with each other and they knew how to live with each other. We both know how to collaborate well.”

“We loved this idea and we loved this piece, and it always sustained us. We learned that this piece was the one for us,” Sussman acknowledged.

“I learned that I have a lot of patience. We believe in this show so much that we can’t let it go. Frankly, it won’t let us go,” Manilow said with a sweet laugh.

“‘Harmony’ reminded us exactly how satisfying and fulfilling this can be when it’s good,” Sussman said. “Barry loves it and this is my proudest achievement. There is nothing that I have done in my career that I am prouder of.”

For young and aspiring artists, Manilow said, “You need to love the craft that you are going into because it’s a long process, at best. You better love it.”

Success: On their definition of success, Sussman and Manilow remarked, “Success, for us, artistically is loving what we have done.”

For their fans, Manilow concluded about “Harmony,” “We want the fans to get the story: these people were so innovative. They were the first of their time to sound like the Backstreet Boys, The Four Freshmen, and Marx Brothers. They were the first group to ever do those kinds of things. We want people to know that the Comedian Harmonists were inventors. We will let people know that they were there, and this is what they did, and it was remarkable.”

To learn more about “Harmony: A New Musical,” visit its official website, and its Facebook page.

March 25, 2022 Broadway WorldBarry Manilow. Bruce Sussman. The Manhattan Transfer. Marx Brothers. Comedian Harmonists.
From the Grammy Award-winning team of Barry Manilow & Bruce Sussman, directed & choreographed by Tony Award winner Warren Carlyle (The Music Man), [comes] the true story of the greatest musical comedy group of the 1920s and 30s - and why you've never heard of them. LIMITED TIME OFFER! Use code HMNY49 to get $49 tickets now through the April 13 matinee.

HARMONY - A New Musical tells the true story of the Comedian Harmonists, an ensemble of six talented young men in 1920s Germany who took the world by storm with their signature blend of sophisticated close harmonies and uproarious stage antics until their inclusion of Jewish singers put them on a collision course with history.

Elisabeth Vincentelli (The New York Times): "Back in 2019, The New York Times trumpeted that after taking off at the La Jolla Playhouse in 1997 and spending more than two decades circling the runway, Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman's labor-of-love musical "Harmony" -- about the German vocal sextet the Comedian Harmonists, which was immensely popular between the two world wars -- was going to have its Off-Broadway premiere... In the spring of 2020. Now, the show is finally arriving, with the choreographer-director Warren Carlyle overseeing a cast led by Chip Zien and Sierra Boggess. If nothing else, this is another sign that after its Yiddish version of "Fiddler on the Roof" and its recent collaboration with New York City Opera on "The Garden of the Finzi-Continis," the producing National Yiddish Theater Folksbiene has become a force on the New York musical landscape."

Time Out: "... Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman's musical-based on the history of the Comedian Harmonists, a musical group that flourished in Weimar Germany but ran afoul of the Nazis-finally makes its NYC debut. Warren Carlyle (After Midnight) directs and choreographs the production for National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, the centenarian troupe behind the much-loved recent Yiddish-language version of Fiddler on the Roof. Chip Zien (Into the Woods) and Sierra Boggess (The Little Mermaid) lead the cast."

New York Theatre Guide: "Barry Manilow writes the songs, and now he's written a musical with the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene. Co-written with Bruce Sussman, this new musical is based on the true story of the Comedian Harmonists, a musical group of six men who were world-famous until World War II split them up. You might think such a real-life tale would be a jukebox musical, but Manilow has written original songs for Harmony, which promises to be a passion project with catchy tunes. Take your Fanilows or anyone in your life who is a music history buff."

The NYTF production of Harmony is co-produced by Ken Davenport and Sandi Moran with Garry Kief, Amuse, Inc., Tom and Michael D'Angora, Susan DuBow, Michelle Kaplan, Mapleseed Productions, Harold Matzner and Neil Gooding Productions in association with Wilfried Rimensberger and Stiletto Entertainment. Miranda Gohh is associate producer. Davenport most recently won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical for Once on This Island and the Tony Award for Best Musical for Kinky Boots, and received Tony Award nominations for Spring Awakening (Revival of a musical), The Visit (Musical), and You're Welcome America (Special Theatrical Event). Harmony is based in part on The Comedian Harmonist Archive as curated by the late Dr. Peter Czada. Barry Manilow is a registered trademark of Hastings, Clayton, & Tucker Inc.

March 24, 2022 Spectrum News NY 1"Harmonious musical brings Barry Manilow back to NYC" by Roger Clark
"I Write the Songs," "Mandy," "Weekend in New England" and "Even Now" are just a few of the many hits from Brooklyn native Barry Manilow's nearly 60-year career in music. If you ask the award-winning singer-songwriter about his career, he will tell you he was aiming for the bright lights of Broadway, not pop stardom. Same goes for his longtime collaborator, Bruce Sussman. "I wanted to be part of the Broadway scene, and Bruce and I met, and we were just about to start, and Bruce says Mandy came in the middle of this, and screwed up everything," said Manilow, who laughed at the notion of the smash hit sidetracking his career.

Now, Manilow and Sussman, who was born in Queens and raised on Long Island, have come up with a new musical called "Harmony." It's in previews at Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in Battery Park City, where the show will be presented by National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene. It tells the story of the Comedian Harmonists, a group of performers that formed in the 1920s in Germany. "They toured the world in the greatest concert halls, around the world, sold millions of records, made 13 movies, and some of them were Jews and some of them were Gentiles, and the consequences of that are basically our second act," Sussman said.

"I mean, they were huge, and no one remembers them because everything they did was destroyed," Manilow added. The show features Broadway veterans Sierra Boggess and Chip Zien, along with the six performers playing the Comedian Harmonists. "So young, we hate them," Manilow joked about the talented group cast as the Harmonists.

Manilow and Sussman, who scored a huge hit together with "Copacabana" in 1978, said they couldn't have found a more perfect place for the New York debut of the musical. It's been a long road for the show, which has been around for 25 years and went through a major rewrite when it was delayed during the pandemic.

They hope it will deliver emotion and give theatregoers something to think about. "You know most Broadway shows, I don't think you walk out feeling anything. You say, 'Ooh, that was fun.' This is a show all about feelings," Manilow said.

"This is something of a cautionary tale too, given the headlines today," Sussman added.

Previews for "Harmony" are underway, and the production runs April 13 through May 8. For ticket information, visit the show's website.

March 23, 2022 Broadway.com"Barry Manilow & Bruce Sussman on Bringing the True Story of the Comedian Harmonists to the Stage in Harmony" by Caitlin Moynihan
Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman once dreamed of being "the next Rodgers and Hammerstein." Along they way, they found massive success as collaborators with Manilow skyrocketting as a chart-topping performer. Now, over 30 years since they first found fame with "Copacabana (At the Copa)," the two are bringing their new musical Harmony to the New York stage for the first time. Here, they talk with Broadway.com Editor-in-Chief Paul Wontorek about the musical, which begins performances at the Museum of Jewish Heritage on March 23.

Manilow and Sussman first met through the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop, and there was an instant connection. "I was going to be a Broadway composer, an arranger for pop music," Manilow said. "I was playing piano for everybody in New York, everybody. The idea of singing and entertaining was never in my head."

Of course, Manilow did become a performer and catapulted to fame thanks to songs like "Copacabana (At the Copa)," "Mandy," "I Write the Songs" and more. Manilow says the musical is unlike the songs for which he is known. "It's a grab bag of different styles," he said. " [The Comedian Harmonists] did every style, so I dove in and wrote in different styles. Each song is totally different than the song before. I loved doing it."

Harmony tells the true story of the Comedian Harmonists, an ensemble of six young men in 1920s Germany who took the world by storm with their signature blend of sophisticated close harmonies and uproarious stage antics, until their inclusion of Jewish singers put them on a collision course with history. "We felt like it was our duty to make people aware of this group," Manilow and Sussman said. "They were so talented and their story is so tragic and nobody remembers them and people should. They were a very inventive and entertaining group that should not have gone away. It's our duty to make people aware of them."

Boasting a cast that includes Broadway alums Chip Zien and Sierra Boggess, finding the perfect six to bring the group to life on stage was imperative. "It's a very difficult show to cast," Sussman said. "They have to be triple threats. These six are hands down, in terms of the sound they're creating, the most authentic six we ever had."

The musical has had a long journey to New York. Its world premiere at the La Jolla Playhouse in 1997 starred Danny Burstein, Rebecca Luker and Patrick Wilson. Tony Yazbeck, Wayne Alan Wilcox and Leigh Ann Larkin led the principal cast of the 2013 run at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta and at Los Angeles’ Ahmanson Theatre in 2014. A private reading took place in August 2019 with Jessie Mueller, Kate Baldwin, Reeve Carney, Rob McClure, John Behlmann, Jarrod Spector and Nicholas Barasch. "One of our characters says, 'bottom line is I would just like people to know that three Jews and three Gentiles got together and made harmony and found harmony in the broadest sense of the word and that they not be forgotten,'" Sussman said. "That's what we want audiences to walk away with."

Watch the interview below, and head here to check your local listings for The Broadway Show. Hosted by Emmy-winning anchor Tamsen Fadal and powered by Broadway.com, it is the only nationally syndicated weekly theater news program.

March 23, 2022 Daily News - New York's Hometown Newspaper"Barry Manilow brings the Comedian Harmonists back to the stage in 'Harmony'" by Kate Feldman
Barry Manilow is going back to his first love -- not Mandy, but musical theater. Almost 50 years after he was nominated for his first Grammy, producing Bette Midler’s “The Divine Miss M,” Manilow and longtime collaborator Bruce Sussman are finally bringing their original musical “Harmony” to the stage. “I never really thought about becoming a singer or an entertainer or a performer. It never dawned on me,” the 78-year-old Brooklyn native told the Daily News. “I was going to be an arranger like Nelson Riddle or a Broadway songwriter. That was where I was heading until … that stupid ‘Mandy’ got in the way,” he said of his 1974 pop hit.

“Harmony,” which opens for previews Wednesday at the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene and will have a a seven-week run beginning April 14, tells the true story of the Comedian Harmonists, a group of six German men, several of them Jewish, who made up one of the most successful musical groups in Europe in the 1920s and ‘30s until the Nazis shut them down. “The show is about the quest for harmony, in the broadest sense of the word,” Sussman told The News. “Not only did the Comedian Harmonists find musical harmony, they found harmony in their lives. Some of them were Jews, some of them were gentiles, one of the Jewish members married a gentile woman, one of the gentile members married a Jewish woman. That was their quest for harmony, but unfortunately it was a quest for harmony in what turned out to be the most discordant chapter in human history.”

Sussman came up with the idea decades ago after sitting through a four-hour German-language documentary at the Public Theater in the East Village. But life, and Manilow’s own success, put their Broadway dreams on hold. “Harmony” finally debuted in 1997 at the La Jolla Playhouse outside San Diego, then moved to Philadelphia in 2003, led by Brian d’Arcy James, but the money ran out. It took the stage in Atlanta 10 years later, but still never made it to New York. Finally, it landed at the Folksbiene, where it was set to open for previews in February 2020. Then COVID hit.

Sussman used the two years off to do a massive rewrite. The show, starring Chip Zien and Sierra Boggess and directed by Tony Award winner Warren Carlyle, is finally ready for Manhattan. “After all these years, to present it to this New York audience is what we’ve always wanted for ‘Harmony,’” Manilow said.

The Comedian Harmonists’ music was declared degenerate by the Nazis because it was Jewish, and they were ordered to stop playing music written by Jews, then banned from performing entirely. Their records were burned and they were wiped from memory, other than a few albums hidden under mattresses that kept their legacy alive. “All I know is that these six extraordinary human beings should be remembered, and Barry and I are committed to doing whatever we can to make that happen,” Sussman said.

Putting on “Harmony” at the Folksbiene makes sense, the co-creators said. The century-old theater, which won a Drama Desk Award for its Yiddish-language “Fiddler on the Roof” in 2019, is meant to make people remember.

The timing of their show, amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, is not lost on them. “There’s a line in the play where someone says ‘It’s the same old hate, just different costumes,’ and it certainly applies now,” Sussman told The News. “The history we ignore is the history we are condemned to relive.”

March 23, 2022 Playbill"Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman’s Harmony Begins Off-Broadway Run March 23: Warren Carlyle directs a cast led by Sierra Boggess and Chip Zien in the musical about the Comedian Harmonists" by Andrew Gans
The long-awaited New York debut of Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman's Harmony begins previews Off-Broadway March 23. National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene presents the musical, which will officially open April 13 in the newly renovated Edmond J. Safra Hall at the Museum of Jewish Heritage–A Living Memorial to the Holocaust. Tony winner Warren Carlyle directs and choreographs the production, currently scheduled to run through May 8.

The cast features Sierra Boggess (The Phantom of the Opera, School of Rock, The Little Mermaid) as Mary with Chip Zien (Falsettos, Into the Woods) as the elder Rabbi. Playing the six Comedian Harmonists are Sean Bell (A Bronx Tale: The Musical), Danny Kornfeld (Rent), Zal Owen (The Band’s Visit), Eric Peters (Motown: The Musical), Blake Roman (Newsies), and Steven Telsey (The Book of Mormon). Jessie Davidson is Ruth, with Ana Hoffman (Dreamgirls) as Josephine Baker. Kenny Morris (Hairspray) is the standby for Zien’s Rabbi. The ensemble includes Elise Frances Daniells, Zak Edwards, Abby Goldfarb, Eddie Grey, Shayne Kennon, Benjamin H. Moore, Matthew Mucha, Tori Palin, Barrett Riggins, Kayleen Seidl, Andrew O’Shanick, Nancy Ticotin, and Kate Wesler.

The musical tells the true story of the Comedian Harmonists, an ensemble of six young men in 1920s Germany who took the world by storm with their blend of sophisticated close harmonies and uproarious stage antics, until their inclusion of Jewish singers put them on a collision course with history.

The production has scenic design by Beowulf Boritt, costume design by Linda Cho and Ricky Lurie, lighting design by Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer, sound design by Dan Moses Schreier, video design by batwin + robin productions, inc., casting by Jamibeth Margolis, associate direction and choreography by Sara Edwards, general management by Roy Gabay/Jumpstart Entertainment, wig and hair design by Tom Watson, and music direction and additional vocal and music arrangement by John O’Neill.

Harmony is co-produced by Ken Davenport and Sandi Moran with Garry Kief, Amuse, Inc., Susan DuBow, Mapleseed Productions, Michelle Kaplan, and Neil Gooding Productions in association with Wilfried Rimensberger and STILETTO Entertainment. Miranda Gohh is associate producer. Visit NYTF.org.

March 18, 2022 Broadway WorldHARMONY is the Theatrical Event of the Season
7 Weeks Only! Harmony: A New Musical Music by Barry Manilow Book and Lyrics by Bruce Sussman Directed and Choreographed by Warren Carlyle Performances begin March 23, 2022 Get Tickets Now! nytf.org/harmony

HARMONY – A New Musical tells the true story of the Comedian Harmonists, an ensemble of six talented young men in 1920s Germany who took the world by storm with their signature blend of sophisticated close harmonies and uproarious stage antics until their inclusion of Jewish singers put them on a collision course with history.

March 18, 2022 TheaterMania"Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman Finally Bring Their Harmony to New York: Warren Carlyle directs and choreographs this new musical at the Museum of Jewish Heritage" by David Gordon
Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman have written a lot of hits together -- among them, one of the pop music's defining songs, "Copacabana." For years, they've had a passion project, a musical called Harmony. Harmony is the story of a little-known German performance group, the Comedian Harmonists. Manilow describes them as the "Backstreet Boys of their day" -- between 1928 and 1934, they became one Europe's most successful bands in the pre-World War II era. And then the world changed.

The musical has had a very long life, originally debuting in 1997 at the La Jolla Playhouse. A 2003 Broadway transfer was scheduled, but bad producing scuttled those plans. It was resurrected in a decade later at the Alliance Theatre in Georgia and the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles, before again laying dormant. But now, it's in rehearsals for its long-awaited New York premiere.

Warren Carlyle is directing and choreographing this newly rewritten production at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, a production of the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene. And Manilow and Sussman could not be more excited to see their show finally take Manhattan.

TheaterMania (TM): Bruce, you had gotten the idea for the show initially after seeing a film about the Comedian Harmonists. Did you know anything about them beforehand?
Bruce Sussman: No, and I couldn't imagine how I didn't know anything about them. To put it in modern terms, the Comedian Harmonists were a combination of the Manhattan Transfer and the Marx Brothers. They were brilliantly talented, incredibly inventive, and wildly successful, and then they hit a brick wall. Barry and I had been looking for a musical for a long time, and this was it. He took a leap of faith and got on board.

TM: Give me an overview of the show. What can we expect?
Bruce: Our first act is in the style of a Golden Age musical. We like to think of it as the Golden Age musical that would have been written about them had the events of the second act not occurred. How they fare in their confrontation with history is our second act.

TM: Barry, what does the music sound like? How does it compare to the songs that made you a legend?
Barry Manilow: It doesn't sound like pop music. When you write a score for a musical, the songs have got to move the story along, and that's fun to write. In a pop song, all you've got are "I love you" or "I miss you" or "I love you and I miss you" or "I miss you and I love you." That's it. So this is a Broadway score that's filled with different styles of music, because that's what the Comedian Harmonists sounded like. It's very diverse. Every style I ever wanted to do these guys did, and the story allowed me to do it.
Bruce: One review said Barry's score was virtuosic, and I think that's the right word. The range of styles, all in correct period, is immense. But we started out as theater babies. When we met, we wanted to write shows. The pop career was a detour.
Barry: Bruce would always say "That 'Mandy' thing stopped us!" I never thought of myself as a performer or singer or entertainer. I was happy being in the background, but all of a sudden, I found myself making records and going on tour and I had to learn a whole new kind of art, which stopped me from writing the kinds of things I wanted to write. But now we've done it, and I'm certainly happy that we're doing it in New York and at this wonderful place.

TM: Tell me about working with Warren Carlyle and your cast, and the impact they've had on the material.
Barry: Warren Carlyle is a genius. He's very inventive and filled with ideas. This is not the Harmony Bruce and I know. He's serving it up totally differently than anyone else has. It's more exciting and deeper than it's ever been.
Bruce: We would meet with Warren every Tuesday and most Fridays over Zoom during the pandemic. We thought we would do the same small tweaking that you'd do whenever a show goes into production, but early on, we had an idea for a really big change, which everyone seems to like. Every page is different, so it's very fresh. We're especially thrilled about the six young men who are playing the Comedian Harmonists. They are scary good. Rehearsals have been on fire, particularly the last several days as Barry's been here working on the music with them.
Barry: They're so young and they sound so young. They sound like the Backstreet Boys. And the Comedian Harmonists were the Backstreet Boys of their day, so this is really what their music sounded like.

TM: What is it like to tell this story in the Museum of Jewish Heritage at a time that's so fraught?
Barry: It's deeper than it's ever been. Bruce has written so many lines over the years that sound like they're happening today.
Bruce: I'm concerned that people are thinking I'm writing to the headlines, but it's the other way around. But we're at the right place. We're in a place that's about remembering, and this is a story about remembering. And it's the right time. It's terrible that it's the right time. But it's the right time.

Ticket Information -- Previews: March 23rd - April 13th Matinee. Performances: April 14th - May 8th. At this time, you are required to show proof of vaccination to enter the theatre. These policies are subject to change. For ticketing questions please call 855-449-4658. For all other inquiries please call 212-655-7653 or email info@nytf.org.

March 14, 2022 The Forward"Barry Manilow on dueling cantors, Levy’s Rye and his musical’s New York debut" by PJ Grisar
Barry Manilow never meant to become a pop star, and his Grammy, Emmy and Tony-winning career as a songwriter is a source of perennial tsuris for his lyric-writing partner Bruce Sussman. If you ask them, “Mandy” came, gave and (forget what you heard) did some taking. That breakout hit diverted the pair’s original ambition: writing for Broadway. “It stopped us from having the time to do something like this,” said Manilow, who debuts the latest iteration of his and Sussman’s musical “Harmony” April 14 at the Museum of Jewish Heritage.

Now being produced by the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, “Harmony” is about the Comedian Harmonists, a sextet of Jewish and non-Jewish Germans who were one of the biggest acts in the world, before the rise of the Third Reich doomed them to obscurity. “The reason we don’t know this group is because the Nazis annhilated everything that they did,” said Manilow. “All their movies, all their records: Gone.”

Sussman said that the Harmonists’ legacy partially survived because of German fans who hid 78s under their mattresses. “Harmony” is in part an effort to secure the singing group’s place in history alongside acts like the Four Freshmen. The show is also a big swing from a songwriting duo who’ve long aimed to enter the musical theater canon. With previous productions in La Jolla, Atlanta and Los Angeles, it is the men’s longest single endeavor in their five decade partnership – and also their most Jewish.

I spoke with Sussman and Manilow (the latter of whom said his grandfather loved the Forverts) from the Museum of Jewish Heritage, where they were sitting in on rehearsals for a play that is still evolving over 20 years after its first curtain call. The following conversation – which features a discussion on dueling cantors – has been edited for length and clarity.

The Forward: How did you first hear about the Comedian Harmonists?
Barry Manilow: Go to it, Bruce.
Bruce Sussman: I read a review in The New York Times some years ago for a documentary that was playing at the Public Theater – they used to have a screening room down there. I don’t think it’s there anymore.
Barry: Blah blah blah blah blah...
Bruce: (Laughs) And it was a very compelling review with a very compelling photograph and I said ‘Gee, I think I need to see this.’ And I went down there and saw four hours of German documentary filmmaking with subtitles and, you know, it wasn’t exactly my idea of a fun night, but it turned out to be life-changing. I couldn’t believe the story I was seeing, nor could I believe that I didn’t know anything about it – that I didn’t know who this group called the Comedian Harmonists were. So I ran to a payphone and called Barry, who was living in California, and told him, I said “I think I found it. The property that we’ve been wanting to musicalize.” We had been offered shows and always turned them down, they didn’t speak to us, but I said “I think this will speak to you.” And it did.
Barry: This is a big story, and it took us quite a while to make it palatable so that you can do it in two acts, because this is a big story – but a compelling story. Because they were so famous in their day, around the world. 13 movies they made, millions of records they sold – Carnegie Hall. And they were so inventive. These were the Hi-Lo’s, the Four Freshmen, Take Six and the Marx Brothers. They were so inventive and so popular and Bruce and I had never heard of them. Why hadn’t we heard of them? Well, that’s our story
Bruce: That turns out to be the story: why we didn’t know who they are is the story of “Harmony.”

The Forward: I know you had previous versions. How has it changed?
Bruce: We were anticipating a freshening up of the script, a rewrite to some degree, but when the pandemic hit we started meeting with our director Warren Carlyle every Tuesday and Friday on Zoom. And in one of the early meetings I put forth a really big idea. We did this massive rewrite, a big change in the storytelling, and we committed to it. We couldn’t have done that if we were in production. The pandemic, ironically gave us a creative opportunity we wouldn’t have had.

The Forward: You’re doing this with the Folksbiene, and this seems like a more explicitly Jewish project than most of your work. How did your backgrounds inform it? Or maybe that’s what made it attractive.
Bruce: Well they came to us
Barry: And it’s the perfect venue, it’s the perfect marriage between them and this play.
Bruce: This is a play about remembering in part. And our lead character struggles to remember and he ultimately finds redemption through remembering, and I’m sitting here in a building where every stone was built dedicated to remembering, so we couldn’t find a better first home in New York than this place.

The Forward: Bruce alluded to a big story change. Can you tell me what that was?
Barry: I didn’t hear that
Bruce: Can we tell him what the big change is?
Barry: NO! No. Come see it.

The Forward: On the topic of Jewishness. We recently ran this piece on the 150 greatest Jewish pop songs. What do you think is your most Jewish song? Maybe Lola is secretly a Jewess?
Bruce: No, no, no, no. What’s our most Jewish song? Is there a song in “Harmony” that’s particularly – the wedding maybe?
Barry: Oh, sure, the wedding!
Bruce: There’s a wedding sequence in “Harmony” that’s probably the most Jewish thing we’ve ever written. The wedding is the most deeply, dyed-in-the-wool Jewish thing.
Barry: I have dived deeply into the cantorial music in order to start the wedding with two cantors singing together.
Bruce: Dueling cantors.
Barry: We called it dueling cantors!
Bruce: But like the rye bread, you don’t need to be Jewish to enjoy “Harmony.”

The Forward: Right and the story of course is very Levy’s Rye – the partnership between Jews and non-Jews.
Bruce: It’s harmony in the broadest sense of the word.

March 11, 2022 Audacy - 1010 WINS"Barry Manilow tells WINS his long-awaited musical is 'the climax of a career'" by Brian Brant
NEW YORK - Barry Manilow's latest venture is "the cherry" on top of his decades-long career as an award-winning singer-songwriter. The 78-year-old Brooklyn native, who co-created the musical "Copacabana" with his longtime collaborator, Bruce Sussman, has teamed up with the lyricist once again on their latest musical, "Harmony," which makes its New York City debut later this month.

"Harmony: A New Musical" is based on The Comedian Harmonists, a six-member group of both Jewish and non-Jewish men who came together in Germany in the 1920s and gained international fame before the Nazi regime took the vocal ensemble down in the 1930s. "We've never heard of them," Manilow told 1010 WINS' Brigitte Quinn. "We had no idea they existed and that's the story. They were incredibly famous, incredibly inventive, and they were the Manhattan Transfer meets the Marx Brothers. They were so popular, so famous and we had never heard of them and we needed to find out why we had never heard of them."

Sussman described the project as "the most fulfilling" of his career, noting that the story "remains fresh" in light of the war in Ukraine. "There's something about this piece that just, you know, despite how long it's taken to get it on, has sustained us, and [it] remains fresh and, I'm sorry to say, remains more relevant today than it ever was. What with the headlines such as they are," he said.

Sussman said he first learned about the ensemble from a documentary he watched years ago and was inspired to write a musical about it. However, the show took years to make its upcoming New York debut. "I went to a pay phone to call Barry and said, 'I think I found it, I think I found the story we want to musicalize,'" he added. "I, like Barry said, how can I not know this story and the reason why it was so effectively extinguished."

While Manilow said that writing a pop song that's "lucky" enough to have a catchy melody can be a challenge, the Emmy, Grammy and Tony winner added that writing a musical score is "difficult in its own way, but very rewarding." Though he said that he isn't retiring yet, Manilow called the show "the climax of a career."

It will be presented off-Broadway in Edmond J. Safra Hall at the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in Battery Park City, with previews beginning on March 23 and the seven-week run show beginning on April 13. It is produced by the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene. For tickets and more information click here.

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