Barry Manilow, Bruce Sussman Come to Broadway with New Musical 'Harmony': Hear a New Song from Show (Exclusive)
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'Harmony' has been in the making for 25 years
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Barry Manilow is bringing his latest show to Broadway!
On Thursday, Ghostlight Records exclusively shared the first single from 80-year-old Manilow's upcoming Broadway production Harmony with PEOPLE before it releases everywhere Friday.
The song serves as the title track for the new musical, which Tony, Grammy and Emmy Award winner Manilow wrote an original new score for alongside lyrics and book by his longtime collaborator Bruce Sussman. "Harmony" is performed by the show's star Chip Zien, who plays Rabbi, as well as the show's Harmonist characters: a young Rabbi (Danny Kornfeld) Harry (Zal Owen), Bobby (Sean Bell), Erich (Eric Peters), Chopin (Blake Roman) and Lesh (Steven Telsey).
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"In the 1920s and ‘30s, The Comedian Harmonists sold millions of records, made dozens of films and sold-out the biggest theaters around the world," reads an official synopsis for the production.
"Their heavenly harmonies and musical comedy antics catapulted these six talented young men from singing in the subway tunnels of Berlin to international superstardom," the synopsis adds. "What happened next is the story of Harmony."
Related: Barry Manilow's Life in Photos
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The production's arrival on Broadway is decades in the making; Manilow initially premiered the musical in California all the way back in 1997. Harmony was originally intended to open on Broadway in 2004, but the run was canceled when its funding fell apart, according to The New York Times.
The show has received a number of Off-Broadway awards nominations, including a 2002 Drama Desk Award nomination for outstanding musical and the Drama Desk Award for outstanding book of a musical, according to a release. Harmony ran Off-Broadway again in 2022 at the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, where it received the Off-Broadway Alliance's best new musical award and eight Outer Critics Circle Award nominations, a release reads.
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The production is centered around the real-life story of the Comedian Harmonists, a group of German singers who gained fame in the 1920s and '30s. The group ran into trouble as Germany's Nazi regime took power in the '30s because it featured some performers who were Jewish, according to the Times.
“They represent everything I love — they’re a combination of The Manhattan Transfer and the Marx Brothers, with complicated harmonies — and funny as hell,” Manilow told the outlet about Harmony in April. “When we dug into it, it just killed me: Why don’t we know about them?”
Related: Barry Manilow on Being Busier Than Ever: 'By Keeping Working, You Stay Young' (Exclusive)
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The production also stars performers Sierra Boggess and Julie Benko among its principal cast; it is directed and choreographed by Tony Award winner Warren Carlyle.
Harmony begins preview performances Wednesday, Oct. 18, with opening night at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre scheduled for Monday, Nov. 13. Tickets can be purchased here.
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