Harmony
Opening Night: November 13, 2023
Theater: Ethel Barrymore
Website: harmonyanewmusical.com
Berlin, 1927. Six remarkably talented young men form a singing group who become international sensations: The Comedian Harmonists. They sell millions of records, star in major motion pictures, and play the biggest theaters around the world. By 1935, they were never heard from again. What happened? That’s the extraordinary true story of Harmony.
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November 13, 2023
Wherever it can — in the plot, in the characterizations and in the sometimes bombastic orchestrations for a heavily synthed and amped orchestra of nine — “Harmony” wields a truncheon instead of the needle it needs. It might have helped if the supposedly comic numbers were actually funny, but neither Manilow and Sussman nor Carlyle excel at that here.
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November 14, 2023
Though “Harmony” is dampened by its formulaic adherence to melancholic moments and a tragedy-laden chronicling of Jewish heritage, this is a show that successfully completes the task at hand. By its end, a palpable grief radiates throughout the Ethel Barrymore Theatre — a palpable shame, as well. One that hopefully urges us to remember our dead and to do everything — everything — in our power to keep their stories alive.
READ THE REVIEWNovember 13, 2023
Timely it may sadly be, but a theatrical triumph it still isn’t. I reviewed the show back in 1997, and while it is changed and improved, it rarely rises above a level of admirable, hard-working professionalism.
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November 13, 2023
The problem is that while “Harmony” is about a sextet of singers whose voices blend like milk and coffee, its elements do not similarly fuse into a cohesive and satisfying musical.
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November 13, 2023
The show — basically a fable — doesn’t meet the moment as much as the moment crashes over it. It’s hard to see the thing itself amid the currents of extra-theatrical context, but there’s no use in ignoring that context, which happens to be the point of Harmony. You may want to perform your little ditties and step to the side, but history will find you.
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November 13, 2023
“Harmony” ultimately packs a punch because the history of that period continues to shock no matter how many times this story is told. What remains open to question, under Warren Carlyle’s splashy direction, is the appeal of the real Comedian Harmonists.
READ THE REVIEWNovember 13, 2023
As the Comedian Harmonists, a ragtag group of male singers in Weimar Germany, gradually find their footing, so does the show: The songs grow more polished, the choreography by director Warren Carlyle more precise, the performances more distinguishable. For a show that debuted over 25 years ago, however, how have subsequent productions, including last year’s Off-Broadway run with the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, not addressed such structural issues?
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November 13, 2023
This is a show that my grandparents would have raved about during the post-services Kiddush luncheon: undeniably moving and extremely powerful, the pros of Harmony generally outweigh the cons. It’s not as profound as everyone involved clearly thinks it is, but it’ll give you the good cathartic cry you’ve been waiting for.
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November 13, 2023
But far from unlocking the Harmonists’ story, Rabbi’s narration feels awkwardly grafted onto an underdeveloped narrative, an attempt at forcing deeper relevance onto a work that hasn’t otherwise earned it.
READ THE REVIEWNovember 13, 2023
Despite its caveats, Harmony is a powerful musical that, by its conclusion, makes one’s heart break for the Comedian Harmonists and all those who were lost to time because of hatred and cruelty, the echoes of which are still ringing out to this day. Its overall message of peace — “despite our squabbles, we found harmony” — feels more resonant than ever.
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November 13, 2023
The unevenly staged Harmony is a shakily constructed set of misfiring elements, whose most compelling beats around Nazism, Antisemitism, and bigotry—all points resoundingly and rightly made—feel imposed and didactic rather than flowing naturally from the source material.
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November 13, 2023
With a structure that takes fewer chances than one might hope, Harmony is nonetheless steadily compelling and not infrequently stirring, attributes that speak as much to the Manilow-Sussman craftsmanship as to an intriguing tale long-lost to history.
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November 13, 2023
Even so, there is much to admire and appreciate about “Harmony,” including the fascinating real-life story upon which it is based (which previously inspired a film, a documentary, and even the 1999 Broadway drama “Band in Berlin”), its sense of sincerity and romanticism, Warren Carlyle’s posh art deco-style production (which has improved in quality since Off-Broadway), and the performances.
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November 13, 2023
As enjoyable and affecting as Harmony is—and as timely, with antisemitism on the rise worldwide—it doesn’t make the case that, among all that we must never forget, the Comedian Harmonists merit quite this degree of remembrance.
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