- Daily Variety
October 21, 1997
Harmony
- By Charles Isherwood
La Jolla Playhouse presents a musical in two acts with book and lyrics by Bruce Sussman
and music by Barry Manilow. Directed by David Warren; music direction, Joseph Thalken;
orchestrations, Ralph Burns; choreography, Charles Moulton; vocal arrangements, Randy
Crenshaw; additional vocal arrangements, Seth Rudetsky; set, Derek McLane; costumes, Mark
Wendland; lighting, Kenneth Posner; sound, Steve Canyon Kennedy; stage manager, Steve
McCorkle; casting, Jay Binder (East Coast), Kim Orchen (West Coast); artistic director,
Michael Greif. Opened, reviewed Oct. 19, 1997; runs through Nov. 23. Running time: 3
hours.
Cast: Danny Burstein ("Rabbi"), Thom Christopher Warren (Harry), James Clow (Bobby), Mark Chmiel
(Lesh), Steven Goldstein (Erich), Patrick Wilson ("Chopin"), Rebecca Luker
(Mary), Janet Metz (Ruth), Tom Titone (Rally Leader), Jodi Stevens (Marlene), Scott
Robertson (Einstein, Felix), Casey Nicholaw (Ezra), Jessica Sheridan (Madame), Kurt Ziskie
(Standartenfuhrer), Scott Robinson (Dirk), Thursday Farrar (Josephine), Trent DeLong (Obersturmfuhrer); Christiane
Farr-Wersinger, Pascal Faye, Sean Grant, Lisa Mayer, Jennifer Morris, Arte Phillips,
Kiersten Van Horne.
- A six-year labor of love on the part of Barry
Manilow and Bruce Sussman, "Harmony" is a small musical with a big
story to tell. With remarkable clarity and dispatch --- and some breathtakingly fluid
direction from David Warren --- the show unfolds the fact-based story of the Comedian (or
Comedy) Harmonists, a sextet of vocalists in Berlin, half Jewish, half Gentile, whose rise
to inter-national fame coincides with --- and is ultimately
undone by --- the rise of the Nazi party. It's a solid show, impeccably staged and
performed, whose major disappointment is the contribution of Manilow, its marquee name.
The lengthy opening number begins with the group's Carnegie Hall debut in 1933, before we
are whisked back to the Harmonists' humble beginnings in 1927 Berlin, where narrator (and
group member) Roman (Rabbi) Cycowski (Danny Burstein) introduces the rest of the clan
auditioning for leader Harry Frohman (Thom Christopher Warren). Erwin (Chopin) Bootz
(Patrick Wilson) is a former whorehouse piano player; Ari (Lesh) Leshnikov (Mark Chmiel)
is a gangly Bulgarian redhead with a high tenor; German Bobby Biberti's (James Clow) first question refers to financial matters; and Erich
Collin (Steven Goldstein) is a doctor who can't stand the sight of blood.
- Rabbi gained his nickname from his former
profession, which he practiced in Poland until "six pogroms in 10 months" gave
him other ideas; now he looks forward to "singing in a major key." One of book
writer Sussman's graceful touches is his use of gentle Jewish humor throughout the show,
making a subtle and all the more moving contrast to the grim events that form the story's
background.
- The Harmonists' rags-to-riches story is traced in
traditional style, with kernels of conflict arising and being diffused on cue, and pit
stops for a pair of perfunctorily drawn interfaith romances: Rabbi falls for the gentile
Mary (Rebecca Luker) , while Chopin is won by the socialist Ruth (Janet Metz). The first
of several cameos by famous figures --- apparently a new musical trend (see
"Ragtime") --- is made by Marlene Dietrich (a convincing Jodi Stevens with a
drop-dead funny exit line), whom the Harmonists support in their first nightclub gig.
- This "Lost in the Shadows" number
reveals the collaborators at their best: Sussman provides both a smooth lyric and witty
dialogue ("That's not singing, that's loitering," snipes a disgruntled
Harmonist); Manilow's languid, torchy melody is among the few with a whiff of period
flavor; and Warren's direction and Derek McLane's designs combine to provide a small bit
of theatrical cleverness --- we alternately see Marlene performing her number and the
Harmonists crooning and bitching backstage --- that's used several times in the show to
great effect.
But just as fame and fortune arrive, so does the heavy hand of history: As the troup tours
the world reprising the title tune, a grim counterpoint is sung by a Nazi chorus,
gradually gaining power and influence back home. (Sussman interpolates historical fact
into the show with general finesse, as when someone casually grouses of a rowdy band of
Nazis in a nightclub audience: "They took four seats here and 12 in the
Reichstag.")
- The first act ends on a powerful, theatrically
audacious note: Rabbi's cry of despair at the memory of the group's fateful decision to
return to Germany even after the tide of Nazi terror had begun its inexorable sweep (and
despite a warning by a caricatured Albert Einstein, no less, who comes backstage at
Carnegie Hall).
After an utterly extraneous dance number that is obviously an attempt to supply the
traditional big-musical blandishments, the second act follows the
group's gradual disintegration under pressure from the Nazis, who eventually order the
Harmonists to disband due to their racial mixture --- under an edict signed, Sussman
pointedly reminds us, by Richard Strauss.
- With six personal histories to relate in at least
some measure, in addition to the saga of the group as a whole --- not to mention the
necessity of sketching in the historical context --- Sussman and Co. had their work cut
out for them. The show's easy flow is thus a major accomplishment, even as its general air
of minimal depth can't entirely be excused by the many fascinating strands of the story it
has to tell.
It's no coincidence that the most memorable song, "Where You Go," is virtually
the only one that digs deeply into the emotions of the characters. A haunting duet for
Mary and Ruth, one singing of her allegiance to her husband come what may, the other
bitterly accepting her abandonment, it's the show's high point --- and it belongs to
secondary characters, both impressively acted and sung by Luker and particularly Metz.
- Rabbi's function as narrator gives his character a
chance to accrue depth, but though the personality and history of each Harmonist is
cleanly and distinctly sketched, there isn't time for much else. (One would be inclined to
add that the Nazis' interventions are treated with a dramatically heavy hand, but that
gripe's inadmissible --- the Nazis weren't noted for their lightness of touch.)
Performances across the board are terrific, with Burstein taking honors due to his
prominent part, but all the leads showing both charisma and vocal finesse, and together
giving a fair approximation of the Harmonists' magic.
- But "Harmony," as a musical
about musicians, must rise or fall on its tunes. Right now, it does neither. Manilow's
melodies are pleasant and polished, but fatally bland. As a pop song stylist, he's never
been renowned for challenging conventions --- or even nudging them. When placed in the
context of a book musical with some pretty heavy matters to relate, his songs sound watery
and generic --- you feel they could be snatched from any one of his albums, or dispatched
there, with minimal tweaking.
And so "Harmony" remains a show with almost everything in place, from
McLane's spare, fluidly elegant sets to Mark Wendland's richly varied costumes, supporting
a cast of talented, expressive performers --- all orchestrated by director Warren along
the eloquent lines of Sussman's generally intelligent, carefully crafted book. It doesn't
shy away from the power of its tale, but "Harmony" doesn't press too
heavily on the idea of musical harmony as metaphor. That turns out to be a good
thing, since music is the only facet of this show that doesn't make a sufficiently strong
statement.
- San diego-online
- ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
- Theater Beat
by Emilie Winthrop
-
- The LA JOLLA PLAYHOUSE has brought a major
musical drama to this area in Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman's Harmony. The play
is the deeply moving and disturbing true story of the Comedian Harmonists who began their
act as street musicians during the desperate days of Germany's Weimar Republic in the
1920s. By the '30s, they had become world-famous entertainers. As the title suggests, the
harmony between the three who happened to be Jews and the three who happened to be
Gentiles was embodied, not only in their performances, but in their personal lives.
Unfortunately, Nazism impacted not only these lives, but harmony all over the world.
-
- For those who remember, or have studied the
period, this production catches with great style, subtlety, and even humor, the denial of
what was really occurring. For those who are too young for such memories, Harmony's message serves as a warning that such political evil
can arrive with a plausible face, until it is too late. It is also refreshing in that it
demonstrates horrors that were committed, not only against the Jews, but against anyone
who resisted the Nazis.
-
- It is a credit to all those involved in the
creation and presentation of this production that, unlike the much vaunted but superficial
Rent that preceded it into the Playhouse, Harmony is both engaging
entertainment and the sort of serious theater that lingers in the mind. Manilow's score
shows maturity in a musical talent that has been perhaps wasted on pop tunes. The title
song is destined to have a long shelf life. But it is Sussman's book, the understated
elegance of David Warren's direction, and the exceptional talents of a relatively
unfamiliar cast that make Harmony a major theatrical event.
-
- In his role of the narrator, a man seeking to
regain and make peace with his past, Danny Burstein (Rabbi), is superb. By building a
character with which everyone can identify, he assures a shattering impact on the
audience. Burstein could well have dominated the show with such a performance, if it were
not for the equally fine acting of Mark Chmiel (Lesh), James Clow
(Bobby), Patrick Wilson (Chopin), Thom Christopher Warren (Harry), and Steven Goldstein
(sensational as Erich).
-
- Rebecca Luker plays Rabbi's Gentile wife, Mary.
Her exceptionally lovely voice is familiar to San Diego audiences from her performance in
the OLD GLOBE'S Time and Again. Luker's song, with Janet Metz (Ruth), the haunting
"Where You Are" provides a another high point in the score. Luker's restraint in
her part provides poignant counterpoint to the roles of the others. Metz, in contrast, was
the only one in the production that I felt slightly overplayed her part. Perhaps, she has
grown more comfortable in the role by now.
-
- Special kudos are in order for Derek McLane's
extremely effective, yet simple, set design, enhanced by Kenneth Posner's dramatic
lighting. So, too, for Mark Wendland's costumes and Charles Moulton's delightful
choreography. In spite of the need for some very minor tweaks that may have been made
since the opening, Harmony deserves a long run. It is certainly one of the
theatrical high points of this year.
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