Review - Harmony (in L.A.)

When we were tossing around dates for our California trip, when the second weekend in March came up, I thought, hmmm, L.A., March, now what's happening there??  And then I remembered my interview from last summer with one of my idols!  I remembered that Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman had mentioned that their musical would be in L.A. in the spring of 2014.  When I went to the Ahmanson Theatre's website, there it was!  I could see Barry!  I could finally see Harmony!  And so I did...

Harmony has had a very long circuitous path to production - it had a successful production at La Jolla Playhouse in 1997, seemed headed to Broadway, then had much trouble afterwards.  It was fascinating to discuss the twists and turns with Barry and Bruce when I interviewed them last year.  And their love for their musical is palpable.  I had hoped to get to Atlanta to see the first reincarnation of the show, but couldn't get there.  I was oh so happy to finally finally see it last Saturday night.

Telling the story of a real-life German singing group, Harmony is a good old-fashioned musical with gorgeous, catchy tunes and interesting characters.  The story is compelling and the performances are stellar.  If the end result isn't quite as satisfying as the individual parts, well, I wish I could say exactly why.  My inclination is the libretto isn't quite as special or original as other aspects of the musical, but I've been wrong before.

The Comedian Harmonists were a world-famous close harmony singing group out of Germany.  The group had six members, three of whom were Jewish.  The fact that they were singing in Weimar Germany and fell apart because of the Nazi regime automatically makes it a story worth telling.  Told in flashback, however, I'm not sure we quite get the full weight we could.  The first act seems rather rushed, and the group comes together nearly fully-formed.  It's a 'then we did this' sort of act, but the second act, once there's real conflict and tension, is much more moving and intriguing. 

I thought the music was the strongest part of the evening (I guess you shouldn't be surprised, I do so love Barry Manilow, as you all well know).  The music is very tuneful and engaging, and there's just enough flavor of the period to make the songs sound very authentic.  I've heard several of the songs before, because Barry has recorded one or two over the years, but hearing them in context of the story was wonderful.  "Every Single Day," which is a beautiful song in and of itself, works terrifically as our narrator tries to convince the woman he loves that marriage is a good idea; "Where You Go" is a very moving number for the two women playing the wives, and the juxtaposition of meaning between where the two women are in their lives is quite smart. 

photo credit: Craig Schwartz

When the six men sing together as the Comedian Harmonists, the show just soars.  These actor/singer/dancers are terrific, individually and as a group.  The opening of the second act, "Hungarian Rhapsody #20" is so fantastic and probably gives the closest representation of how the Harmonists actually performed.  I will admit that now and then, their big, Broadway singing sounded a little off to me - I would've rather heard a more accurate 30s sound (I have listened to some recordings of the real Harmonists in the past), especially in their group numbers.  But I completely understood why the artistic choice was made not to do that.  It still nagged at my brain, just a tad, though.  "How Can I Serve You Madame" is a fantastic comic number, and the actors pull it off to perfection.  The big payoff ballad for the narrator, at the end of the evening, unfortunately rather reminded me of "Betrayed" from The Producers, but I quickly moved on.  I hope a cast album is recorded, because I would love to listen to these songs again.

I'm so glad I finally got to see Harmony - I feel as if I got a little window into a hero's soul.  Plus, this is a story worth knowing and telling.  I'm going to try to find the documentary that Bruce Sussman saw all those years ago that led to the writing of the musical because I'd like to learn more.  The million dollar question: do I think Harmony should move to Broadway?  I don't know.  Maybe with some tweaking of the libretto?  I wish I knew.  But if I did, as I like to say, I'd be the richest person in the theater.  I'm also glad I got to see the Ahmanson Theatre - it's a lovely space and the production values there were fantastic.  My seat was great and their website makes ticketing and choosing a seat very easy.

Oh, and another reason this was such a special evening is that I got to see a dear, dear handsome friend from grad school.  I don't get to spend nearly enough time with this gorgeous gentleman, so I'm glad our schedules coincided and we could have dinner before the show.  I even was lucky enough to get chauffeur service to and from my hotel!  AND I got to have that delicious Mediterranean Octopus Salad at Cafe Pinot that I so loved last November!  It was a truly wonderful evening - another happy memory from my few days in Southern California...