Barry Manilow's Harmony to Have New York Debut in March 2022

Harmony, the long-gestating original musical by Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman, finally has a New York premiere date after several delays. The production is now scheduled to begin performances at the Museum of Jewish Heritage on March 23, 2022 ahead of an opening night on April 13. Tony winner Warren Carlyle will direct. Casting is to be announced.

“In our long and exciting collaboration, nothing thrills us more than today’s announcement that our beloved Harmony is coming to the National Yiddish Theatre Foksbiene in New York," Manilow and Sussman said in a statement. "This is what we’ve always wanted to do—create an original show with an original score based on a story that needs to be told."

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.

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 reportedly took place in August 2019 with Jessie Mueller, Kate Baldwin, Reeve Carney, Rob McClure, John Behlmann, Jarrod Spector and Nicholas Barasch all participating.