Chip Zien Will Lead Broadway Company of Harmony

Chip Zien is set to play the role of Rabbi in the new Broadway musical Harmony. He originated the part with the musical’s 2022 Off-Broadway bow at the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene.

Harmony will mark Zien’s 15th Broadway show. He originated the roles of The Baker in Into the Woods and Mendel in Falsettos. Other select Main Stem credits include Grand Hotel, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, It Shoulda Been You and, most recently, the 2021 revival of Caroline, Or Change.

Zien will unite with the previously announced Sean Bell, Danny Kornfeld, Zal Owen, Eric Peters, Blake Roman and Steven Telsey, who will portray the six members of the Comedian Harmonists, the real-life musical group at the center of the musical Harmony.

Additional casting is to be announced.

As previously announced, Harmony is scheduled to begin previews on October 18 and officially open on November 13 at the Barrymore Theatre. Warren Carlyle will direct and choreograph the show, which features music by Barry Manilow with lyrics and a book by Bruce Sussman.

Harmony tells the story of six entertainers, the Comedian Harmonists, who rose to fame in Berlin during the 1920s and ’30s. The group sold millions of records and starred in dozens of films — but their legacy was erased by the violence of Nazi Germany. Structured as a memory play, Harmony is told through the perspective of the Rabbi.