Harmony: A New Musical
Harmony: A New Musical tells the true story of The Comedian Harmonists, a group of six talented young men, Jewish and gentile, who came together in 1920s Germany and took the world by storm with their signature blend of sophisticated close harmonies and uproarious stage antics.
Together they sold millions of records, starred in a dozen films and packed the houses of the most prestigious concert halls around the globe until the world they knew changed forever. Their incredible story inspired music industry legends, Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman, to create a spectacular new musical with an original score that celebrates this extraordinary group of friends and ensures their quest for true harmony in the most discordant chapter of human history will never be forgotten.
Harmony is based in part on The Comedian Harmonist Archive as curated by the late Dr. Peter Czada.
Directing and choreographing Harmony will be Tony Award winner and Emmy-nominated Director Warren Carlyle. Carlyle won a 2014 Tony Award for his choreography for After Midnight, for which he was also Tony Award-nominated as Best Director. Carlyle was again nominated for a 2019 Tony Award for his choreography for the critically acclaimed revival of Kiss Me Kate. Other Broadway credits include Hello, Dolly!, She Loves Me, On the Twentieth Century, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, A Christmas Story, and Chaplin. He directed and choreographed Hugh Jackman: Back on Broadway, as well as Hugh Jackman’s 2019 World Tour. Upcoming: choreographing the Broadway revival of The Music Man starring Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster.
“I’m thrilled to be directing Harmony and helping bring this show to New York. It’s an important message and it could not have found a better home to start a New York run than the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene at the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust,” Warren Carlyle said.
NYTF Artistic Director Zalmen Mlotek said, “The core of NYTF’s mission will always be the promotion of the great literary, dramatic and musical traditions of the Yiddish theater. We will venture beyond Yiddish when presented with opportunities to tell important Jewish stories, in other languages, particularly when these stories otherwise would not be told.” He continued, “The storied career of the Comedian Harmonists, one of the most popular performers in pre-war Europe, represents how anti-Semitism can infect even the most ‘civilized’ of societies. The National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene is proud to bring their story to a wider public by presenting Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman’s remarkable musical Harmony.”
“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. 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,” Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman said.
This production is being produced in association with Ken Davenport, who most recently won a Tony for Best Revival of a Musical for Once on This Island and a Tony for Best Musical for Kinky Boots, and received Tony nominations for Spring Awakening (Revival of a Musical), The Visit (Musical), and You’re Welcome America (Special Theatrical Event). Garry C. Kief is serving as producer. Additional producers are Amuse Inc., Susan Dubow, and Neil Gooding Productions. This presentation is being produced in association with Wilfried Rimensberger of Stiletto Entertainment.