We can thank Michael Philips and the San Diego Union-Tribune for all of the following information:
Herewith, Mr. Philips' musical theatre column of February 7, 1997:
"We just got good feelings there," Barry Manilow said of the La Jolla Playhouse. And if they're good enough for Manilow, who has written his share of popular melodies devoted to that subject, they're good enough for the Playhouse.
"Harmony," a new musical set in Weimar and early Nazi Germany with a score by Manilow and lyrics and libretto by Manilow's longtime collaborator, Bruce Sussman, makes its world premiere at the Playhouse Oct. 19. Manilow will not perform in the show.
Directed by David Warren, "Harmony" tells the true story of the Comedian Harmonists, a six-man novelty singing group beloved in its day. That day ended when the Nazi regime declared the act "unsuitable" and forced its members -- some Jewish, some gentile -- to disband. Two separate groups sharing the group's name continued to tour throughout the 1930s. The musical spans the years 1927-1935.
At this point the score features 19 songs by Manilow and Sussman. The two have worked together for nearly 25 years, on commercial jingles, AM radio-aimed singles, animated film scores ("Thumbelina") and the London stage version of "Copacabana."
"When Barry was playing piano around town for every girl singer in New York, and I was waiting tables, we didn't talk about writing songs; we talked about writing shows," Sussman said. "We were always on the theater track."
The Playhouse premiere of "Harmony" calls for "a crackerjack musical team," according to Manilow, and a cast of between 22 and 24. In development for five years, initially as a feature-film project, the show drew the attention of several high-profile regional theaters, including the Goodman in Chicago, Seattle Repertory Theatre and the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis.
The Playhouse, Manilow said, seemed best -- "big enough, and small enough. And good people." The project's commercial afterlife, should one await "Harmony," is tended by PACE Theatrical Group Inc., the primary monetary force behind the Playhouse-generated production of "The Who's Tommy." PACE is providing so-called "enhancement funds" for the Playhouse "Harmony," the amount of which is still being negotiated. It's expected to be "in line with past productions," said Playhouse managing director Terrence Dwyer, which likely means somewhere between $500,000 and $1 million.
PACE was "helpful in making a list of regional theaters for us to consider (for `Harmony')," said Sussman, "but I think we actually committed to La Jolla before committing to PACE." He added that he and Manilow were "dead et on a regional production" before gambling on a commercial incarnation, on Broadway or elsewhere.
Director Warren, who has enjoyed success with New York premieres of Nicky Silver's black comedies, directed for the Playhouse the Des McAnuff children's play "Silent Edward." More recently, Warren staged the William Finn musical "Romance in Hard Times" at New York's Public Theatre, and a revival of "Pal Joey" at the Huntington in Boston.
"Of all the people we dealt with," Manilow said of prospective "Harmony" directors, "it was David's take on the piece that sounded as if we were listening to a tape recording of what Bruce and I had been saying to each other for five years." Early on, director-choreographer Tommy Tune met with Manilow and Sussman about the project. "There was nothing on the page yet," recalled Sussman. Contrasting visions for the show led to a "friendly parting of the ways," Sussman said. "And Tommy had a schedule that was hellacious. We knew it'd be 10 years in the making if we went that direction."
Some of the prospective directors "wanted to make (the show) darker than it was -- terribly dark," according to Manilow. "Some of the guys wanted straight musical comedy, and that wasn't it, either . . . We just wanted to tell the story of these incredible performers honestly, directly, with the least amount of gimmicks."
Sussman described the Comedian Harmonists as "the Marx Brothers meets the Manhattan Transfer"; the group's unique close-harmony sound influenced such American vocalists as The Mills Brothers. Also known as the Comedy Harmonists, the internationally acclaimed act included a medical student, a Bulgarian singing waiter, a basso profundo, a rabbi, a musical prodigy and a pianist. Their often outlandish vocal arrangements took on classic opera and Cole Porter, too. Its American material didn't help the group's cause with the Nazis.
Sussman added that the show intends to suggest "a quest for harmony that went far beyond music. These men were trying to find a safe haven, at a time when their world was anything but safe."
A private, piano-only workshop staging of the show takes place next month [July] in New York; already "Harmony" has been through a couple of smaller-scale readings, typical in any new musical's birth. To Manilow, who at age 18 wrote the score for a successful off-Broadway musical version of the ancient melodrama "The Drunkard," the readings thus far "confirmed what I already knew: that it works. I could be wrong, but we have yet to experience one major creative bump on the road so far."
The subject, he said, has allowed the composer of everything from Kentucky Fried Chicken ditties to "Mandy" to "explore every musical style I've ever experimented with, listened to and loved, while staying true to what these guys were saying to me."
Playhouse managing director Dwyer said the theater "needs to be thorough in communicating what this show's about," lest the public expect a "Copacabana"-weight confection. "It's not a rollicking farce," he said. "It's substantial subject matter. And hopefully very entertaining."This is all very exciting for fans of this remarkable group. My only concern regards the 22 original songs. Why wouldn't the "original" songs with which the group reached the heights of enthusiastic popularity be suitable?
A June 20, 1997, update is found in the following, also from Michael Philips' column in the San Diego Union-Tribune:
The upcoming new musical "Harmony," by Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman, has secured the invaluable services of orchestrator Ralph Burns. Burns won an Oscar for the film version of "Cabaret," and his charts for "Chicago" remain models of gin-soaked 1920s high spirits. The show is about the Weimar and early Nazi Germany-era lives and times of the vocal group known as the Comedian Harmonists.
Readying the October La Jolla Playhouse world premiere, the "Harmony" team players are scenic designer Derek McLane, costume designer Mark Wendland, lighting designer Ken Posner, choreographer Charles Moulton and sound designer Steve Canyon Kennedy, among others.
Confirmed cast members: Danny Burstein, late of the Old Globe's "Time and Again," and Gregory Jbara (of the Globe's "Damn Yankees"). For the female lead, the Playhouse is talking with another "Time and Again" alum: Rebecca Luker, who wowed 'em in the New York concert version of "The Boys from Syracuse."