"Harmony" a Musical Lesson for Our Time

This past January I saw an important piece of American Theatre presenting historical biography and events from the early part of the last century. A musical evocatively calling out the tenor of that time’s popular entertainment. It powerfully presented a cautionary tale of how easily evil usurps power when good people do nothing. ?

I know professional Broadway critics dismissed this work as mediocre in music, book, staging and performance. But I also know I was part of a packed house that rose in reverent ovation and calling out bravo from the moment the stage darkened, through the curtain calls and beyond the final dropping of the curtain. I am speaking of the single word titled show “Harmony.” And from my view could have been titled “Catharsis.”

No one rushed the doors to catch the next bus back to Jersey. ?Instead, there were moments of shared handkerchiefs and silent awe.

The music is by Barry Manilow with book and lyrics by his longtime collaborator, Bruce Sussman. It is an absolute departure from their Top-40 repertoire. “Harmony” is classic musical drama in the vein of “Cabaret,” “The Sound of Music” and “Fiddler on the Roof.”? It was directed and choreographed by Warren Carlyle.

“Harmony” is the real-life story of the Comedian Harmonists. An internationally famous male sextet singing ensemble that came to prominence in the 1920’s Weimar Republic only to be erased from history by Hitler’s Third Reich of the 1930’s…three of their members were Jewish.

Drama critics in earlier times often lauded a performer as a “triple threat” for his or her virtuosity in acting, song and dance. This performance of “Harmony” was a “triple threat” from book, libretto, and direction as well as the players. The shear excellence of six-part harmonies, smart lyrics, embodiment of characters, spot on pacing, glorious harmony filled duets and soul wrenching solos makes this musical a masterpiece of entertainment.

But beyond that, “Harmony” is thematically instructive. As in Tom Stoppard’s “Leopoldstadt,” three core facts are established. European Antisemitism had a long cyclical history prior to the rise of Nazism. By the late 19th Century western Europeans (Gentile and Jew) suffered from a cultural hubris that they’d evolved beyond the Cossacks and pogroms of their Slavic neighbors to the east. Enlightenment and assimilation were thought to be the order of the day.

Some professional reviewers have dismissed the show as just another emotional exploiting of the Holocaust. Or faulted the show being short sightedly about six singers and giving short shrift to the “six million.”

Both miss the point. This is an exemplar of a free republic being sublimated by citizens not facing down evil because “that couldn’t happen here.” How autocratic ambitions are achieved by subverting democratic norms with siren calls of nationalism. It is a lamentation of failure to stop a cascade of demonizing others.

Act 1 opens with a seamless blending of times: the 1933 American debut of the Comedian Harmonists at Carnagie Hall, an introduction to surviving member ‘Rabbi’ in? 1988 Los Angeles and 1927 Berlin where the ensemble comes into being.

From Carnegie Hall the Haromonists, clad in impeccably tailored grey tuxedos, compete the final strains of the overture. Lighting changes focus on 87-year-old Josef Cycowski? (Rabbi) in 1988 Los Angles who assumes the role of narrator for this story of great vocal harmony against the backdrop of history’s most discordant times. The stage then fully lights and we return to Carnegie Hall. The group sings the shows signature tune “Harmony” in glorious, tight, six-part voices while effortlessly performing synchronized precision choreography.

Set changes flow as Rabbi guides us back to 1927 Berlin and introduces us to the group: Harry (musical prodigy and son of cantor), Lesh (a Bulgarian singing waiter), Eric (a medical student with a passion for singing and wide-ranging knowledge of all topics), Bobby (a down on his luck operatic basso-profundo), Chopin (aspiring composer and whore house piano player) and Rabbi’s younger self (a Rabbi-in-training who abandons Poland and pogroms to “…sing in a major key for a change”).

We then follow the interwoven histories of the individuals and the group. ?And importantly the societal backdrop of economic depression, hyperinflation, political unrest, and the final dominance of Hitler’s National Socialist Party.

Act 1 comes full circle back to the 1933 Carnegie Hall debut.? We are at a celebratory after show party were the group and spouses are split over a decision to accept a place on America’s NBC or return to Germany.? Fatefully they dismiss the looming evil of Nazism and return home (after all we’re talking about enlightened, culturally and scientifically superior Germany – “that” couldn’t happen there).

Act 2 opens at the 1934 Ziegfeld Follies where the Harmonists and Josephine Baker are performing “We’re Goin’ Loco” (a pulsating tribute to latest dance craze…the Samba).

Next, we are at the Berling Philharmonic in 1934 where the Harmonists vocally perform “Hungarian Rhapsody #20” (a take off on Liszt’s 19 Hungarian Rhapsodies) with a distinctly Klezmer vibe. Later the group is greeted by an SS Standartenführer and wife who are fans. The SS officer is with the cultural arm of the party and informs them that despite the Jewish members, the Party wants to exploit their international popularity for propaganda purposes. Fast forward a few months and we are at Tivoli Park, Copenhagen and the Harmonist perform “Come to the Fatherland.”

This choreographed number features the group as life-sized Tyrolean marionets being manipulated by bright red streamers while they sing “…Come to the fatherland/The Führer has decreed/He has decreed/If you're Anglo-Saxon/And your hair is flaxen/We want you to breed.”

Soon then the group has its Jewish exemption revoked. And the race to gather cash, call in favors and bribe bureaucrats ensues. “Harmony’s” denouement dramatizes a true story of Rabbi’s escape through Munich. Hitler is aboard the train and passing through Rabbi’s car. ?Young Rabbi contemplates grabbing a guard’s luger and assassinating Hitler. He fails to act and 87-year-old Rabbi sings “Threnody,” a visceral gut wrenching self-damning lamentation.

“Threnody” begins with the Schama followed by self-accusatory lyrics, “…But no, nothing, nothing, you did nothing/And your punishment is to remember everything.” The song rises to a crescendo reprise and ‘you’ morphs in the audiences mind to its collective meaning.

Sadly “Harmony” closed in February. Perhaps because it does not comport with the contemporary post-“Hamilton,” “Cirque du Soleil”-like musical spectaculars.

Dark angels are abroad in our contemporary world, and we are well advised to listen to “Harmony’s” lessons lest we condemn ourselves to singing “Threnody.”

My hope is that “Harmony” be brought to larger audiences (Tele-performance?), the sooner the better.

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