Harmony: A New Musical

Harmony: A New Musical by Barry Manilow & Bruce Sussman tells the true story of the Comedian Harmonists, 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.

The talents of bestselling singer and composer Barry Manilow, lyricist/bookwriter Bruce Sussman, and Broadway stars Chip Zien and Sierra Boggess join in perfect harmony in this New York-premiere musical. Get Harmony tickets on TodayTix.

Harmony is a musical about the Comedian Harmonists, a six-piece German musical group who reached their peak of fame in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The members were Harry Frommermann, Asparuh "Ari" Leschnikoff, Erich Collin, Roman Cycowski, Robert Biberti, and Erwin Bootz. They were known for their many talents: raucuous onstage antics; blending their voices seamlessly together in complex arrangements; and singing in a wide range of genres, from old folk music to popular music of the time.

Soon after their heyday, however, the Harmonists became the subject of a different kind of national attention in Germany. As World War II brewed, the group's inclusion of Jewish members brought them scrutiny as the Nazis rose to power. Harmony, inspired by the true story, is a musical comedy, but also an emotional drama about a group of friends surviving a discordant era of history.

Harmony composer Manilow has a music career spanning 70 years, and he is one of the bestselling musical artists of all time. He and bookwriter Bruce Sussman have collaborated previously, writing music for tons of singers, movies, TV shows, and musicals. Harmony premiered at San Diego's La Jolla Playhouse in 1997, and went on to a 2003 pre-Broadway run at Philadelphia's Forrest Theatre. A Broadway transfer never happened, but the musical resurfaced in 2013 at Atlanta's Alliance Theatre. Nearly 10 years later, the premiere of Harmony in New York is finally happening at the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust.

With such a celebrated team, this show is sure to hit all the right notes. Get tickets to Harmony off Broadway on TodayTix now.

What to Watch For

• Harmony is the latest show in a long tradition. The National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, the Jewish-theatre-focused company presenting Harmony, is the same organization behind the critically acclaimed 2019 production of Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish. (Don't worry if you don't speak the language; Harmony is performed in English.)
• The Harmony musical is based in part on a collection of historical materials about the central band, called The Comedian Harmonist Archive. It was curated by the late Dr. Peter Czada.
• The Comedian Harmonists' signature skill was being able to blend their voices together while singing so well that you couldn't tell one voice from another — unless they wanted you to during a solo, of course.
• Harmony isn't the only story based on the Harmonists. A German movie called Comedian Harmonists premiered in 1997, which directly gave way to a German musical play, Veronika, der Lenz ist da - Die Comedian Harmonists, that same year.
• Back in the 1930s, the Harmonists themselves also appeared in two German films: as sailors in Bombs on Monte Carlo and as chefs in Princess, At Your Orders!
• Harmony director/choreographer Warren Carlyle is represented both on and off Broadway this season. If you love his choreography for Harmony, you can see his work on the Broadway stage in The Music Man, starring Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster.