Name: BarryNet Message Board Date/Time: 4/5/2022 11:12 PM Subject: Warren Carlyle Finds Harmony in Being Back at Work With Hugh Jackman and Barry Manilow "Warren Carlyle Finds Harmony in Being Back at Work With Hugh Jackman and Barry Manilow: Carlyle choreographs two of this season's most anticipated shows, The Music Man and Harmony" by David Gordon TheaterMania, 05 April 2022 If there is such a thing as making up for lost time, [Tony-winning choreographer Warren] Carlyle is doing it this season. He began 2022 finally shepherding The Music Man to the stage of the Winter Garden Theatre... The morning after opening night, he hoofed it downtown to begin rehearsals for Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman's musical Harmony, whose New York premiere, via the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, is unintentionally 25 years in the making. For Harmony, Carlyle is doing double-duty, directing the show in addition to choreographing. He's also guided its writers through a page-one rewrite, that stripped a musical they've been working on for decades "down to the studs." David Gordon (DG): I spoke to Barry and Bruce recently and they said that your ideas had made them rethink the entire show. Tell me about the experience of working with them. Warren Carlyle (WC): I've known them for so many years. My first exposure to Bruce and Barry was when I was in the original cast of Copacabana in the West End 28 years ago. Even then, we had a connection. I just love them. We spent the whole pandemic working on Harmony, every Tuesday and Friday. There's that thing of, when you're so familiar with something, you take it for granted. And then suddenly, there's me coming in and I'm like, "Why is that character doing that? What does it actually mean?" We went back to the beginning, down to the studs. Songs have been reordered, we added a character, and I think it's more focused than it's ever been. Because it's a bit of a six-headed dragon. There are these six leading men, and how do you tell six really great stories? Who do you root for? We've added a "main character," which is played by Chip Zien, and that has refocused the whole show through his point of view. DG: What is it like to be in a rehearsal room with Barry Manilow? WC: It's wonderful. He's so special, and he and Bruce have been super, super, super collaborators. Barry has bat ears - he hears sounds that nobody else hears. He's so unbelievably musical, and everything he touches he improves. Some people can meddle with something and it's not as good. Every single thing he touches gets 30 percent better. He's just got "it," whatever that means. He is a melody maker. And Bruce is a craftsman. He comes in every day with a little piece of paper and says, "I think this is better." They've had a 50-year collaboration and written more than 200 songs together, which is insane to think about. DG: What is it like to come back from the pandemic and do these two shows back-to-back? WC: Being in a room like The Music Man was joyous. I cried every day. I was choreographing and wiping away tears. It was great to be back at work. And then to go from that to the polar opposite, which is Harmony, was very intentional. I needed a balance between this great big thing that took three years to do, with all the excitement and pressure and Hugh, and I needed somewhere to go the morning after opening it. So that's when I started rehearsal for Harmony. It's just fun to go from a giant show to a show with 20 people. It's amazing.