‘Harmony’ review: Barry Manilow’s Broadway musical is moving, but doesn’t quite sing

Mark Shelmerdine, the veteran producer who revived London Films as an indie powerhouse and played a pivotal role in the development of the international TV distribution market, died October 26 in Santa Barbara surrounded by his family. He was 78.

EXCLUSIVE: There’s a new sports documentary on top at Prime Video.

Rockefeller Center’s Christmas tree lighting ceremony.Despite the 80-year-old singer being caught up in the holiday spirit while singing “All I Want For Christmas is You” and “Because It’s Christmas,”some Grinches on X trolled his appearance.Many made fun of his tanned skin and black turtleneck, with one asking: “Does Barry Manilow look like Martin Short in an SNL skit?!”Another questioned if he’s had work done to his face.“Plastic surgeon: what do you want lifted? Barry Manilow: yes,” the user quipped.A third X-er chimed in: “He looks plastic, too much Botox perhaps? He’s way past his prime and should finally retire and lay off the Botox.

Janine Stein “Tiger Stripes”, the opening film of this year’s Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF), was “kind of a joke that became something very, very close to me and ended up being this film,” Malaysian filmmaker, Amanda Nell Eu, said during Thursday night’s opening ceremony. Speaking to a packed theatre before the screening, Eu said her inspiration had been puberty mixed with her sense of humor.

Brent Lang Executive Editor It’s a dramatic way to sell a new Broadway show. The Longacre Theatre is getting a high art overhaul as the home of “Lempicka,” a new musical about Polish painter Tamara de Lempicka.

Even though Edgar Wright doesn’t necessarily hit it out of the park with each of his films (honestly, doesn’t anyone really remember 2021’s “Last Night in Soho?”), the films he’s made that people love—people obsess over. Films like “Shaun of the Dead” are still being talked about to this day, nearly 20 years after its release.

“The Queen’s Gambit” is heading to Broadway in the form of a musical!

No stranger to controversy over the years, Sean Combs has now been accused of rape and intense physical and psychological abuse by his long-time former girlfriend – and Cassandra Ventura’s lawyers say the music mogul tried to pay her off to keep it quiet.

Gordon Cox Theater Editor To hear the actress Sierra Boggess tell it, Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman’s Broadway musical “Harmony” couldn’t have a more apt title. Listen to this week’s “Stagecraft” podcast below: “They sing in harmony the entire show,” said Boggess (“The Little Mermaid,” “Love Never Dies”), speaking in a conversation with “Harmony” director-choreographer Warren Carlyle on the new episode of “Stagecraft,” Variety’s theater podcast. “There’s no sound like it on Broadway right now.” Carlyle (“After Midnight,” “The Music Man”) described the sound of “Harmony,” about a real-life troupe of singers called the Comedian Harmonists, as “a cross between the Manhattan Transfer and the Marx Brothers.” He went on to reveal his take on how the hitmaking duo Manilow and Sussman work together.

Parish,” debuting on AMC and AMC+ in 2024. Giancarlo Esposito, no stranger to AMC viewers thanks to “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul,” stars and executive produces. The series’ synopsis reads, “Esposito stars as Gracian ‘Gray’ Parish, a family man and proud owner of a luxury car service in New Orleans.

Barry Manilow is opening up about coming out.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor TikTok has long touted the app as a place to discover new music — and its ability to propel songs into viral hits. Now TikTok is hoping to derive incremental revenue from music fans who use the app. The company’s new Add to Music App feature lets users save songs from TikTok to third-party music streaming services.

Ooh! Biting the hand! Or… spiting the fans??

he made it. Barry Manilow revealed Friday that the reason he kept his sexual orientation quiet for so long was due to the fact that the singer feared being gay would have “killed” his career. “Well, in the ’70s, you know, you didn’t [come out],” Manilow, 80, said to veteran journalist Chris Wallace while appearing on an episode of “Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?““It wasn’t the same as it is today.

Trish Deitch There’s a narrator in “Harmony,” Bruce Sussman and Barry Manilow’s musical now playing at Broadway’s Ethel Barrymore Theater—an elderly rabbi, played ably by Chip Zien, who tells the true story of six young men in Berlin who formed a comedic singing group in 1927 that rose to international fame at the same time that the Nazis came to power. The rabbi was one of three Jewish men in the group, called the Comedian Harmonists, and he implies throughout the play that he was the only survivor.

Broadway loves a recognizable name, a famous band or singer that can fuel a jukebox musical on nostalgia and familiar tunes. To its credit, Harmony isn’t that.

Robert Butler, a television director for the pilot shows for Star Trek, Batman, Hill Street Blues, and Moonlighting, has died. He was 95.

Apple TV+’s Masters of the Air finally has a trailer!

Valerie Wu Intern Apple TV+ has released the official trailer its for nine-episode war drama “Masters of the Air.” Set during World War II, the limited series centers on members of the Air Force fighting against Nazi Germany. “Masters of the Air” stars Oscar nominees Austin Butler (“Elvis”) and Barry Keoghan (“The Banshees of Inisherin”) as fighter pilots Major Gale Cleven and Lt. Curtis Biddick, respectively.

One of the most anticipated TV shows of some time now, “Master Of The Air” is finally arriving in January. You’ll recall that Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, and Gary Goetzman, brought you the WWII classic shows “Band Of Brothers” and “The Pacific,” and they’re the same team involved in “Master of The Air,” which shows WWII from a aerial fighter and aerial bombers perspective.