On Jun 4, 2:15=A0pm, Brenda <BMesku...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> On Jun 4, 9:42=A0am, "marv935" <marv...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
> > My latest story on Barry is online today at Canadian Jewish News. To
vie=
w
> > it. go towww.cjnews.com, then click on the arts link on the left side
of=
> > the website, then scroll down to view the story.
> > If someone knows how to post it here and can do it, I would greatly
> > appreciate it.
> > This is my 51st story on Barry over the years. I hope you enjoy it.
Marv=
in
>
> Here you go, Marvin. =A0Congratulations on getting the phone interview
> with Barry ... and for getting his age right! =A0:-)
>
> ***
> Barry Manilow on tour for the first time in years
> By MARVIN GLASSMAN, Special to The CJN
> Thursday, 05 June 2008
>
> When singer/songwriter Barry Manilow comes to the Bell Centre in
> Montreal June 5 as part of his first Canadian tour in 15 years, many
> of his fans will consider it a miracle (to paraphrase a Manilow hit
> song) that the 1970s chart-topper =A0has ventured outside Las Vegas to
> perform at all.
>
> =93When I agreed to perform in Las Vegas in 2000, I thought I said
> goodbye forever to touring,=94 said Manilow in a telephone interview.
=93I=
> loved the audiences, but hated the long journeys by plane and staying
> in hotels.
>
> =93But I missed seeing fans in Canada and elsewhere, so I agreed to do a
> series of one-night arena shows, which will be a little longer than
> the Vegas shows. Our show will have all the spectacular highlights of
> the Music and Passion shows that I do in Vegas,=94 he said.
>
> Those who go to hear him will be impressed that Manilow, who turns 65
> on June 17, still has an impeccable voice that resonates with emotion.
> And audiences at his arena shows thus far are so familiar with
> Manilow=92s 25 top 40 songs from the 1970s, including Copacabana, I
> Write The Songs and Weekend In New England, that many sang along with
> him.
>
> Manilow, who has sold more than 75 million records, loves sentiment
> and nostalgia. A highlight of the concerts will therefore be Manilow
> recalling his love for his late grandfather, Joseph Manilow, while
> singing I Made It Through The Rain.
>
> =93Grandpa coaxed me to sing Happy Birthday to my cousin in a Manhattan
> record-your-voice store when I was a toddler, and I wouldn=92t sing
> until years later.
>
> =93When I became a star in 1974, Grandpa gave me my first standing
> ovation and I was so nervous =96 but I knew that he was proud to see me
> at Carnegie Hall. How proud he was of seeing his grandson=92s star just
> blocks from the old record-your-voice studio,=94 Manilow said.
>
> Manilow=92s willingness to share his emotional vulnerability is what
> makes him so endearing. Despite being a multimillionaire, he has never
> forgotten his humble roots, knowing there would have been no career
> without Grandpa and others in his life.
>
> His grandfather was the dominant male figure in the young Barry=92s
> life. Manilow was born in Brooklyn as Barry Alan Pincus, but his
> parents (a Jewish mother, Edna Manilow, and an Irish Catholic father,
> Harold Pincus) were divorced when Barry was two, and Pincus and his
> son never bonded from that point on.
>
> Manilow was raised by his mother and grandparents Esther and Joseph
> Manilow, Jewish immigrants from Russia who lived in a small
> Williamsburg apartment. Barry changed his surname to Manilow shortly
> before his bar mitzvah out of love for his zaide.
>
> He began his musical education on the accordion and refined it on the
> piano that he received as a bar mitzvah gift. =93I hated the accordion.
> It seems that every Jewish kid had to play one. But when I played the
> piano, I knew music would be my passion and my ticket out of
> Brooklyn.=94
>
> For a time, things were dire for Manilow financially and emotionally.
> He nearly went bankrupt twice and had married and divorced his high
> school sweetheart by the age of 25.
>
> But he knew the craft of songwriting. For a time he coached singers
> wanting to audition on Broadway and was the musical director for Bette
> Midler. Manilow produced Midler=92s first album, as well as many more
> for several singers, before starring on his own in 1973 and developing
> a large fan base over the years.
>
> In addition to his many hit songs, Manilow also wrote the music for
> two musicals, Copacabana and Harmony.
>
> Harmony, a musical set in Nazi Germany in the 1930s, is based on the
> real-life story of The Comedian Harmonists, a group of three Jews (one
> a rabbi) and three non-Jews who were a popular singing group in
> Europe.
>
> The story, a mixture of comedy and drama, recalls how the group fell
> apart when they returned to Nazi Germany in the late =9230s and
> disbanded because of =A0the Holocaust.
>
> =93The story is uplifting and may mean more to me because my relatives
> went through the Holocaust. [It has] songs that I wrote from Jewish
> cantorials and klezmer music.=94
>
> Harmony has never had the same success as Manilow=92s other projects,
> despite receiving positive reviews when the play debuted in San Diego
> in 1997, and despite many attempts by Manilow to stage it on Broadway,
> the play has not been seen in over a decade.
>
> =93It=92s frustrating, because what is artistically good is not
> necessarily a commercial success. I am not producing Harmony anymore,
> but there are some producers that are willing to try again, and I hope
> Harmony can still come to Broadway. To this day, Harmony is the
> project in my career that I am most proud of.=94
Thanks Brenda for the nice words as well as the nice private
emails I received from many posters. Thank you all- and especially
Brenda- for your encouragement of my Barry articles for many years.
Marvin
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