We got into Atlanta on Saturday, settled into Iris's house in the suburbs. A quick dinner, tasty kale salad and sliced steak, and we were off to the theater.
Harmony is a poignant musical about the six-man vocal group that was the number one selling musical group in the 20/30's, yet most of us have never heard of them. They sold millions of records, made 12 movies, but because of their timing and the historical context of their performance period, they've remained obscure. The group of young men included three Jews and three non-Jews at a time when Hitler and the Nazi's rose to power in Germany and eventually snuffed out all Jewish performance. While extremely well done, due to the subject matter, you don't leave the theater singing any tunes, you do leave reminded that there were many stories like there's, many lives wiped out, voiced stilled, histories lost. During the final scene the audience emits not a sound, no clothes rustle, no texting lights break the darkness, everyone is focused on the single performer, the Rabbi, as he tells of the final days of the group and both curses his memory and revels in it. What words best describe this work? Riveting, poignant, a reminder that tyranny destroys real people, not just numbers, wipes out personal histories, and continues to happen every day (think Sierra, Rwanda, Darphur, and more). We met with some of the performers after the show, and had a chance for a brief visit with David Sussman (Barry Manilow was there but he remained in the shadows.) Sussman was gracious and deeply touched by the tribute we paid to his work. There will be another trial run in LA in March (Ahmanson Theater), and we're ordering our tickets now. We want to see what changes they make, if any, how we feel about it the second time. And David Sussman asked us to stay in touch and let us know when we'll be in LA to see the show.
How do we follow this evening? What surprises lie ahead as we continue this wonderful journey in the USA.
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