Chicago Sun-Times - Review
Scooter
Chicago Sun-Times
December 19, 2009
Barry Manilow delivers a Christmas-cabana
BY MIRIAM DI NUNZIO Staff Reporter
The late, great impresario Ed Sullivan would have summed up Barry
Manilow�s holiday tour as only Sullivan could: �Ladies and gentlemen,
we�ve got a really big shew tonight.�
Truth be told, Manilow, who opened a three-night concert gig at the
Rosemont Theatre on Thursday night, has been doing really big shows for
most of his four-decade career: The kitschy, campy, pull-out-all-the-stops
arena tours of his �80s heyday; the big, bold, brassy scaled-back theater
tours of the �90s; the Las Vegas showroom extravaganza of the new
millennium (first at the off-Strip Las Vegas Hilton, and starting in March
at the Strip-centric Paris Resort & Casino). Rolling Stone years ago
called Manilow �the showman of our generation.� They were on to something.
The holiday show/greatest hits hybrid that Manilow presented at the
Rosemont, accompanied by a 50-piece orchestra and four backup singers,
boasted everything from Christmas trees and twinkling lights to Santa
Claus and tiny caroling moppets (the Evanston Children�s Choir on this
night), even a shower of confetti �snow.� (Maybe he�s saving the 10 lords-
a-leaping for the last two shows.)
Was this the best Manilow concert I�ve ever been to? No. Was it everything
you�d expect from a Manilow show? You bet. A heaping helping of pure,
unadulterated feel-good, wish-this-show-could-go-on-for-two-hours-more
entertainment from the master showman.
And what�s wrong with that?
Looking very holiday-ish and dapper in a Christmas-red jacket, black pants
and black shirt, the 66-year-old entertainer kicked things off with his
signature duo of �Happy Holidays�/�White Christmas.� �Consider me your
skinny, Jewish Santa Claus!� he proclaimed. And despite a sound system
that left his vocals tinny and almost inaudible for the first 10 minutes
or so of the program, he was determined to bestow the Christmas spirit on
the 4,500 patrons, whether they wanted some or not. He pretty much
succeeded, judging by the ovations.
Manilow peppered the warm-and-fuzzy holiday tunes with a smattering of his
greatest hits, including a medley of �Daybreak,� �Somewhere in the Night�
�This One�s for You.� As the evening progressed, Irving Berlin�s �I�ve Got
my Love to Keep Me Warm� and Joni Mitchell�s �River� held court with
�Weekend in New England� and �Copacabana.� And when Manilow screwed up
those famous opening piano chords of the aforementioned �Weekend,� he just
took it in stride, and like a nervous kid at a piano recital, he uttered
that most famous of gaffe summations: �Oops!� He had the audience in the
palm of his hands for the rest of the night.
When Manilow settled in at the grand piano and set in motion a gorgeous
rendition of �Mandy� it reminded us of what he was capable of. His passion
for every note, and the musicians who bring them to life, has been evident
on every album he�s released since that song hit the charts. He was
absolutely in his element throughout the concert as the orchestra
delivered everything from jazz and pop to swing and big band.
The tight 70-minute show went along at a brisk pace (that�s the Vegas
mentality for ya), and ended almost too abruptly with �Because of
Christmas,� which felt like more like a lead-in to an intermission than an
exit tune. The audience didn�t know whether to head for their cars or the
lobby bar.
Manilow�s legacy to pop music will be way more than the camp of
�Copacabana� or the goofiness of �Can�t Smile Without You.� It goes way
deeper than that. �That�s why I write the hits, because I want the stuff I
care deeply about to get out there,� Manilow said in a 1983 Playgirl
interview.
�The stuff� for him is and always has been the music. Listen to the
gorgeous strains of �Even Now,� (one of the most beautiful ballads you�ll
ever hear) and the anguish of the lyrics that come through as hauntingly
as the notes that carry them. And who else could craft a willowy pop song
around Chopin�s Prelude in C Minor (the mega-hit �Could it Be Magic�) and
get away with it, not because it�s a gimmick but because the arrangement
is a stunning homage to the classical composer? And what of Manilow the
composer? He�s in the Songwriters Hall of Fame � right alongside the likes
of Leonard Bernstein, Cole Porter, Kurt Weil, Stephen Sondheim, John
Lennon, Paul McCartney, Irving Berlin and Joni Mitchell.
In a 2004 interview, after Manilow made a guest appearance on �American
Idol,� I asked him if he was �cool again.�
�I�ve always been cool,� he replied with a chuckle.
I�m thinking more folks than let on really do think his music is cool. In
this digital music age, I would offer a guess that more than a few of you
are right now secretly packing Manilow tunes on your iPods, where no one
will ever know or listen to them but you, maybe as you�re jogging along
the lakefront, or walking your dog, or working out, or watching Chicago
race by the window on your L train.
Don�t worry, your secret�s safe with me.
................
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Scooter