Barry Manilow tested positive for COVID on Wednesday — the same night his new musical “Harmony” was set to open off-Broadway.
“This just might be the cruelest thing that has ever happened to me: 25 years waiting for this show to premiere in New York and I can’t attend,” the “Copacabana” singer, 78, said in a statement.
Still, he said his audience can smile without him.
While Manilow is unable to attend the show he wrote with longtime collaborator Bruce Sussman, the opening night performance will go as planned at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Battery Park City.
The musical is about a sextet of German singers (half of whom were Jewish) in the 1930s, and the complications that arose for them during the rise of the Nazi party.
“Even in the face of this pandemic, we New Yorkers remain the toughest, staunchest people on the planet — so, put on a mask and go see a show!”
A scene from the musical “Harmony,” which is set the 1930s. Julieta CervantesManilow also called out from his concert at the Westgate’s International Theater in Las Vegas at the last minute last Saturday with what his manager and husband Garry Kief told the Las Vegas Review Journal was “probably just a cold.”
“Harmony” runs through May 8 off-Broadway.
