Band In

Quite by coincidence, a

CURT SCHLEIER
Special to The Jewish News

documentary
T 4 . three-hour
about the group by

The Comedian Harmonists,
the singing group on which
the new Broadway play Band
in Berlin — and the film The
Harmonists — is based, was
banned in Berlin before the
war. Three of its members
-r were Jews (the third, though
baptized and raised a
Catholic, had a Jewish
grandmother, more than
enough blood to win the
Hebrew lottery).
Under pressure from the
Nazi regime, what was at
the time one of the most
popular acts in Europe was
forced to split up. And
while the Jews who immi-
grated, ultimately to the
United States, prospered
briefly, the group fell out of
sight and out of popular
memory — until recently.
Susan Feldman, who wrote, con-
ceived and co-directed the play — it
opened March 7 at New York's Helen
Hayes Theater — first heard about
the Harmonists in 1991. Feldman,
49, is artistic director and founder of
the St. Ann Center for Restoration
and the Arts.

For the past two decades, she has
raised funds to restore a historic
Brooklyn Heights national landmark
church. She has used it as a venue for
a variety of performances, ranging
from puppetry to film, but mostly
musical events.
In 1991, Feldman was presenting
a Kurt Weill concert, when a friend

Leschnikoff (Max Tidof), a real ladies' •
man; and the piano player Erwin Bootz
(Kai Wiesinger).
Any film with so many characters has
to narrow its focus to a few. Here
Vilsmaier shines his light most brightly
on the struggle between the Jewish
Harry and his Aryan counterpart Robert.
As the group begins its months-
long process of rehearsing in order to
learn Harry's very complicated
arrangements, they begin to argue
about how and when the group will
have its first audition; and they both
begin a pursuit of a pretty music shop
clerk, Erna Eggstein (Meret Becker).
Vilsmaier's Berlin has all the bright,
colorful and decadent markings of pre-
war Germany. As the Harmonists sky-
rocket to fame, they acquire beautiful
girlfriends and all the trappings of
wealth. But history begins to rear its

ugly and inevitable head. The National
Socialists are coming to power.
During a picnic in a public park, one
of Erna's schoolmates, Hans, who is now
a brown-shirt, confronts her with the
fact that she is consorting with a Jew, at
which point Erna turns and gives Harry
a big kiss. Soon Hans and his thugs are
smashing up the music store where Erna
works because it is owned by an old
Jewish couple, the Grunbauers.
In counterpoint to these ominous
events, we see the dapper young
Harmonists giving concerts and singing
their trademark songs of intricate has-
mony tinged with syncopation and
humor. During one performance they
are dressed as Spanish gauchos. But, as
the days roll on, the red banners with
swastikas become larger and larger back-
drops on stage each time they perform.
A number of love stories intertwine

German filmmaker
° Fechner. Eberhardt was
playing at New York's
Public Theater. But that
was made up exclusively of
0
interviews with the surviv-
ing members of the group
or surviving family, and
had no performance
footage.
It was, Feldman decid-
ed, "like hearing about the
Beatles and hearing about
torie
Frank Sinatra, but never
The Comedian Harmonists in their heyday...
seeing them perform." So
Roman Cycowski, third from right, the
she and Wilbur Pauley,
last surviving 1-hirmonist and a fetv,.
one of the singers in the
died in November at (fife
Weill show, created what
eventually became this
play "We thought we
would juxtapose this beau-
tiful, fun sound against
the reality of what was
remarked how much the four singers
going on, the vibrancy of the period
she'd hired to sing Weill tunes sound-
against the creepy, crawling Final
ed like the Harmonists. Her reaction
Solution."
was: "The who?" — which, of course,
It was performed at St. Ann's in its
is a completely different ensemble.
first incarnation, and subsequently
The friend, music journalist Jonathan
on public radio and in Rochester,
Cott, loaned her records of the
N.Y, each version getting closer to
Harmonists, and she became fascinat-
ed with them.
BAND IN BERLIN on page 90

The story of the Comedian Harmonists also is told
a new Broadway production.

throughout the film. One has
Roman, the Orthodox Jew, falling in
love with a blonde Aryan woman,
who converts to Judaism. In another
story, the piano player Erwin is
already married to a Jewish woman,
but files for divorce when things
become too difficult in Germany. As
for Harry and Robert's battle for Erna
— well, you'll have to see the film to
find out what happens.
The group has to eventually deal
with the fact that the Nazis will not
allow them to remain together as long
as Jews are part of the ensemble — no
matter how popular they are.
Vilsmaier's cinematography is very
crisp in its capture of light, and casual
in its survey of each scene. If anything,
the light and the colors of the film are a
bit too bright. But certainly the splash-
es of red are used to great effect.

One area where the film is head
and shoulders above others in this
genre is that Vilsmaier allows the
group to sing complete songs, from
beginning to end, so that we get the
full heft of their emotional impact.
Yes, many of the songs are
"schmaltzy," but there are few things
that touch a heart more deeply than a
beautiful melody well sung by harmo-
nious human voices. What a shame
that this wonderful group of singers
had its career cut short for all the
wrong reasons. Rated R. **x:x 1/2

***x:x
***
**
*
No Stars

'*RP,.' V'''.sr . .'V'k'

Excellent
Worthy
Mixed
Poor
Forget It

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WSWAI

3/19

1999

Detroit Jewish News

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