BARRY MANILOW

BY ED BRUCE edbrucevegas@yahoo.com

TRULY AMONG THE GREATEST COMPOSERS OF ALL TIME, ALSO SUPERIOR SHOWMAN AND SINGER !

BARRY MANILOW DOING THREE DAY WEEKENDS AT THE PARIS ON THE LAS VEGAS STRIP...A SHOW RECOMMENDED TO THE WORLD.

Negatives....8 minutes late, raspy voice, 76 minute show, too loud and a somewhat disappointing sound system. I have a big history with Barry over 4 decades and caught him at the peak of his powers, today he remains one of the greatest performers ever on the Las Vegas strip.

In 1982 we visted Edmonton, just the sixth year of my marriage when I was still calling the shots and we made this trip to see a hockey player... No. 99. On the drive into Edmonton on a billboard was Barry Manilow, she said lets go...I didn't know who he was but wanting to continue the marriage for another 6 years, I agreed. At 8am I get in line at the venue, which unfortunatley was a prelude to all of my journeys, a ticket printing system that locked out all other distributing venues ! I preserved for 5 hours to get tickets what turned out to be in a runway ! They reseated us appropriately and Barry opened a 100 city tour with a debut concert that was two and a half hours and to this day, unsurpassed, 30 years later. At this point after Manilow took off his Copa number frizzy shirt, to unveil a sports jersey of the prominent athlete in the venue he was playing. Wayne Gretzy's 99 went over very well here at a time when both were at the peak of their powers.

Back to our home in Rapid City, South Dakota in 1984 he played well, then in Las Vegas in the 90's and in 2007 at the Las Vegas Hilton and today at the Paris.

Beautiful theatre, perfect for these sold out shows and outstandingly melded into the PARIS Hotel Casino Theme.

Marvolus contemporary production with this, lots of framed shots of classical art behind the singer...Monet, Cezane, Van Gogh, Matisse and Lautrec....what a great music video. Lots of lights, horns and whistles too including Manilow video and audio as a child...I thought it played well.

Manilow himself one of the treasures of this earth, sings his own stuff and creates, just a master showman in what is the declining part of his career, he will be 68 in June...if you miss him you missed the very very best.

How many keyboards can you get on stage at one time....I counted nine here..... with his 4 dancers, 4 horn players, 3 keyboard players, 2 sets of drums (1 1/2 TOO MANY) and a lost guitar player (who heard him ?) ....they created more noise than background, I came to hear Mandy, I Write the Songs, Even Now and Bandstand. The bandstand set was well done and too short.

I actually did a video tape for tv audtions with Magic as the background music....that was 30 years ago.....I told you I love this stuff !

8 points off for being late and some raspy sound makes this 89 B+