Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!genrad!decvax!harpo!floyd!vax135!ariel!hou5f!hou5a!hou5d!hogpc!houxm!ihnp4!ihuxw!tommyo From: tommyo@ihuxw.UUCP Newsgroups: net.music Subject: Barry Manilow Opens American Tour - Review Message-ID: <374@ihuxw.UUCP> Date: Thu, 23-Jun-83 12:33:16 EDT Article-I.D.: ihuxw.374 Posted: Thu Jun 23 12:33:16 1983 Date-Received: Sat, 25-Jun-83 01:12:33 EDT Lines: 37 Last night, at the Poplar Creek outdoor theatre located just N.W. of Chicago, Barry Manilow opened his 1983 American tour. If you`re a Manilow fan, you`ll be happy to know that the concert was great. He did most of his hits, very often in a 2 or 3 song medley (Missing were "Somewhere In The Night", "When I Wanted You", "Weekend in NE", "Lonely Together", "Ships"). He handled the ballads very well, especially "Memory", "This One`s For You", and "Lay Me Down"(From Manilow II, I think). The up-tempo songs were good, though I didn`t care a lot for his opening number "Hot Tonight". He also banged away on a small electric organ during "Some Kind of Friend" that I didn`t care for too much. His version of "The Lion Sleeps" to open act 2 wasn`t too bad. He got his biggest response from his ballads. He also tossed in "American Bandstand", which included a nifty little dance scene with his 2 female backup singers, and the title cut from his latest album "Here Comes The Night" He didn`t do the entire "Copacabana"(yea), but did toss in some dancing at that point too. The opening of the second part of the show, after a 20 minute intermission, had the Bugs Bunny cartoon where Bugs leads a symphony orchestra, followed by BARRY-TONE NEWS, a black and white short describing Barry`s world tour, which was pretty funny. Barry did some of his usual shtick (the clarinet, who would write songs that were SO depressing) and also had a woman come up on stage to sing "I Don`t Walk Without You" with him. The lighting was good, sound was fine, though a couple times the background singers were hard to hear, and he had a big backdrop that he had different things on (NY skyline for "NY City Rhythm", stars for a ballad or 2) Without the intermission, the concert ran about 2 1/4 hours, which is pretty good. Admission price for the pavillion seats was kinda high ($18), but for a big Manilow fan like myself, it was worth it. Tom O`Connor ihuxw!tommyo