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Barry Manilow Goes to Paris...
 Imagine Barry Manilow standing in front of a tour guide as she excplains the significance of the Eiffle Tower or some other historic location in Paris, France.
Barry Manilow sat with me recently in the Four Seasons lobby recently to talk about his new show that opened last Saturday night here in Vegas. He said he went to Paris looking for inspiration and the perfect French Fry. He says he found them both.
And he plans to bring a lot of the romance that seemed to be everywhere in Paris (the real one in France) with him into this new show. (NOTE: Show was supposed to open Friday, but an electrical failure caused the show to go dark and moved the open to Saturday.)
Barry's new home is the Paris Theatre at the Paris Las Vegas, where he will be singing love songs and fan favorites for a while every Friday, Saturday and Sunday night at 7:30 pm. He says he has designed his show around that theatre, taking advantage of the intimate setting and the romantic atmosphere. He told me he was actually excited about this engagement, and neven though he loved the Hilton and the people he worked with over there for five glorious years, he thinks his show will be even more successful here in the Paris. "I'm bringing romance back to the Las Vegas Strip, isn't that cool?" he asked me. Yes, Barry, that is very cool.
It's been a very good year for Barry. Besides his shows at the Las Vegas Hilton on the same stage that Elvis entertained on, Barry performed concerts in Pittsburgh (PA), Rochester (NY), Uncasville (CT) and the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel (NJ) during the Summer of 2009. Barry opened and closed the 29th Annual A Capitol Fourth Celebration on the 4th of July, then returned to London for a special concert performance at the 14th Annual Proms in the Park, including appearances on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, Claudia Winkleman Arts Show and BBC Breakfast News.
In October, Barry gave a special concert at the Hollywood Bowl to benefit the L.A. Unified School District. Barry closed out 2009 with re-releases of the Happy Holiday! DVD and Grammy-nominated In the Swing of Christmas; promotional appearances at Christmas in Rockefeller Center, the Today Show, Joy Behar Show, NBC Nightly News, The Jay Leno Show and on BBC Radio 2 ("A Magical Manilow Christmas"); "A Gift of Love" special holiday concerts at the McCallum Theatre in Palm Desert, California, benefiting 25 local charities; holiday shows at Chicago's Rosemont Theatre; and the final performances of his 5-year run as headliner at the Las Vegas Hilton.
2010 marked the beginning of a new chapter in Barry's career with a brand new show opening at the Paris Theatre at Paris Las Vegas in March, and the release of The Greatest Love Songs of All Time, supported by appearances on QVC's QSessions Live, The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien, the Today Show, Entertainment Tonight, Rachael Ray and Jimmy Kimmel Live.
Rolling Stone Magazine captured the enduring appeal of Barry Manilow when it anointed him "a giant among entertainers" and proclaimed him to be "the showman of our generation." The London Times recently declared Manilow "one of the greatest popular entertainers of the age." Barry's unparalleled career is made up of virtually every facet of music, including performing, composing, arranging and producing. He has triumphed in every medium of entertainment. He has filled concert halls, broken records on television, scored for films and written for the Broadway stage. The industry "bible," Radio & Records Magazine has already named him the undisputed #1 Adult Contemporary Artist of all time. His record sales exceed
75 million worldwide. He has received Grammy, Emmy and Tony Awards and been nominated for an Academy Award.
What more can be said?
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