NOW ENTERTAINMENT Dec. 10 Month 00- -16, 00,2023 2023
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Barry Manilow combines seasonal tunes with his pop standards in the new special “Barry Manilow’s A Very Barry Christmas,” airing Monday, Dec. 11, on NBC and streaming the next day on Peacock.
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Barry Manilow in “Barry Manilow’s A Very Barry Christmas”
Cover Story Still making music: Barry Manilow celebrates the holidays on NBC By Jay Bobbin While we may already be in the season for celebration, any occasion showcasing Barry Manilow is a holiday for his generations of fans. A winner of a Grammy, two Primetime Emmys and a special Tony Award, the enduringly popular singer-songwriter has released seasonal albums over the course of his nearly 50 years as a star, and some of those tunes will factor in — along with many of his pop standards, from “Mandy” to “Copacabana” — when “Barry Manilow’s A Very Barry Christmas,” airsMonday, Dec. 11, on NBC. (The special also will stream on Peacock starting the next day.) Taped at the International Showroom of the Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino (which was formerly the Las Vegas Hilton), where Manilow has broken Elvis Presley’s record for doing
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the most shows at the venue during his 14-year association there, the hour will also include such seasonal favorites as “Jingle Bells” and “White Christmas.” A 24-piece band backs Manilow during his Vegas performances, one of which was attended by network executives — setting the stage, both figuratively and literally, for the new special. “A whole bunch of NBC people came to see the regular show I do at the Westgate, and they were interested in filming that,” the genial Manilow explains. “During the conversation after the show, they said they were looking for Christmas stuff because they couldn’t create anything until after the writers’ strike, which was going on then. I said, ‘I’ve got a Christmas show.’ They said, ‘You do?’ And I said, ‘Yeah. And it’s all ready to go, if you want it.’ “We do it in various places every year,” notes
Manilow, “and I sent them a video of it, and they loved what they saw. They came to the Westgate with their cameras, we had a big audience, and off we went. The only problem was me, because I kept forgetting to do certain things, but they made the show even more beautiful than it was before. There were many more lights and more Christmas trees, and it was just gorgeous.” Manilow has a long-standing affinity for the holiday season. “I love my Christmas albums,” he maintains of “Because It’s Christmas,” “A Christmas Gift of Love” and “In the Swing of Christmas.” “I loved doing them. I don’t listen to my albums, but now and again, if I’m going to listen to any of them, it’s those. I love the arrangements and the orchestrations and the songs that I chose. I’m very proud of those Christmas albums.”
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Still, Manilow realizes that his fans also want his time-tested hits. That catalog encompasses such standards as “I Write the Songs,” “Could It Be Magic,” “Looks Like We Made It,” “Tryin’ to Get the Feeling,” “Can’t Smile Without You,” “Weekend in New England,” “This One’s for You,” “Even Now,” “Daybreak” and “New York City Rhythm.” “I’ve figured out a way of putting together some of the hits and a lot of Christmas songs,” Manilow says, “but it always still feels like a Christmas show even if I’m doing ‘I Write the Songs’ or ‘Mandy.’ I think the audiences would probably be disappointed if I didn’t do the hits, and that’s what we’ve done for NBC, too. We had to edit it down, because the live Christmas show goes about 90 minutes, and you can’t do all of that on a one-hour TV show with commercials. We recorded everything, though, in the order that I always do it.”
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