I'm a fictional person named Barry and this is my fictional story. Now I'm not real. I was created by a person who wanted to write a story about a guy who became a Broadway Songwriter. Later on I became a jazz recording artist. I am that man Barry the main male caricature in her fictional story. Yes I do share the same name with some she loves. She wanted to create a what if scenario. What if I didn't get the recording contract. What I gave my four songs to the label for someone else to record. Then what if I got to write musical for Broadway like I always wanted to do. Since I'm a fictional caricature I can be whatever my story writer wants me to be. I can be tall or short, thin or beefy, grey haired or not, blue, brown, hazel or green eyed and bisexual, gay or straight. Now some of my friends who are in this story have real names. That's because they're the friends she wanted me to have. Yes I did write four songs that I showed to a friend named Ron. We did produce a demo record that I sang on. The last record label that we showed the songs to gave them to their new recording artist Brian Murphy. Brian doesn't play musical instrument. Nor does Brian write songs for himself. That is where I came in I wrote some of Brian's early songs. Ron and I also produced some of Brain's early albums. My songwriting partners helped me write those song for Brian. Like I said "If the check cleared I was there." Back then I could use all the money I made since I was a struggling Broadway Songwriter. This is where my story changes. I became a well known as a Broadway Songwriter. Yes I did the first musical that me, and my partners Bruce and Jack put on Broadway was a huge success. The following year our musical swept the Tony Awards wining all the ones it was nominated for. I then became a well know jazz artist. I'm the first Broadway Songwriter to ever have four musicals on Broadway at one time. Copacabana a story about two people who meet at the famed night club and fall in love. Harmony the story about a famous six man singing group who had to disband because of Hitler. 15 Minutes the story of a singer and guitarists who got fame, lost the fame and then got it back again. Here At The Mayflower. which started out as an album I recorded in two thousand one. That then became a musical about the people who lived in this building called the Mayflower. So as you can see I got to do what I always wanted to do write Broadway Musicals. Not what the real person ended up doing by being a pop recording artist for the last forty years. My first apartment was on the lower eastside. Then I move to a bigger apartment on the upper west side right across from Central Park. Then for some reason I'm not sure why I moved to La La Land aka Los Angeles. I hated Los Angeles so I moved to the desert. I did move there. I already had bought a get away home down there. When I decided to move to Palm Springs permanently I sold the small house and bought a bigger one. The Palm Springs home was in the Mesa neighborhood. When I moved to Los Angeles that's when the back and forth started. The flying back and forth between Los Angeles and New York City. Then it became Palm Spring and New York. In two thousand nine that's when the cross country trekking stopped. I moved lock stock and barrel back to New York City. I found a townhouse across the east river in Brooklyn Heights. This is where I've been living ever since. Brian Murphy who I helped at the beginning of his career bought my house in The Mesa. I keep all my statues on a shelving unit in my at home studio. On that shelving unit I have all the Tony Awards that I've won. On that same shelving unit I have the Grammy Awards that I've won for my surprise jazz recording career. Back in nineteen eight three my partners and I wrote some jazz songs. However we couldn't come with an idea for a musical to put these songs in. Then in nineteen eighty four I decided to put the songs on an album. All of the people I worked with on Broadway thought I had a great singing voice. They were the ones who encourage me to record the songs for a jazz album. However my close personal friends thought I was crazy to start a recording career. Putting out my album 2:00AM Paradise Café is when my jazz recording artist career started. Once I got into recording jazz albums I began to enjoy making them. To promote my first jazz album I did go on the road for a mini concert tour. I was surprised when that tour sold out so quickly. On and off since then I've been putting out jazz albums, Christmas albums and Broadway musicals. My newest project are my latest musical
Here At The Mayflower. A musical about an apartment building in Brooklyn with all sorts of tenants living there. My new album Barry Manilow Putting it Together The Songs Of Stephen Sondheim. Stephen Sondheim is one of the many Broadway Songwriters that I like. That album comes out on March twenty two of next year. I'm playing Carnegie Hall to debut the album. Now that happens on Wednesday March twenty three. Then I'm off till the beginning of June. June thirteen to be exact when I open my Manilow Live show at the London Palladium. I'll be there from June thirteen to August thirty first. With every Monday and Tuesday off during the three month run. I was going to start my run on Wednesday June first. However I've been asked to host the two thousand sixteen Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall on Sunday June fifth. Which is a thrill in it's self. I've been working on my opening number which is going to be Putting It Together. Putting It Together is from Sunday In The Park With George which was written by Stephen Sondheim. In November I'm following one of my other friends Dave Koz. By doing a Royal Caribbean cruise to the orient. From China to Singapore and assorted cities in between. I'm bring along some of my jazz artists friends to do their own shows. Dave Koz (of course), Brian Culbertson. Michael Lington, Lorna Luft, Melissa Manchester and Diane Schurr. The cruise is open to all my fans. This is in place of a BMIFC two thousand sixteen convention. so my fans will get to hang out with me and my recording artist friends. Talk about pets I've got them. Four to be exact. There's two black Labrador Retriever Maggie and Max and two Beagles Charlie and Linus. Plus the dynamo in the small package that I am madly in love with named Carly. So if you don't think I'm happy guess again. I'm one of the happiest and luckiest guys out there. A successful Broadway and jazz career, four dogs and someone I love being married too.
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