“What do you have to do to get to Carnegie Hall?” the aspiring musical novice is always asking.

In the case of The Comedian Harmonists—a Berlin-based half-dozen who made their Carnegie debut 60 years ago this month—you simply close your ears to the growing Nazi noise around you and globe-trot your unique blend of jokes, gags, and six-part harmony to sold-out houses all over the world.

For eight highly productive years on the world’s entertainment scene, this group sold millions of records, made dozens of films, and did backup for Josephine Baker in the Ziegfeld Follies.

The Comedian Harmonists were brought together in 1927 through an ad placed in a German newspaper. An aggregate of three gentiles and three Jews, this melodious six-pack figured a reckoning would happen in Berlin one day. That day came in 1935, and they disbanded, never to be heard from again. What happened is the gist of Harmony, a fact-based saga which just established a Broadway beachhead at the Barrymore.

It has music by Tony-Grammy-and-Emmy winner Barry Manilow, and his longtime collaborator, Drama Desk Award winner Bruce Sussman, who contributed the lyrics and book to the musical.

From the get-go, Broadway veteran Chip Zien has been very........

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