Barry Manilow underwent cancer surgery two days before Christmas to remove a lobe in his left lung. That’s half a lung, in non-medical vernacular, to eradicate a cancerous spot.
The 83-year-old entertainment legend was in intensive care for a week. He could not sing. He could barely talk. He wondered if he might have performed his final show.
“Oh, absolutely,” Manilow says in a phone chat the morning after Thursday night’s inspired return to Westgate’s International Theater. “When I got home, I weighed 128 pounds. That’s where this all started.”
Understand, if you don’t already, Manilow has always been lean (if not mean). He says his usual weight is “132, something like that.” But those four lost pounds sparked concern.
“That was the first time I looked at myself in the mirror, when I came home from the hospital, that I didn’t look like me,” Manilow says. “I looked like a skeleton.”
In April, he got the band back together for rehearsals. It didn’t go well.
“I thought, ‘Well, maybe I can do it,’ so I had the whole band and everything,” Manilow says. “I started to sing, and everybody started to look at the floor because it didn’t even sound like me … I couldn’t get past two songs without being out of breath.”
Upcoming tour dates through this past June were swiftly postponed. Manilow says he never felt this level of professional fear before. “I felt like that part of my career was going to be gone.”
Not so. That same superstar has toured the U.K. and arena dates in the U.S. He is back in his full schedule at the Westgate through Dec. 19 (watch for the Christmas show to come back). He showed Thursday he’s full-showman, pre-cancer form.
To borrow a phrase, it looks like he’s made it.
The groove moments
Manilow’s show Thursday was his first in seven months at Westgate, almost to the day, since he played his Christmas show on Dec. 13. He is asked how it was to walk back on the stage where, in September 2023, he overtook Elvis’s record by headlining his 637th show at International.
“It was great. You know, I this is my home away from home,” Manilow says. “We’ve been playing these big concerts in big arenas. You know, 13-15,000 people. But this this stage and this whole area, this is like coming home. I really I really enjoyed it.”
The crowd rose and roared at the opening, “It’s A Miracle,” a song that takes on new meaning today. Throughout, Manilow has kept his dance numbers, favorites of the Fanilows who filled International Theater on Thursday night.
Manilow dances through the Donna Summer arrangement of “Could It Be Magic,” reminding that he was unsure the disco queen’s version of his power ballad until it reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts (his own reached No. 6). “And then I loved it!” he says.
The Brooklyn-born showman also returned the jubilant, show-closing “Copacabana (At The Copa)” scene, dropping the half-circle catwalk just feet above the crowd. Manilow sports a flashy purple jacket, sleeves covered with multicolored feathers. He strides up the walk, swapping steps and arm-thrusts with longtime backing singer/dancer Kye Brackett.
Reciting the saga of Lola and Tony, the superstar turns and shakes his tush. He steers a flourishing, five-minute production number. (As we say, “I don’t know what I’ll be doing at 83, but it won’t be that.”)
“I was real nervous about that one, because that is really testing how strong I am, trying to get up those stairs,” Manilow says. “I used to go faster, but (Thursday) night. I didn’t go as fast as I used to go, but I was able to do it. I didn’t fall, and you would never know there was anything wrong.”
Breaks amid the classics
As he has throughout his Vegas run, Manilow glides through his greatest hits. He leads the massive singalong for “Can’t Smile Without You,” the lyrics stretched across the LED screen. No excuse for not singing along for this one. He duets on “Mandy”/”Could This Be Magic” with the 1975 version of himself, as introduced by his late mentor Clive Davis and then-superstar Mac Davis, in “Midnight Special.
In the video, the boyish Manilow wears a form-fitting satin shirt glistening with sequins and white slacks. The two Manilows bring the song to its soaring peak, which predictably charges up the crowd.
A new segment, Manilow resurrects a video from the late-90s, a comic striptease, to “Sweet Heaven,” from the musical “Copacabana.” It’s a fun, if odd, fit in this conveyor belt of hits.
“I did that so I could just just take two minutes to breathe,” Manilow says. “Other than that, it’s the same show I’ve been able to do.”
Remembering Clive
Manilow takes to a stool under the spotlight deep into the show. It’s a melancholy moment set aside for an old song that’s new to Manilow, suggested by Clive Davis.
“Once Before I Go” is the single, from Manilow’s latest album, “What A Time,” issued in June. It’s his 33rd studio album, and first release of new material since the 2011 “15 Minutes.”
“Once Before I Go” was originally written by Peter Allen and Dean Pitchford some 44 years ago. But for Manilow, its exploration of love and legacy is relevant, even now.
“Peter played it for me after he wrote it, and I loved it, but at the time I was actually too young to actually sing a song like that,” Manilow says. “I never forgot that song. Then, here comes Clive calling me, and he says, ‘Did you ever hear of a song called ‘Once Before I Go?’ I said, ‘Yeah, Peter played it for me years ago.’ He said, ‘You should try that!’”
Manilow says Davis “implored me” to record the song until he relented.
“So, old Clive comes through again,” Manilow says. “Wow. How about that? And it’s getting more and more moving to me, night after night, as I crawl into the lyrics the way I have to. I really feel it, and I think people feel it, too.”
John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. Contact him at [email protected]. Follow @johnnykats on X, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.