Review: NBC’s Must-See Comedy ‘Perfect Harmony’

Perfect Harmony premieres Thursday, September 26 on NBC.

Photo Credit: NBC

NBC continues premiere week by strengthening its Thursday night lineup featuring “Superstore,” and “The Good Place” by adding two new comedies “Sunnyside,” starring Kal Penn and the must-see ensemble comedy, “Perfect Harmony” starring Bradley Whitford and Anna Camp.

“Perfect Harmony” is a comedy about a choir that gets help from a Princeton professor.

Tag Line: When former Princeton music professor Arthur Cochran unexpectedly stumbles into choir practice at a small-town church, he finds a group of singers that are out of tune in more ways than one. Despite the ultimate clash of sensibilities, Arthur and his newfound cohorts may just be the perfect mix of individuals to help each other reinvent and rediscover a little happiness, just when they all need it most.

Emmy-winner Bradley Whitford stars along with Anna Camp, Will Greenberg, Tymberlee Hill, Geno Segers, Rizwan Manji, and Spencer Allport.

Think “Glee” for adults as the adults of the small town need to get their lives in order before they can come together. In fact, Adam Anders, one of “Glee’s” executive producers is an EP on the show. “Glee,” which brought high school choirs in the limelight and made everyone remember that their high school days were just like the rest of us – not so bad. “Perfect Harmony” looks at what life after high school.

So does it compare for Anders to work on both projects?

“I think naturally [“Perfect Harmony”] is more grounded,” Anders says on how he approaches the music compared to “Glee.” “The singers in America, if you want to look, are in churches. Music’s incredible in churches. It’s probably better than the music at my kid’s school play, normally. So it’s really fun to be able to work with that as a jumping-off point. And we try to be as grounded as possible, and obviously, there’s some wish fulfillment as well. But I think our rule here is we want it to sound like it would in a good church choir that knows what they’re doing.”

Geno Segers stars as Dwayne) on the NBC comedy “Perfect Harmony.”

Photo Credit: NBC

The cast has unique musical roots, especially Geno Segers (Dwayne) who has the deepest baritone in a speaking voice that transitions smoothly into his singing voice on screen. The actor recalls when his vie first dropped. “One morning I scared the hell out of my mama,” Segers recalled. “I was about 12 years old, and I woke up one morning, and I couldn’t talk. She made me some grits. She’s a Southern mother. She made me some oatmeal, rather. And then the next morning, I couldn’t talk. She made me some more oatmeal with honey and nuts and cinnamon and nutmeg. Thought that would be good for my throat, she would say. Then another morning, she woke up and said I woke up, and she said, “What do you want for breakfast, baby?” I said, “(making his voice even deeper) Fruit Loops, Mama.” And from that day on, she just tells that joke at every family gathering.”

Dwayne sings “Wrecking Ball” in his voice lesson from Art which is something to hear. Still with his size, one might think he was built to play football which Segers admits football would have his first career choice.

“You know, I really wanted to be in the NFL, but I just didn’t have at that time what it took to be an NFL player at the position I wanted to play,” Seger says. “I was just about 2/10 of a second too slow, 30 pounds too light, 2 inches too short. Five or 6 more reps on the 225-pound bench press, I could have gotten in, but I’m actually thankful now that I didn’t get in, because I can still run if I want. I can still train. I can still run upstairs. So it’s actually a blessing in disguise.”

“Perfect Harmony” premieres Thursday, September 26 at 8:30 p.m. on NBC.

Phyllis Thomas