MANILOW LEARNING TO ‘COPA’

“Wait until the critics see this movie,” groaned Barry Manilow, rolling his eyes toward the ceiling of a West Hollywood restaurant, clutching his head in mock anguish. “They’re gonna crucify it.”

Conditioned by continual critical drubbing for his albums and concerts, the pop singer said he wouldn’t be surprised to see critics trash his acting debut in “Copacabana,” his first TV movie. It airs Tuesday at 9 p.m. on CBS.

“It’s a Barry Manilow movie,” he said sarcastically, at his usual rat-a-tat pace. “They couldn’t possibly like it. Remember I’m the skinny Jewish singer from Brooklyn, the guy the critics love to tear down. As far as they’re concerned, I’m mincemeat, just ripe for mashing.”

Trashing this movie may not be so easy. In fact, People magazine has given it a rare A-. Since “Copacabana” is the first musical made exclusively for TV since the ‘50s, it may very well earn points just for daring and originality. When was the last time you saw a TV-movie musical based on a hit pop song? This two-hour production is a fleshed-out dramatization of “Copacabana (at the Copa),” a hit single for Manilow in 1978.

The TV adaptation features 10 songs written just for the movie. Manilow wrote all the music. Most of the lyrics were written by Jack Feldman and Bruce Sussman, who also co-wrote the song “Copacabana” with Manilow. The sound-track album is available by mail order only, so it won’t compete in stores with his new album, “Manilow.” Mail-order instructions are only found inside the jacket of “Manilow.”

Set in the ‘40s, “Copacabana” is basically a comedy-drama with musical interludes, focusing on a budding love affair between two aspiring performers, pianist/composer Tony Starr (Manilow) and a spunky singer named Lola (Annette O’Toole). A sinister Cuban nightclub owner (Joseph Bologna), smitten by Lola, intrudes in the giddy romance, turning it into a messy triangle.

“We wanted to do an old-fashioned ‘Singin’ in the Rain’-type movie, with romance, humor, drama, big production numbers, the whole bit,” Manilow said. “You don’t see this kind of movie anymore. Who makes musicals any more? One reason is they’re so expensive.”

Shot locally in 22 days, this musical was “expensive” too, Manilow said, costing more than CBS allotted, but he wouldn’t reveal exact figures. “I didn’t get paid for it,” Manilow said. “I wanted them to put the salary back into the movie. I was desperate to have this project work. I didn’t want anything to get in the way.”

“Copacabana” is an indirect result of Manilow’s deal with CBS to make four variety specials. “I agreed to do them but I didn’t really mean it,” he admitted. “I did four variety specials for ABC. The last one was in 1980. I had to grope to find something for that one.

“I was more interested in making a movie. I had this idea for a while about making the song ‘Copacabana’ into a musical movie. So why not do it for TV? I went to Dick Clark (the movie’s executive producer) and he liked the idea. I went to CBS and told them I’ll give you a variety show but the singing and dancing and comedy will be in the middle of a movie. They went for the idea.”

It was a lengthy project. Pre-production started two years ago. “Between getting the script in shape and writing the songs and gathering a crew, it was a long, long process. Finding the crew was interesting. We wanted people who had experience in making musicals. But there weren’t any experienced people because nobody makes musicals any more.

“I knew then that this project would at least be unique. Even if it was a disaster, it would be a unique disaster because it was a musical.”

Anticipating a secondary film acting career, Manilow’s been taking lessons from veteran actress Nina Foch. Like all actors, his problem was finding good scripts.

“I get some scripts but they’re usually pretty awful.” he said. “But some are good. I got my hands on some scripts for well-known movies before the roles went to somebody else. I got ‘Used Cars,’ ‘The Man With One Red Shoe’ and ‘Xanadu.’ ”

Before “Copacabana,” the closest he’d come to making a quality movie was being considered for “Garbo Talks,” which was eventually made with Ron Silver and Anne Bancroft.

“I was approached first to do it with Elizabeth Taylor,” he recalled, a look of ecstasy creeping over his face. “I would have given one arm and both legs to do that. But nobody liked the script and it never got off the ground.”

Later, director Sidney Lumet acquired the property. Manilow heard he was in town casting it and went to Lumet’s bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel for an audition.

“I’ll never forget it,” Manilow recalled. “I did four scenes with him. He played the other parts. I thought I was great, but I didn’t get the part. The whole movie hangs on this one guy. Sidney didn’t want to give me the responsibility of carrying the whole movie.

“I would have been great in that role. I know it. God, I hated being turned down. I was so upset. I have some distance from it now, so when I look back on it I don’t want to tear my hair out any more.”

Manilow has other hair-tugging concerns now, primarily “Manilow,” his just-released first album for his new label, RCA Records. It includes the single “In Search of Love.”

Since the early ‘70s, when his single “Mandy” made him a star, Manilow had been on Arista Records. His battles with Arista’s Clive Davis, are legendary. Davis would send him songs to record that Manilow didn’t like.

“I would send them back to him saying, ‘They’re nice, but not for me.’ Clive would send them right back. I wouldn’t like it, but I’d give in a lot of times. Sometimes he’d be right and I was glad I’d listened to him. But in the last couple of years there were a lot of times he wasn’t right.”

“Manilow” is his first pop album in the three years. Last year’s “2 A.M. Paradise Cafe” album--a risky project that was a commercial success--was jazz-oriented.

Until a few years ago, Manilow routinely had hit albums and Top 40 singles. But now, it’s not so easy, since a large portion of his audience has matured and joined the over-35 crowd, which doesn’t buy records as readily as teen-agers.

Radio resistance is also a problem for the singer-actor. Many Top 40 stations, regarding him as a staid, conservative, middle-of-the-road singer, refuse to play his records. His “In Search of Love” single isn’t getting much pop airplay. The album is a respectable No. 70 on the Billboard pop chart after two weeks but, without a single that’s getting extensive Top 40 airplay, the album faces an uphill battle.

“I figured this would happen one day and I’d be ready to cope with it,” Manilow observed. “But now it’s happening and I’m not quite sure how to cope with it.”