Streisand: Her Life (122 page)

I
n the 1981 Kevin Burns documentary
I Remember Barbra
, one of the Brooklyn residents interviewed asks Barbra to “come back and give us a concert.” Many viewers at the time chuckled and thought,
Yeah, right, she’ll do a show in the Erasmus Hall auditorium!
It took more than thirty years, but with the completion in 2012 of the 18,000-seat Barclays Center on Atlantic Avenue, part of a multi-billion-dollar sports, business, and residential complex known as the Atlantic Yards, it was made possible.

The first performances in the venue were by the rapper Jay-Z, but its developer, Brace Ratner, had someone else in mind as he built it. “When I first thought about building an arena in Brooklyn, I always envisioned Barbra Streisand coming home to take center stage in her native borough,” he said. When the announcement was made that Barbra would indeed perform there, Ratner added, “It’s humbling and almost surreal to welcome arguably the greatest entertainer of all time to Barclays. This will be a night to remember.”

The timing was right, since Barbra has toured exactly once every six years since 1994. She announced a “Back to Brooklyn” tour which would have its first stop in Philadelphia on October 8, 2012, then two nights in Brooklyn, and visits to eight other cities in the U.S. and Canada over the ensuing month, culminating in a Hollywood Bowl performance on November 9. (An extra night was added in L.A. to accommodate the demand for tickets.)

As usual, Barbra put a great deal of thought into ways to make this concert truly resonate for Brooklynites. She asked Kevin Burns for permission to show clips from
I Remember Barbra
(he was glad to oblige); she rummaged through her personal memorabilia to find photos of herself as a girl; she asked songwriters to change some lyrics to reflect Brooklyn; she chose many songs for the appropriateness. (A no-brainer was to begin the concert with “As If We Never Said Goodbye.”)

Barbra worked closely with Donna Karan on her wardrobe for the concerts. As Donna wrote on her
Tumblr
page, “Because this Brooklyn concert was so special and personal to Barbra, it was important that the clothes have that ‘wow’ factor. We collaborated for weeks and weeks... and we both loved the results. First, the black sequins. Nothing catches the lights better than sequins. The menswear-inspired jacket she wore came straight from our fall line. The white shirt framed her face and the matching vest underscored the haberdashery feeling. We had the option of pants and a skirt (personally, I loved the sexy, burnout skirt.) I just love Barbra in tailored pieces and this was a knockout on her. The piece de resistance, however, was the coral dress. Talk about wow! The color and detailing was inspired by Barbra’s vintage Art Deco bracelet (which she wore with the dress.) Then came the cape – I mean, can you ask for anything more dramatic than a sweeping coral cape? The effect was breathtaking. Beyond. She lit up that dark stage like the star she is.”

The tour opened on October 8, at Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center. The audience was ecstatic to see Barbra, but several local critics grumbled that the performance was just a “dress rehearsal” for the Brooklyn concerts that would begin three nights later. They weren’t far off the mark--there was no doubt that the “main event” on this tour would surely be Barbra’s debut on a Brooklyn stage.

Three days later, after a video of photos of her growing up and the
Funny Girl
overture, Barbra took the stage in Brooklyn to a standing, stomping ovation from the sold-out crowd, many of them New York-based celebrities like Woody Allen, Jimmy Fallon, and Barbara Walters. After “As If We Never Said Goodbye,” Barbra sang a medley of “ Nice ‘n Easy”and “That Face,” followed by “The Way He Makes Me Feel,” “Didn’t We,” and “Smile,” the last along with her guests Il Volo, a trio of Italian operatic pop teenage tenors Piero Barone, Ignazio Boschetto, and Gianluca Ginoble. The group then sang, alone, two songs in Italian.

An audience question and request segment resulted in Barbra singing “Sam, You Made the Pants Too Long” and “Enough Is Enough.” Barbra then spoke of Marvin Hamlisch and sang “The Way Wev Were” and “Through the Eyes of Love.” A tribute to Jule Styne included “Being Good Isn’t Good Enough,” “Don’t Rain on My Parade,” and two songs from
Gypsy
, rumored to be Barbra’s next film project, “Rose’s Turn” and “Some People.”

A questioner asked her what she thought of Mitt Romney’s intention to defund PBS and thus “fire Big Bird.” Barbra responded, “I love Big Bird” and I hope no one tells Romney how to get to Sesame Street—or Pennsylvania Avenue.” The crowd roared its approval and Barbra added, “He’s a good actor...he’s a chameleon.”

Act Two began with a clip from
I Remember Barbra
, then Streisand took the stage again in that striking coral dress to sing “You’re the Top” and “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered.” She then introduced her special guest, Chris Botti, the Grammy-nominated trumpeter and composer, with whom she performed a duet, “What’ll I Do?” and “My Funny Valentine:” “Lost Inside of You:” and “Evergreen.” Botti then performed solo on “Emmanuel” and “When I Fall in Love.”

The screen in the arena then showed the film that Jason had made for Barbra’s birthday of him singing “Nature Boy.” Barbra then introduced Jason, “the love of my life,” asking him “Do you need a anything, like a sweater? You need some chicken soup?” She mentioned that when Jason was a child they sang songs together. Jason said good-naturedly, “Did we ever sing any songs that weren’t yours?” Mother and son then sang a duet of “How Deep Is the Ocean,” followed by a solo turn by Jason on “This Masquerade.” The audience gave him a standing ovation, as Barbra stood on the sidelines and gasped. “Oh, my God!”

The concert concluded with Barbra singing “People,” “Here’s to Life,” “Make Your Own Garden Grow” and “Somewhere” (with Il Volo, Chris Botti, and the Brooklyn Youth Choir), “Some Other Time,” and “Happy Days Are Here Again”

Barbra fans loved the show, although most had to admit that her voice had deteriorated a tad (and wasn’t helped by the beginnings of a cold that Streisand had awakened with that morning). What amazed them was how well Barbra had adjusted her singing to allow for that, resulting in performances that were very close to those in the past. Matt Howe, on his BarbraArchives.com site, wrote “Did I mention how amazing she sounded? Barbra confessed that she’s cut tomatoes out of her diet, which, apparently, were giving her that rasp a few years ago.”

Stephen Holden, one of the most respected music critics in the country, wrote this about the first show: “Ms. Streisand’s return to her roots for two concerts... was a sentimental homecoming and a royal act of noblesse oblige in which a show business monarch regaled the adoring subjects of her native province in a concert that was steeped in Brooklyn lore. With lyrics revised to mention “Brooklyn docks and nova lox” and “knishes,” the song conveyed a message that was reiterated again and again: deep inside, I’m just a commoner like you. As she bonded with her flock, her Brooklyn accent seemed more pronounced than ever.

“Ms. Streisand is seventy, and her voice is still singularly compelling, although not in prime condition. As it has lowered and acquired an occasionally husky edge, her high notes have disappeared. Even the upper register of “People” challenged her. The days are long gone when Ms. Streisand projected the fearless bravado of a vocal prodigy skipping along a tightrope. The Streisand of 2012 is a vulnerable if imperial semi-operatic diva who carefully conserves her power.”

After two sold-out concerts to ecstatic fans in Brooklyn, Barbra took her show northwest to Montreal for an October 17
^th
performance at the Bell Centre. She spoke to the audience at length in French, which they loved, and had a surprise at the end of the show: her first-ever duet with her sister, Roslyn Kind. Many fans in Brooklyn wondered why she didn’t sing there with Roslyn, who has had a career as a vocalist for nearly as long as Barbra has. Whatever the reason, the oversight was corrected in Montreal, where they sang a duet of “Happy Days” and “Get Happy,” just as Barbra and Judy Garland had done in 1963. Roslyn remained with the show as it traveled to Ottawa, Chicago, Toronto and Vancouver.

In Ottawa, critic Tony Lofaro was dazzled: “Welcome Barbra Streisand, it’s so nice to finally have you here where you belong. You looked swell Barbra... Streisand visited Ottawa back in the 1970s on the arm of former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, whom she dated at the time... fifty-one years later, Ottawa music fans finally got their chance to see Streisand on their home turf. After a nearly three-hour powerhouse show — with intermission — that included a stunning catalogue of her biggest hits, film clips, and support performances from trumpeter Chris Botti and Italian teen singers Il Volo, it was more than anyone could have ever imagined. The concert was blessed by the sound of the memorable music that has made Streisand one of the most beloved singers in showbiz. She rolled out more than two dozen songs... Streisand was superlative, dazzling the eager Scotiabank crowd with her majestic vocals and engaging personality.”