Babs Review

A Review from The Associated Press (10/10/06)

It was an evening that elicited tears, standing ovations, raucous laughter and shouts of joy from the audience - and that was just in the first few minutes.

Yes, Barbra Streisand's return to touring after a 12-year absence was the extravaganza that it promised to be. Monday night's show at Madison Square Garden was the third stop of a 20-city jaunt across the nation - a virtual lovefest between the ultimate diva and an adoring, sold-out, celebrity-dotted crowd.

Streisand effortlessly crooned through a select repertoire of her four decades of hits. But night's most riveting moment came during what was perhaps the only unscripted - and truly uncomfortable - episode in the three-hour show.

There was Streisand, enduring a smattering of loud jeers as she and "George Bush" - a celebrity impersonator - muddled through a skit that portrayed the president as a bumbling idiot.

Though most of the crowd offered polite applause during the slightly humorous routine, it had gone on a bit too long, especially for those who just wanted to hear Streisand sing like she had been doing for the past hour.

"Come on, be polite!" the well-known liberal implored during the sketch as she and "Bush" exchanged zingers. But one heckler wouldn't let up. And finally, Streisand let him have it. "Shut the (f--k) up!" Streisand bellowed, drawing wild applause. "Shut up if you can't take a joke!"

With that one F-word, the jeers ended. And the message was delivered - no one gets away with trying to upstage Barbra Streisand, especially not in her hometown.

Once the outburst (which Streisand later apologized for) was over, Streisand noted that "the artist's role is to disturb," and delivered a message of tolerance before launching into a serenely beautiful rendition of "Somewhere." That put the focus back on what the audience came for - her voice, one of the greatest female instruments of her generation.

Streisand's sound, at once soaring and soothing, doesn't seem to have been affected much by her long layoff from performing. Early on she seemed to fall short of her full potential - moments when she once belted a tune, she now seemed to simply sing at a steady register, sounding great but not delivering that the big showstopper as she had in the past. But as the evening progressed she got stronger, such as during her stirring performance of one of her biggest hits, "People." Though she sang a few of her signature songs ("They Way We Were," "Evergreen"), the evening was not designed as a hit parade - some of her most popular work was absent. Instead, the show had more of a cabaret feel, from the choice of songs (including those from her Oscar-winning performance in "Funny Girl") to her onstage banter.

Though most of it was completely scripted and read from a teleprompter, there were a few funny, spontaneous moments, such as when one fan shouted out, "Marry me, and I'm gay!" to which Streisand, a gay icon, replied: "There are gay people here?"

The comedic moments were best when unscripted. The few planned skits came across as forced and trite, such as when Il Divo, the dreamy, operatic boy band, came out to sing backup and joked about their difference in ages. Streisand relinquished the stage twice to Il Divo, a Simon Cowell creation known for their crossover style. Though they apparently pleased the crowd, they were grating at times. They would have served better as an opening act instead of having Streisand leave the stage in their hands - it was like going to a Madonna concert and having her surrender the stage to Brooke Hogan.

When Streisand was on stage - and most importantly, when she was singing - she was masterful. Her performance of "I Stayed Too Long at the Fair" - sung just before her outburst - was poignant, especially from an entertainer who has spent so many years away from the spotlight.

By the time she offered her encore with the rousing "Don't Rain On My Parade," it was clear that Streisand hadn't stayed too long - she hadn't stayed long enough.

NY Times Review

Music Overpowers Streisand's Many Missteps

Barbra Streisand took a carefully plotted step down from the imperial pedestal she has occupied for decades at Madison Square Garden last night and stumbled. The biggest miscalculation was the appearance, late in the show, of a George W. Bush impersonator (Steve Bridges) who Ms. Streisand, an ardent Democrat, interrogated in a tone that tried to be witty, and failed.

How would the president erase the national debt? Sell Canada; they don’t use half of it, he replied. “If I cared about polls,” he remarked, “I would have run for President of Poland.” And so on.

The tepid segment mercifully ended after the two joined voices for an unfunny spoof of the famous Judy Garland-Streisand duet of “Get Happy,” and “Happy Days Are Here Again.”

When Ms. Streisand stopped talking and started singing, she was her old self.
Accompanied by a 50-piece orchestra, she performed more than two dozen songs that encompassed most of her career. Missing were her hits with the Bee Gees, with whom she reunited on her last studio album, “Guilty Pleasures” (Columbia), and songs from her film “Yentl.”

Most heavily represented was “Funny Girl,” (both the show and the movie) in a thrilling end of Act 1 suite that peaked with three ballads: “The Music That Makes Me Dance,” “My Man,” and “People,” all beautifully sung.

One of the pleasures of a Streisand concert is hearing this diva of divas live, her voice unembellished by “improvements” carried out in the recording studio.
In her drive for technical perfection, Ms. Streisand has a longstanding tendency to apply too many coats of aural varnish to her records.

She should realize that sounding like an imperfect human being is more expressive than trying to sound like God, and her singing last night was frequently magnificent. Her voice is fuller than it used to be and still drips with the juice most singers begin to lose at 50. (Ms. Streisand is 64).
Another misstep was the choice of Il Divo, the operatic boy band, as her musical guests. While this multilingual, multinational quartet of singing mannequins, assembled by the diabolically market-savvy impresario Simon Cowell, belts in tune, they have the emotional spontaneity of robots in tuxedos.

An early low point of the show was their arrival on stage to bombard Ms. Streisand with smarmy flattery. Let’s hope she never records with these pretenders to the kitsch pop throne of Andrea Bocelli.

Befitting an event that suggested a one-woman Super Bowl in which the star competed with her legend, the concert was packed with distracting bells and whistles. A useless question-and-answer session in which she responded to randomly selected audience questions wasted precious time. During the Bush impersonation, a solitary heckler so annoyed Ms. Streisand that she lost her temper and hurled an obscenity.

A Barbra Streisand concert should be about singing. That’s what people really want. The rest they tolerate out of respect for her gigantic talent. And when she stuck to music, there were many magnificent moments. “Starting Here, Starting Now,” the “Funny Girl” suite, “When the Sun Comes Out,” “Children Will Listen,” “What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life,” and “My Shining Hour” were the musical high points of a concert that was further dampened by the lack of a pre-performance sound check because Ms. Streisand was stuck in traffic. As a result, the acoustics of the first half of the concert were muddy.

True to her show business instincts, she saved the best for last. In her final sprint, she might have a scored a winning touchdown had she not interrupted it with the Bush impersonator. And near the end sabotaged her own glorious performance of “Somewhere” by bringing Il Divo as a robotic harmony chorus.

A poignant moment for those who have followed Ms. Streisand’s career from the beginning was her rendition of (“Have I Stayed) Too Long at the Fair?” a Billy Barnes ballad that she recorded in 1964. Way back then, it was the reflection of an insecure ingénue feeling her first intimations of ennui after too much partying.

Sung four decades later, with just as much passion but an entirely different outlook, Ms. Streisand made it a rhetorical question about her own future. Has she stayed too long at the fair? Despite all the evening’s missteps, the answer is a resounding no.